Усилители для наушников — Musical Fidelity V90-BHA

The V90-BHA is a balanced headphone amplifier from Musical Fidelity in the compact V90 format. The maker presents it as the first model to bring the benefits of balanced audio to the consumer headphone market, using balanced connections to cancel RF interference and keep noise low. It became available in May 2015 alongside the MF200B balanced headphones, at GBP 250 for each product or GBP 450 for the pair, and is designed for headphones with impedances from 10 to 600 ohms.

Key specs that matter

Output power is 0.75 W per channel into 32 ohms, and the output impedance is 22 ohms. Frequency response extends from below 10 Hz to 37 kHz at plus 0 and minus 3 dB. THD plus noise is typically below 0.005% between 20 Hz and 20 kHz, and the A-weighted SNR is above 109 dB. Input impedance is 25 kilohms.

Engineering and use context

The V90-BHA accepts sources through an RCA line-level pair and an XLR pair, so both single-ended and balanced sources can be connected. Headphones plug into either a stereo 4-pin mini XLR socket for balanced cables or a 3.5 mm stereo jack for standard single-ended leads. Musical Fidelity quotes high input impedance and low output impedance so that the amplifier connects to most sources. Power comes from an external 12 V 500 mA DC supply included in the box, which connects through a 1.3 mm power socket, so no mains voltage enters the amplifier case. The case measures 170 mm wide, 47 mm high and 117 mm deep. The amplifier weighs 600 g on its own and 1.1 kg in the packaging. In balanced mode the amplifier runs effectively as a dual mono design, which Musical Fidelity uses to minimise cross-channel interference and maximise stereo separation. The front panel and cover are custom-made extrusions finished in fine-texture moonstone.

Pairing

A DAC or preamplifier with balanced XLR outputs keeps the chain balanced all the way to the headphones, while unbalanced sources connect through the phono inputs. The balanced output requires a headphone lead ending in a 4-pin mini XLR plug, and Musical Fidelity designed the MF200B headphones as the matching partner.

Alternatives

The Musical Fidelity MX-HPA is a larger balanced headphone amplifier from the same brand, producing 1.8 W per channel into 8 ohms with 18 or 24 dB of gain, XLR and RCA inputs and two combined XLR and 6.3 mm jack headphone outputs.