Sennheiser might be known for its headphones, but it also dabbles in electronics designed to extract even greater performance from its premium audiophile headphones.
One such product is the HDV 820 headphone-amp-cum-desktop-DAC, which is currently available with a huge £600 saving over at Scan (down from its original price of £2100).
Of course, you don’t need Sennheiser headphones to take advantage of this amp; any brand's suitable cans (or in-ears) can benefit from a headphone amplifier and this great deal.
In our four-star Sennheiser HDV 820 review, we used the amp with both the company’s HD800S headphones and the Beyerdynamic T1, a long-time favourite of ours. And our verdict?
“Regardless of headphones, the results are good. The Sennheiser has a crisp, precise delivery that sounds wonderfully refined,” is what we said in the review.
We were fans of the amp’s ability to “organise and interweave different musical strands to form a cohesive whole,” and “its pleasing dose of outright scale”. Adding to this, we said “large dynamic shifts are delivered with composure”.
It doesn’t quite have the bite or attack of the very best at the money, but it’s still a smooth and sophisticated performer – great if you like a huge dose of refinement from your headphone amp/DAC.
The Sennheiser ticks plenty of boxes in terms of connectivity. Unusually, there’s a traditional 6.3mm jack integrated into the three-pin XLR socket on the front of the unit.
You also get a four-pin XLR and a pair of 4.4mm Pentaconn jacks on the front, both of which allow a balanced connection to suitable headphones.
Another string to the HDV 820’s bow is that it can also act as a preamp thanks to the presence of both single-ended and balanced analogue inputs and outputs, plus a separate gain adjustment to fine-tune the output for your power amp or active speakers.
The DAC functionality comes via a trio of USB, coax and optical digital inputs, with resolution limits of DSD256 and 32-bit/384kHz for PCM music files.
Add solid build quality and a great user experience to the mix, and you have a versatile amp with plenty going for it, not least a £600 discount over at Scan.
MORE:
Read our full Sennheiser HDV 820 review
Our pick of the best headphone amplifiers you can buy
And the best audiophile headphones we've tested
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