Latest news with #HeadBoxE
Yahoo
21-07-2025
- Yahoo
It's a good day for head-fi fans: two big audiophile brands just released small headphones amps, and you might want both
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The Campfire Audio Relay is a USB-C DAC/amp for headphones Pro-Ject Head Box E is a very small desktop headphones amp Campfire Audio Relay: $229 / £229 | Pro-Ject Head Box E: £89 (about $120) Two of our favorite hi-fi firms have released two very different headphone amps. One's designed to live on your desktop, and the other in your pocket or purse, but both promise a significant audio upgrade for fans of the best wired headphones and best wired earbuds. The amps are the Campfire Audio Relay, a portable headphone DAC/amp with a USB-C connection; and the Pro-Ject Head Box E, a compact desktop headphone amplifier. Both are available from July 2025, and both cost less than you might expect. Campfire Relay and Pro-Ject Head Box E: key features and pricing Let's start with the most affordable of the pair, the Pro-Ject Head Box E. That's just £89 / €119 (around $120 / AU$180), and unlike similarly priced amps it doesn't use an integrated chipset for its amplification: Pro-Ject says that it has used carefully selected discrete components to deliver a sound that punches above the amp's modest price tag. The Head Box E delivers 665 milliwatts into 32 ohms, and it's deliberately simple: it has a pair of 6.3mm and a 3.5mm headphone outs on the front – which can be used simultaneously for shared listening – and RCAs on the back. The RCA out is bypassed so it can send unaltered audio to your hi-fi system. According to Pro-Ject, it "outperforms the headphone stages typically found in stereo amps". The Campfire Audio Relay is even smaller, and it's built around the AKM 4493 SEQ DAC chip that according to Campfire, delivers "just the right amount of color and a touch of a classic analogue sound signature." It has 3.5mm and balanced 4.4mm outputs and USB-C for wide connectivity with phones, tablets and computers. The Relay has selectable high/low gain, six filter modes and variable bit rates up to 32-bit / 768kHz, and it supports both PCM and DSD playback. The Campfire Audio Relay is £229 / $299 / AU$399 and if you're in London this weekend you'll be able to check it out at CanJam London. You might also like The best wired headphones 2025, all tested by us The best headphone DACs of 2025 so far This Bluetooth DAC and headphone amp is stunningly well-priced
Stuff.tv
16-07-2025
- Stuff.tv
You won't believe how much this tiny Pro-Ject Hi-Fi amp costs
Got a killer pair of headphones, but nothing to plug them in to? Want to listen to Hi-Fi audio on your cans, but don't have a top-tier audio set-up? You'll need an amp, and some of the best ones can be pretty huge (and expensive). If you're short on space, then this new tiny desktop amp from Pro-Ject is just what you need. The Pro-Ject Head Box E is a tiny metal box that will set you back just £89. But it can give your audio-listening a huge boost. This amp swoops in, all 390g of it, ready to take your wired cans to the next level. Thanks to its micro footprint, the Head Box E is fully discrete. Pro-Ject has eschewed the usual integrated chip in favour of a proper, old-school, audiophile-grade circuit board. This promises cleaner performance, better repairability, and enough power (665 milliwatts into 32 ohms) for even the highest-impedance headphones. It'll drive planar magnetics, vintage studio monitors, and just about anything else you throw at it. On the back, there's a pair of RCA inputs and a bypass output. Thankfully, this makes it easy to sneak this into your Hi-Fi set-up without tearing it apart. On the front, you get both a 6.3mm and a 3.5mm headphone jack, both of which can be used at the same time. That means shared listening sessions or testing A/B headphones like a proper audiophile. It's solid, sleek, and surprisingly premium-feeling for something that costs less than £100. The finish is a classic black body with a choice of silver or black front panels. It's pretty subtle – just what you'd expect from such a dinky amp. The Pro-Ject Head Box E is available now for £89/€119. You can pick it up from Henley Audio if you're in the UK. US pricing and availability have yet to be announced.
