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In the can

Musical Fidelity X-CAN v2 headphone amplifier $699

A headphone amplifier? Why would anyone possibly want a headphone amplifier? After all, headphone sockets are built into most CD players and amplifiers, right?

That's absolutely correct. However there are a number of good reasons to look at a dedicated headphone amplifier if, through choice or necessity, much of your listening is via cans.

The headphone sockets on CD players and amplifiers are usually fine for casual listening, but they are compromised. The parts used are often cheap (headphone listening doesn’t grab much of a manufacturers budget). And with an amplifier the headphone feed is usually taken from the amp via a resistor to reduce the volume level. This often results in loose bass.

A dedicated headphone amplifier can reduce or eliminate those compromises. So if you spend much of your time under the cans, then maybe you should look at a headphone amplifier.

Available in New Zealand are models from QED, Naim (though you need a Naim system to use it) and this model, the Musical Fidelity X-CANv2. The X-CANv2 is a Class-A tube (or valve) headphone amplifier. Inside the casing are a couple of small valves to supply the juice to your cans.

The X-CANv2 is in the traditional housing for Musical Fidelity’s X-Ponents series of components. It’s a cylindrical aluminium casing, some 220mm deep and 110mm wide.

On the front is a full-size headphone socket and a volume control, which really is too small for anyone with real fingers to use comfortably.

Around the back are line-in and line-out RCA sockets. This allows the X-CAN to be used in a tape monitor loop if required, without losing the use of a tape deck.

There's no on-off switch which surprised me. Headphone use is often occasional and being able to switch off the X-CAN would prolong the life of the valves inside.

Canned heat
At the importers suggestion, I let the X-CAN warm up for several days before listening. I used my Sennheiser HD 580 headphones.

My first listening was to the CD A feather on the breath of God by the Gothic Voices featuring Emma Kirkby. This sublime 1984 recording (by noted engineer Tony Faulkener) was featured on John Campbell's Saturday morning show on National Radio several weeks back, and has leaped up the New Zealand classical charts.

It’s a very purist recording, featuring a couple of microphones carefully placed in a hall. You should clearly hear the hall itself, along with the purity of the voices.

On many headphone outputs you don’t - the quality of the headphone stage is not up to it. Via the X-CAN it was beautiful. The voices were there with clarity and purity, with not a hint of excess sibilance.

Staying with the broader classical theme, one of my favourite string quartet works is by Shostakovich. His Quartet #8 was written about the destruction of Dresden during World War 2 (and the problems he was having with the Soviet authorities) and is a very emotionally intense piece.

A string quartet recording can be very difficult to reproduce, with the strings often becoming too wirery sounding and hard. Through the X-CAN, the FitzWilliam Quartet sounded glorious.

The four instruments were clearly defined in timbre and in space, without the sound of the instruments becoming wirery. I could clearly hear how the quartet’s instruments excited the acoustics of the hall.

My favourite rock album of last year is Tim Finn's largely overlooked Say It Is So. It's a busy and somewhat messy recording and can easily turn into a sludge with sharp and unpleasant edges on some hi-fi systems.

Through the X-CANs it was easy to follow the various musical lines. I could clearly and easily hear both the instruments and the processing performed on them, without the sound turning into a mess.

The occasional headphone listener could never justify spending $699 on a dedicated headphone amplifier. But if you spend a lot of your listening hours under a pair of cans, then the X-CANv2 could be just what you’re looking for. Warmly recommended.

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