“Net Audio” magazine Vol. 16 Oct. 2014 Japan, by Shun Ishihara
Awesome Drive Power and Joyfully User-friendly Operation
It was only 4 years ago when Aurorasound debut in the audio
industry, like a comet, with VIDA (Phono Equalizer Amplifier)and PREDA (Preamplifier), which fascinated audio enthusiasts.
Now, the company released HEADA, a headphone amplifier.
The cosmetics resemble that of VIDA, an aluminum chassis isencased in a wooden cabinet, creating a traditionalappearance.
In recent years, while the market is booming with varieties ofheadphones, balanced re-cable is getting a lot of attention. In
the first place, input impedance of a headphone is relatively
high; hence, it causes difficulties to drive headphones due toinsufficient drivable power. On the other hand, speaker’s input impedance is low; therefore, it
is relatively easy to deliver sufficient power. For this reason, a balanced connection having plus
and minus signal current is ideal for driving headphones.
One critical characteristic is how perfectly-balanced output can the amplifier deliver to theheadphones. The core of HEADA is attributable to the 4 modular amplifiers (due to balanceddesign) installed in the main circuit board. The power supply employs a high-grade toroidaltransformer. HEADA generates 0.8W at 600Ω impedance headphones. For your reference, I
have used a headphone having 600Ω impedance, with balanced connection; the drive power
was more than enough.
Operation of HEADA provides great feelings even physiologically. The feel of volume control iscool. The volume control is of pro-use type, manufactured by Tokyo Ko-on Denpa, widely usedin recording equipment. The large size conductive-plastic potentiometer (27mm) has a very
comfortable touch with right amount of resisting feel, which allows precise setting of thevolume level you desire. With use of the High/Low gain selector switch, located at the rightlower side of the volume control, a perfect volume setting becomes extremely easy for alistener.
Vast Amount of Information Produce Clear Sound for Full Enjoyment even for Single-end
A listening test conducted by using Sennheiser HD650 with single-end connection
demonstrated that HEADA sounded extremely clear (transparent?), representing the sound of
Aurorasound. It can be described as high-class sound. If an analogy is used to describe HEADA’ssound, it tastes like delicious sushi at very high-level sushi bar, whereas a standard pre/main
amp the sound “tastes” like conveyor-belt sushi. Freshness of sound is superb and the number

of color in sound is countless. In one piece of music, there exist so many sound colors which
you can chase and enjoy with sense of hearing.
Jazz sounds extremely energetic which is attributable to enormous amount of information.
Bass’ scraping and varoom sound is superior to high-quality record playback. Yet, it has widesound range in total, hence, trumpet and saxophone do not sound like piercing your ears.
Melody line is vividly elegant. (This is in line with VIDA)
Vocal is flat out sexy. While
the sound of HEADA is
orthodox with a lot ofinformation, female vocal’s
consonant is so real that you
canalmostvisualize
movements of her lips andtongue. It presents somewhat
embarrassing feel because it isas if you are watching a lusty
kissing scene closely. Of course,
rather than being nitpicky likeseeing through a microscope,just listen to “song” and you
will get a sensationallyimpressive sound.
For Classical music S/N is outstanding. As HD650 is of an open-type headphone outside soundcomes through, however, surrounding acoustic encompassing the music is so quiet a listener’s
sense in the brain, where music is interpreted, becomes more lucid. HEADA is immune tointervention from musical performance and composition, but at times it delivers hot
expressions.
Remarkable Improvement with Balanced Connection/Rendering has Class and Stately
Here, I have changed the headphone cable to Oyaide’s 3-pin balanced type. Again using ananalogy, sushi tastes like the one served at ultra-high-class sushi restaurant in Ginza Japan.
Rendering has such class and stately, the sound melts into your eardrums through the inner ear.
Phrasing of jazz is feelingly fuller and richer, and the sound from trumpet and saxophone
melted like snowflakes the moment it hit the eardrums, spreading inside your brain likehoneydew. Vocal’s consonant feels like tasting rather than visual perception-----, I cannot write
any further than that. For classical music, it becomes easier to detect deficiencies of music
performances. At the same time, it strikes again how great musical compositions are. HEADA isa work of art.
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