For the first time, Sennheiser is launching an amplifier for dynamic headphones. The digital HDVD 800 has a fully symmetrical layout and sampling frequencies of up to 24bit/192kHz. It also designed to harmonize with Sennheiser’s HD 800, HD 700, HD 650 and HD 600 high-end headphones.
Features of the HDVD 800 include its balanced sound image, precision and spatiality. The headphone amplifier has a fully symmetrical layout for operation with analogue audio sources, ensuring symmetrical signal transmission from the source to the headphones. For use with digital sources, the amplifier is equipped with a Burr-Brown digital/analogue converter that converts digital audio data into analogue signals with a resolution of 24 bits and a sampling rate of up to 192 kHz. This enables the HDVD 800 to transmit the entire frequency spectrum of high-end audio sources without any loss of frequencies.
Signal processing in the HDVD 800 is fully symmetrical. That means that not only the signal input into the amplifier is symmetrical but also the signal output and therefore the connection to the headphones. “The fully symmetrical principle effectively compensates for interference and distortion. The sound therefore becomes much clearer as total harmonic distortion is minimised,” explained Axel Grell, Sennheiser’s Senior Acoustical Engineer.
Sennheiser supplies specially made cables for the symmetrical connection to headphones. The headphones can, however, also be connected using a normal 6.3 mm jack plug. In addition to the symmetrical inputs, the HDVD 800 also has an asymmetrical input socket; incoming signals are symmetrised before further processing takes place. Digital sources are connected to the rear of the unit as an AES/EBU input, S/PDIF(optical and coaxial) or USB. The USB 2.0 audio standard offers 24 bit data transmission at 192 KHz.
The new digital HDVD 800 will be delivered to Sennheiser’s worldwide sales partners from September.
