HeadRoom Total BitHead
Headphone Amplifier: GoodSound!'s Product of the Year for 2004
Each year, GoodSound! gives out a
year-end award to a product that exemplifies what our site is all about: good sound at
affordable prices. I am pleased to announce that this year’s recipient is
HeadRoom’s Total BitHead ($269 USD), which I originally reviewed in August.
I concluded that review by proclaiming that the Total BitHead "totally rocks."
While it surely does rock, it’s worthy of reward not simply for the emotional
outburst it evoked from me, but for several key features that set it apart from the crowd.
The Total BitHead is one of very few audiophile-grade
products that take the initiative in marrying audio’s high end with our pervasive
computer-oriented culture. Its USB interface is a smart design choice that allows computer
users to integrate one of HeadRoom’s superbly designed headphone amplifiers with
their computer without needing a soundcard with an analog line-output. More important, by
sending the digital signal via the USB port, the music reproduction is taken out of the
noisy computer environment. It also increases the Total BitHead’s potential market:
nearly all laptop computers now come with USB ports and so are ready to benefit from the
BitHead. The USB connection can also power this portable headphone amplifier, which means
the computer user needn’t worry about batteries.
Not only does the Total BitHead succeed in functionality,
it also delivers very good sound. While using the USB port, the Total BitHead relies on
its internal digital-to-analog converter (a Burr-Brown PSM2902E), which was a big step up
over both of my laptops’ internal soundcards. I’d been pretty unhappy with my
computers’ sound, but before the BitHead arrived, I hadn’t tried other external
sound options because none of the ones I’d seen were convenient for portable use. The
BitHead is, and even comes with Velcro "coins" for attaching it to the back of
your laptop’s screen. With it secured to the laptop, I can easily access the volume
controls and still carry the computer from room to backyard to room again.
The BitHead has even increased the amount of time I spend
with my laptop. Sometimes, too lazy to go watch a movie in my home theater, I just pop a
DVD in my laptop. The BitHead makes the soundtracks sound so much better that I now
regularly stay up past my bedtime, watching movies in bed. (I don’t know yet if my
wife thinks this aspect of the BitHead is laudable. On the one hand, I don’t keep her
up because I can wear my headphones. On the other hand, if I’m watching a movie,
I’m not paying attention to her.)
The Total BitHead is also very good as a standalone
headphone amplifier. Before the BitHead’s arrival, I was content to take my golden
retriever for a walk with my Nomad Zen unamped. Now, we never leave the house without the
BitHead. While it adds to the portable player’s bulk, the sonic benefits outweigh the
slight inconvenience. The addition of the amplifier makes for a smoother sound, and the
music sounds much more alive. The inclusion of HeadRoom’s proprietary processor means
that stereo recordings now sound much more integrated, and don’t suffer so much from
the hard left/right separation that’s common on the 1950s jazz albums I love.
You should not conclude that, because it’s portable,
the Total BitHead is unfit for use with the more expensive stars of the headphone
universe. The benefits can be heard with the portable headphones I use daily (Sennheiser
PX100), or with much more expensive cans (Grado RS2). HeadRoom went all out with the Total
BitHead, using Panasonic polyphenoline-sulphide film capacitors and military-grade Vishay
resistors. The analog op-amp, like the D/A converter, is from Burr-Brown (OPA4743).
I first got my mitts on a Total BitHead when I was
suffering from chickenpox, and since those two weeks of bed rest I’ve used it almost
every day. In addition to those morning walks with my dog (who could, with the
BitHead’s dual outputs, listen along on her own headphones), I use it to listen to
BBC 1 and 3, and to CDs while writing on my laptop. When I travel, I bring it and my
laptop along to watch movies. The BitHead has also reinvigorated my interest in headphone
listening -- I’ve found myself eyeing HeadRoom’s Max for use at home. No other
audio device has become so integral to my lifestyle since I got my first Walkman cassette
player those many years ago.
The Total BitHead has state-of-the-art features, good
sound, and a reasonable price, and so exemplifies the very best qualities that I have come
to expect from HeadRoom. The self-described headphone geeks at HeadRoom should be very
proud of their newest product, which displays their dedication to the art of audio design
and the joys of headphone listening.
Read the full review on the HeadRoom Total BitHead
headphone amplifier here.
…Eric D. Hetherington
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