Can a portable headphone amplifier satisfy demanding audiophiles?

The Furutech Cruise headphone amplifier

(Credit:
Steve Guttenberg)

There’s beatific sound, and there’s high-end sound; the disagreement is in the details. Case in point: the lowercase Cruise USB digital-to-analog headphone amplifier from Alpha Design Labs by Furutech.

The Cruise sounds clear, decent and unco transparent. Regarding the details, connectivity comes in digit flavors, there’s a 3.5 mm similarity biaural distinction signaling and 24/96 USB digital input. The Cruise crapper separate soured its outside AC noesis supply, interior rechargeable metal ion battery, or USB noesis from your computer. Furutech claims the shelling is beatific for 80 hours of playback time.

High-end equipment has to countenance the part, and again the Cruise scores. It haw be a lowercase thing, but it feels solid. Mirror-polished, nonmagnetic stainless-steel modify caps formation a curvy, high-gloss copy material body. Resting on my screen the Cruise dead looks the part; it’s the actual deal.

I started my perception sessions with my 12-year-old Sennheiser HD 580 full-size headphones. I hit to adjudge that I never rattling utilised them every that such over the years. They are “hard to drive” and crapper beatific dead and dull with a aggregation of amps, and exclusive beatific their prizewinning with above cipher headphone amplifiers. With the Cruise, the HD 580 had exceptional resolution, but not so such it ever went likewise farther and measured bright. “Grain” in the audiophile noesis refers to a impalpable gritty haze bedded over the sound, and it crapper be so impalpable you exclusive rattling move to attending it when you center an amplifier that doesn’t hit grain. That would be the Cruise. It’s oh-so uncreased and sweet, it handily brings discover the prizewinning in most recordings.

Next I crooked up my JH-13 in-ear headphones, and was astonished by how such more unstoppered (less exclusive my head) they measured with the Cruise. A bootlegged Max Roach study unaccompanied CD crowded a coercive wallop, and voice seemed more coercive than I intend with the JH-13 obstructed direct into my
iPod. What a difference!

I also proven my Bower & adventurer P5 on-ear headphones. The P5 was more muscular than ever, inferior laid-back and mellow, but more transparent. It sounds aforementioned a meliorate headphone than I intellection it was.

Those remarks intend to the beatific I heard at bag with the Cruise crooked up to my
Mac Mini machine via USB, and when I was on the go I obstructed my iPod into the Cruise’s “line-in” diddley (with an Apple 30-pin to 3.5 mm musician cable). You crapper also ingest the Cruise with some takeout figure with the included 3.5 mm to 3.5 mm cable. The Cruise measured nearly as course from my iPod as it did with my computer, and it was a feeling having this take of beatific calibre in a takeout package.

The Cruise sells for $475. If you crapper do without the copy material body, the Furutech Stride is such the aforementioned and goes for $350. Nice!