Show Report: Head-Fi Meet, July 18, 2015

The Head-Fi Meet took place on July 18, 2015, held at the DoubleTree Hotel, in Burlingame, California. For those not familiar with the Head-Fi group, they are companies and individuals (DIY) who manufacture or build (one person making his own by hand) headphone amplifiers, and companies who also market headphones. They are a very special group of people, with innovation and dedication to extreme high quality.

I had never attended one of these shows, and was delighted with what I saw there.

For example, here is a tube amp (all the amplifiers were headphone amps, but I don’t want to keep typing headphone), and it was not for sale. The person who built it just wanted to show it off. It is as big as a tube amp built for speakers. My guess is that if it were for sale, it would be about $5,000. From looking at the cable, it appears to be a balanced design.

Sercona Audio showed this solid state design, which uses a resistor ladder for the analog volume control. The amplifier communicates with the remote control so that when you adjust the volume on the amp’s dial, the volume readout on the remote changes as well. Very unique.

The other components on the table are part of a project that lets your hi-fi equipment communicate with each other. It will be very interesting to see how this turns out.

These “Ether” headphones from MrSpeakers are gorgeous both in looks and sound. They are priced at $1,499.

The staff from OPPO were there in full force, showing the PM-1, HA-1, and other products, all of which we have reviewed. Jason Liao, president of OPPO, is seen at the far left. In the unlikely event you have a problem with one of your OPPO items, Nathaniel, seen on the far right, would be the person to contact.

This little amp uses one dual triode running in single-ended Pure Class A. It’s called the “Project Ember”. As you can begin to guess, tubes were a major part of the Head-Fi show.

This amp is another example of someone just showing an amp he built himself, and it is not for sale (yet). It is designed specifically for electrostatic headphones, like Stax. The second photo describes the amplifier.

Questyle showed their amp with a separate USB DAC chassis (on top). This keeps the digital part of the circuit separate from the analog circuitry. For the amp and the DAC, the price is about $4,000.

This Blue Hawaii amp, which is another tube product, is $6,500 not including the Stax electrostatic headphones.

Woo Audio had their WA5LE, with a tubed power supply for the tubed amplifier. $3,700. Look at the size of those transformers. I’m sure this setup would power any headphones, regardless of the impedance.

HiFiMAN’s new HE-1000 headphones were on display. These are their latest entry in the headphone market. A planar-magnetic design, they are priced at $3,000.

All of the exhibitors were set up in only about six rooms, with several vendors in each room. The meet was very well attended.

Headphones and headphone amplifiers are becoming a larger segment of the hi-fi market. Big changes in the technology over the past five years, plus the trend in going back to our roots (I listened to headphones all the time in the 1960’s), are the reason. It’s only going to get bigger and even better.

They sound fantastic, so if you attend a local hi-fi show, there will certainly be some headphones and amps there. Be sure to take a listen. You will be shocked at the sound quality.

John E. Johnson, Jr.

Editor-in-Chief