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Micromega MyZic and Focal Spirit One

I thoroughly enjoyed the warm, inviting, full-figured sound coming from Micromega’s attractive MyZic headphone amp ($299) driving Focal’s comfortable and pretty Spirit One headphones ($279).

The source was an iPad. The track was “Common Exchange” from Emika’s awesomely sensuous, dark, and alluring self-titled debut. Highly recommended.

Micromega's cute, affordable My series currently also includes a DAC, and will soon be joined by an MM/MC phono preamp. Cool!

Affordable Amplification from Cambridge Audio

Cambridge Audio’s good-looking Azur 351A integrated amplifier ($599) is rated to deliver 45Wpc into 8 ohms, has a front-panel iPod input, headphone jack, balance and tone controls, and a handy USB input mated to an onboard Burr-Brown DAC so you can connect your computer and get better performance out of your music files.

Also new to the line are the 75Wpc Azur 651A ($799) and 120Wpc Azur 851A.

Jiverson Candy

Stereophile's web monkey, Jon Iverson, looked and felt unusually hip, listening to Ned Collette and Wirewalker's wonderful 2 through my little blue iPod Nano and Skullcandy's eye-catching Aviator over-the-ear headphones ($149.95).

As we walked down the strip, men and women alike were stopped in their tracks, unable to hold back smiles and looks of admiration.

"I had no idea the day was going to start like this," exclaimed a jovial Jiverson.

McIntosh D100 Digital Preamplifier

McIntosh had their new D100 digital preamplifier on hand with five digital inputs (each with their own DAC according to the company's Marc Lamb) and remote controlled volume. The preamp/DAC has been optimized to work with headphones and will retail for $2,500.

EMM Labs TSDX CD/SACD Transport

EMM's new transport sports an Esoteric drive and is intended to mate with the company's DAC2X DAC. Retail price is $17,000 or $30,000 when bought together with the DAC2x. When the two are connected, "CDs and SACDs are automatically upsamples to 5.6 MHz, which is double SACD's standard sampling rate." There is an optical out for DSD and AES/EBU for PCM (from CD or SACD).

Meridian Media Source 200

Meridian's Bob Stuart is holding the recently introduced Media Source 200 which allows current Meridian Digital Media System (Sooloos) owners to add another zone to their system for $1,000. As with other components in the MDMS line, the Media Source 200 includes Meridian's apodising upsamping filter.

There is an ethernet jack on the rear to connect to the network and then a combination analog/digital jack so you can connect the Media Source 200 via stereo analog cable or optical SPDIF. There is also a SpeakerLink output for connecting directly to Meridian DSP loudspeakers.

Musical Surroundings MYDAC II Digital Analog Converter

Mike Yee (shown here holding his DAC) has been working for the past several years on a unique approach to DAC design. He has invented a technique (for which he has applied for a patent) he calls MODR or Musically Optimized Digital Reconstruction.

Yee uses an FPGA (field programmable gate array) to intercept the digital signal as it comes into the DAC. The FPGA provides a proprietary "pre-emphasis" conditioning of the signal before the DAC chip to "remove the DAC's effect on quantization error." After the DAC chip, an analog stage provides de-emphasis prior to output.

There are…

Motorheadphones!

It seems like everyone and their grandma is releasing a headphone these days. If you’ve got a brand (or a band), you might as well add a line of headphones. One of the latest to join the trend is the English rock band, Motorhead, famous for their jukebox wonder, “Ace of Spades.” Lead singer, Lemmy, was on hand to introduce his Motorheadphones. (Hee hee.)

I couldn’t understand a word Lemmy said, but I think the idea behind the headphones is that they’ll do a better job than others at preserving the midrange, which, in theory, would make them more suitable for guitar-driven music.

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Sennheiser Momentum

With all the headphone options out there, it might be hard to find the one that’s right for you. If quality, rather than superficial associations with aging rock bands, is what you want, one outstanding option would be Sennheiser&#151a company that’s been perfecting the art of headphones even longer than Motorhead’s been playing “Ace of Spades.”

And that's a long time.

InnerFidelity’s Tyll Hertsens loved the new Sennheiser Momentum ($349), admiring their look and feel and concluding, “While I’ve heard headphones that do some things better, I’m not sure I’ve ever heard a…

NAD VISO HP50

NAD has jumped into the headphone arena with their VISO HP50 ($279), an extremely lightweight and comfortable, noise-isolating, over-the-ear design. The detachable cable plugs into either the right or left earcup and has smart phone and microphone controls. NAD’s “RoomFeel” technology is said to improve stereo sound.

Listening to Ned Collette + Wirewalker’s “Il Futuro Fantastico,” the lead track from their excellent 2, I heard an extremely clean, clear, and detailed sound with a wonderful sense of space, but while listening to Kendrick Lamar’s “Money Trees,” from his outstanding good kid…