HIFIMAN Prelude Balanced Headphone Amplifier

The Class A topology runs surprisingly cool even after hours of listening, and the high-current output really tightened up the bass on my planar headphones. That balanced conversion circuit cleaned up the noise floor noticeably from my single-ended source.

The Class A MOSFET design really brings out the texture in my classical recordings—microdynamics I'd never heard before. Driving my planars through the balanced output, the soundstage opened up noticeably wider than with my previous amp.

I was a bit skeptical about the single-ended to balanced conversion, but it's so clean that my old Sennheisers finally sound like they have proper headroom. The Class A MOS-FET output runs warm but stays dead quiet, which is exactly what I needed.