Sennheiser HDV 820

Rich sound gets richer

How do you make some of the best headphones on the market even better? If you're Sennheiser, you build the HDV 820 headphone amp to play up all the strengths of your flagship HD 800 S open-back 'phones and new closed-back HD 820 headphones. The most obvious matches between the two are in the cosmetics and the connectivity — this is one of the few amps we offer that can accept a balanced 4.4mm headphone cable. But this powerful desktop amp also drives Sennheiser's best headphones to perform at their top potential.

Sennheiser designed this amp to accentuate the sonic advantages of the HD 800 S and HD 820. The HDV 820 spreads out the headphones' large soundstage even wider. And together, the pair delivers airy, musical highs along with taut, detailed mids and a sweet helping of bass precision.

Crystal-clear, low-distortion sound for all

Of course, you can use the HDV 820 with any set of wired headphones that would benefit from clean, controlled power. Which I think covers most of them! Sennheiser uses a symmetrical circuitry design to keep the left and right channel signals completely independent of each other. This practically eliminates interference, so your headphones will better handle large sonic peaks in your music — without distorting.

Sennheiser also includes a 5-stage gain switch to properly match up the power output with your headphones' impedance. That means this amp plays nice with all types of headphone models.

The ins...

A headphone amp can only be as versatile as its connections — and the HDV 820 is ready for all types of music sources. You'll find balanced and unbalanced analog inputs along with optical, coaxial, XLR, and USB inputs for your digital gear. A premium ESS Sabre digital-to-analog converter effortlessly handles high-res music files up to 32-bit/384kHz.

...and outs

This amp will power up to four pairs of headphones simultaneously — a helpful feature here at Crutchfield where we often compare different headphones. There is a four-pin XLR output, along with a Neutrik combination socket standard that will accept a 3-pin XLR or a 1/4" headphone plug.

The HDV 820 also has a stereo pair of 3-pin XLR outputs on the back. So you can use it as a standalone preamp/DAC if you have compatible audio gear.