Introduction

Many of you guys have probably never heard about HeadRoom and what kind of products they make. HeadRoom is a company that sells headphones, headphone amplifiers and accessories, you name it they got it. The amplifiers they sell under the HeadRoom brand are constructed by a highly regarded amp designer by the name Tyll Hertsens.

The HeadRoom site is centered around music interested people and they carry all of the most interesting headphone brands right from huge brands such as Sennheiser, Grado to the more underground Yuin. Because of the great diversity of their product lineup they also carry a lot of different styled amps, right from portables to big desktop systems, both for normal and balanced headphone rigs.

What I like about HeadRoom is that they offer extreme high end systems for the audiophiles, but they also have a good lineup of products for price conscious audiophiles like myself. Today I will be taking a look at their Total BitHead Portable DAC (Digital-to-Analogue Converter) / Amplifier.

The BitHead is essentially an AirHead equipped with a DAC. Both feature a headphone amp circuitry that allows the user to connect two headphones at the same time to the same source. What sets the BitHead and AirHead apart from most of the competition is the fact that they both have a crossfeed filter which can make very stereo recordings sound more natural on headphones. Besides that they both have a high/low gain switch which means that you can use it to feed almost any type of cans right from ultra sensitive in-ear-monitors to big and bulky Sennheiser HD 650 like headphones.

Specifications

• Amplifier Group: The Mobile Line
• Frequency Response: 20–20k, ±1
• THD at 1V output: <.01
• Input Impedance at 1kHz (ohms): 18k
• Weight with batteries: 172 g
• Weight without batteries: 124 g

The Package

The HeadRoom BitHead ships in a small cardboard box stuffed with the amp and the extensive bundle.


The BitHead comes with a good bundle that lets you enjoy the full potential of the amp without having to invest in any cables. Of course if you want a bit better sound quality you can invest in a better mini to mini interconnect, but the effects should be minimal over the one already included in the bundle. Besides the amp and mini to mini interconnect you also get a small USB cable that allows you to hook up the amp to your PC. What surprised me a bit is that the amp comes with batteries included even though it states otherwise on the box, a pleasant surprise. As with any other special product the documentation for the device is very thorough.

Since the HeadRoom Total BitHead is a dual purpose device you get both a USB cable for use as a DAC and a mini to mini-jack interconnect cable for when you just want to use it as a portable amplifier. To make it even more handy HeadRoom even includes some velcro pads in two colors that you can stick to your laptop, PC, or DAP. It is really neat to get a device where the manufacturer has thought every little aspect of it through so meticulously.


The amplifier is roughly the same length as a CD and is about 2.5 cm high. At 7.5 cm width it is not exactly slim. On the picture above you can see the amp sitting on top of a normal CD. In terms of weight the unit is quite light. Fully loaded with four AAA batteries it weighs in at 172 g. Without the batteries it is only 124 g.