New Music Gear Monday: Hafler HA75 TubeHead Headphone Amplifier

There are a lot of artists, bands, musicians and engineers that mix on headphones, some because they're forced to because of the environment they're working in, and others as a check of the work they did on speakers. Most find it an unsatisfactory experience as it doesn't truly represent what the rest of the world will be hearing.

Hafler has tried to change all that with its new HA75 TubeHead headphone amplifier. The unit incorporates a 12AX7 class-A tube circuit that not only supplies enough clean level to overcome the noisiest environment, but a couple of extra features not normally found on headphone amps.

The first is a Variable Focus control that simulates listening in a room by bringing the stereo image more to the center, as well as an adjustable Negative Feedback Control to increase or decrease the feedback to tailor the sound better to your tastes. There's also an old-school Loudness control to tailor the low frequencies for low listening levels according to the established Fletcher-Munson curves that we sometimes forget about.

The HA75 features two fully balanced inputs on XLR connectors as well as unbalanced RCA connectors and unbalanced RCA throughput jacks. Dual headphone outputs can handle anywhere from 8 to 400 ohms.

The esteemed Hafler brand was purchased by Radial Engineering, recently relaunched at AES, and now produces both high-quality solid state and tube headphone amplifiers as well as phone preamps. Hafler was known for its power amplifiers in the past, and although none have been included in the relaunch, don't be surprised if you see a few new ones soon.

The Hafler HA75 TubeHead headphone amplifier retails for around $1,000.

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