If you’ve decided to invest in an audiophile-grade set of wired headphones or IEMs, you should definitely consider acquiring a headphone amp to power them. Perhaps something like Rotel’s slick new DX-3. It’s the company’s first headphone amp and it combines premium amplification circuitry with state-of-the-art digital-to-analog conversion. It will be available in Europe and the U.K. in March in either black or silver colors, and it’s expected to arrive in the U.S. soon after, for $1,499.
Granted, that’s not exactly an impulse buy for most people, but a headphone amp with the DX-3’s specs will likely last for decades and can grow with you as your needs (and your system) change.
The most striking thing about the DX-3 is its size and design. At 8.5 inches wide, 3 inches tall, and 9.75 inches deep, it’s only slightly larger than the Wiim Ultra network music streamer — another device that’s perfectly proportioned for desktop use. Clad in aluminum, the DX-3 has a full color display, two headphone outputs (4.4mm balanced, 6.35mm unbalanced), a three-setting gain switch, a source selection button, and an oversized, diamond-knurled volume knob.
Inside, however, is where you’ll find the DX-3’s critical components. Digital-to-analog conversion (DAC) is handled by an ESS Sabre ES9028PRO chip — an 8-channel DAC with four dedicated channels per side (left/right).
There’s almost nothing that DAC can’t handle. It will decode PCM up to 32-bit/384kHz and has native DSD support up to DSD256. You can choose to supply digital audio via optical, PC-USB, coaxial, or wirelessly via Bluetooth, with AAC, aptX, and aptX-HD codec compatibility.
If you want to bypass the DAC, there’s a dedicated analog amplification path that’s serviced by a set of stereo RCA jacks.
Rotel says that amplification is courtesy of an “ultra-low noise, custom in-house manufactured, toroidal transformer with high current drivers and high-quality capacitors,” and that power is controlled via an audiophile grade NJW1195A fully differential analog controller delivering precise steps as refined as 0.5dB. The three-step gain control lets you fine-tune output power to match the specific impedance and sensitivity of your headphones.
Want to use the DX-3 as standalone DAC or pre-amp? You can do that too, with your choice of unbalanced RCA or XLR balanced analog outputs. Finally, Rotel includes an aluminum-body remote so you can control the DX-3 from as far away as your headphone cables will let you sit (or further).
The only thing missing is networking — there’s no Ethernet or Wi-Fi. However, Roon users can nonetheless stream all of their favorite sources to the DX-3 if you use the PC-USB input, which is recognized as a Roon endpoint.
Instagram is making its way to yet another screen, and this time, Apple TV is getting a taste of the Reels rabbit hole. The company has launched a dedicated Instagram app for Apple TV, bringing Reels, longer videos, and live shows to the big screen. So, if watching one quick clip on a phone somehow turns into an hour of scrolling, there's now a much larger screen for that.
Instagram brings Reels and more to Apple TV
Audio-Technica, a brand well known for making some of the best studio and professional headphones on the market, has just come out with the ATH-AWX7000, which the company itself claims to be its "finest headphones ever." The new flagship closed-back headphone has debuted at an eye-watering price of $3,799. It combines hand-finished Japanese woodwork with a newly developed 58mm driver.
The earcups are made from Kiso cypress, a prized wood historically used for Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. Each housing is finished by hand with traditional Echizen lacquer, which brings out the grain and is expected to darken over time. The frame and sliders are finished in a deep navy kachi-iro shade traditionally associated with samurai.
This post is brought to you in paid partnership with Best Buy.
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