Four years after announcing the acclaimed HDVD 800 amplifier, Sennheiser has announced the new Sennheiser HDV 820 headphone amplifier which builds on the previous model and brings higher resolution and components that should grant lower distortion.
The Sennheiser HDV 820 features a polished, anodized black aluminium shell with white LED lights. It is minimalistic, yet elegant. It surely is a far cry from the Sennheiser HE 1, but it can better fit most homes.
Under the aluminium shell, the Sennheiser HDV 820 has both DAC and amplifier built-in. The DAC chip is a SABRE32 chip capable of supporting music with resolution up to 32 bits and 384 kHz PCM and up to 12.3 MHz in DSD mode (DSD256). It is able to output music through both balanced and unbalanced connectors: there are one XLR3/6.3 mm combo socket, one balanced XLR3 and two 4.4 mm Pentacomm balanced jack sockets.
It has both balanced and unbalanced inputs, too: the rear hosts two balanced XLR3 connectors and two unbalanced RCA connectors, together with a gain selector and digital inputs (USB, coaxial and optical). Two XLR3 balanced outputs on the back allow the user to connect it to other devices while taking full advantage of the balanced architecture.
This is a hi-end product with a price to match: it will go on sale in July for $2700. You can look for a dealer on Sennheiser’s site.
