Saw this headphone amp for 99$ on Super Best Audio Friends. Its a balanced amp and has very low distortion. Its 99$ for the PCB and parts to solder yourself. Thing is the Chassis costs 200$. How can that be twice the price of the very amp itself lol.
Anyway this looks like a great option for a low distortion balanced amp for 99$ if you want to put together yourself. maybe i could get a different chassis for it thats not so expensive.
Well has balanced input but a single ended output, but that doesn’t really matter too much
I have heard the Neurochrome HP-1 and it was very good, this would probably be pretty good as well.
Also yes the chassis is essentially just the casing
but why mon, why?
20 charcter
The price of the casing? IDK the cost of materials and where it’s being manufactured must be high.
The balanced vs single ended? I think that one is not clearly superior over the other for use in hifi, and the quality of output can be equal with a properly designed single ended and a properly designed balanced.
The front panel is likely CNC machined, Details like the pocket for the volume knob probably hurts overall cost. It’s just not cheap to get parts like that machined in small quantities.
Outside the machining and anodizing, the BOM is probably not particularly big.
Yes, the cost for the pcb isn’t bad, but the case is kinda pricey
I was watching a Currawong video recently while researching Stax energizers, and he said that, as a small company, they were restricted to using pre-existing casings which held their capabilities back. After they were bought, they had the cashflow to break that mold and make the T8000. Instead of the long, narrow casing they almost always used, this looks more like a full sized stereo component. It’s not super relevant other than to demonstrate the cost of the casings being a factor, but here it is if you’re curious:
