I have not heard the Micro series products from Headroom, but have owned the Total BitHead, the Desktop Portable Amp w/DAC (from 2006), and the Headroom Max Balanced Amp (my primary listening system). I have listened to the above with Sennheiser 650HD and AKG701 headphones in both normal and balanced configurations.
Overall, I am a huge fan of Headroom products and find them very complementary to the Slimdevices products. In particular, the Max Balanced Amp paired with the Transporter has been an acoustic epiphany for me. I listen to so much more music now that I have this system. Among the many things I like about this combo, the amount of detail they reveal is staggering (sometimes to the level of distraction -- conductors turning the page on the score, instrument keypresses, etc...). The Desktop and the Total BitHead headphone amps are also very enjoyable to listen to and are like all Headroom amps, excellent value for the money. However, I think that at their respective price points, the Slimdevices DACs are simply better than the Headroom ones. At the lower end, I found I preferred the stock SB3 DAC to the Desktop DAC (after a month I only used the RCA connectors). And at the high-end, the Headroom Max DAC is simply no match for the Transporter's DAC -- which is why I ordered my Max Balanced amp without the DAC. (To be fair, I far prefer the DAC in the Total BitHead to the DAC in my MacBook Pro). Assuming that you are looking to use the Micro Amp with an SB3 as a source, I would either get just the Amp and not the DAC, or, even better, reallocate the money for the Micro DAC to the headphone amp and get something like the new Ultra Micro or even the Desktop Amp. As I have upgraded through the Headroom amplifier product line, I have never been disappointed. muski -- muski SB3->Bryston BP25DA->Bryston 4B SST->Wilson Watt Puppy 7 Transporter via XLR->Headroom Max Balanced Headphone Amp->Balanced AKG701s & HD650s ------------------------------------------------------------------------ muski's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3670 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=39445 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
