The Trafomatic Primavera relies upon the genius of Sasa Cocik to transform the 811.10 tube into one of the great head amp tubes of all time. It is a single ended circuit with the fantastic voltage associated with big bottle tubes. Finished with Trafomatics own transformer technology this makes for a headphone amplifier that can power most every dynamic and planar headphone on the market.
And then there is the Trafomatic Head 2! Watch the video review below.
The Mal Valve 5 is the new king in Mal Valve headphone amplification. It will drive electrostatic headphones, dynamic headphones and magnostatic or planar headphones. It does so using OTL (output transformerless) technology. You can also switch to a transformer coupled output to get the best of both worlds. It can also be used as a fully balanced preamplifier, and as an integrated amplifier when paired with the stand-alone output transformers designed to be near your speakers. It amplifies all comers at a the highest level of performance. Just add your source, headphones and speakers. There are many other unique attributes that it has which no other headphone amp has to date. Please be in touch to go over the specifics.
The Mal Valve Head Amp One is a Stereo Amplifier which has a direct Stax Pro Connection and an ESL connection for other electrostatic headphones. Like the Head Amp Five, it can also drive planar and dynamic cans. Further, adding the outboard output transformers makes it a formidable stereo amplifier capable of driving most any speaker with aplomb. The One is an excellent choice for those who already have a preamplifier or source with a volume control that they like.
The Mal Valve Head Amp Three was what started the Mal Valve craze in the headphone world. Now in its forth iteration the Head Three remains one of the only headphone amps in the world that can power electrostatic and dynamic headphones. Recent innovations allow for it function as a fully balanced preamplifier as well. The Head Three has been a reference for at least two large headphone publications for going on 9 years….an eon in the world of headphone amplification. The new version of the Head 3 adds functionality to boot. The number of helpful new functions are too much to tally here…please be in touch.
I’ve heard various suppositions about Mal Valve and their approach. First you should know that Mal Valve will shortly release their own electrostatic headphone. It is in its fifth prototype over even more years of R&D. All to say, driving electrostatic headphones has long been a central preoccupation, at least as much as their dynamic and planar counterparts. There are some attributes to that end that no other amplifier can claim…like the adjustment of bias of the Stax or ESL outputs in real time. Mal Valve is known as much for their traditional two channel work driving and making loudspeakers as their headfi related interests. Their phonostages, cd players, preamplifiers, and amplifiers have all received rave reviews in the German press. All of the amplifiers sporting the KT120 tubes are capable of utilizing any KT tube including the new spectacular KT170. You’’ll see more Mal Valve as we increase their presence in the US, supported by a full technical staff…though in our years of knowing them and selling their Head 3, the tank like build almost made such assurances superfluous.