Advertisement

Onkyo's music player is also DAC and headphone amp for your phone

The chatter surrounding high fidelity listening devices and services picked up over the last year or so (thanks, Neil Young), and Onkyo hopes its new 3-in-1 device will lure you to the land of high definition. The company's aluminum-wrapped DAC-HA300 is not only a portable music player for audiophiles, but it also serves as both a headphone amp and digital-to-analog converter (DAC) for iOS and Android devices, or even your office workstation. With its primary function, the PMP can wrangle up to 128GB of tunes via a microSD card for 192 kHz/24-bit listening, while also serving as a headphone amp for that set of cans you take along on the daily.

If you'd rather leverage that Tidal subscription from an iPhone or Moto X, you can still use the player as a headphone amp, but when paired with a mobile handset, Onkyo's gear fills the role of DAC with the help of a companion app. When you're stationary, the same USB jack that connects with your smartphone of choice can also be used to handle any desktop headphone amplifier duties. If you're like me, you have a favorite set of cans you're too fond of to take out in the elements, so this is a nice touch. And one that helps soften the hit to the ol' wallet... a bit. Speaking of the price tag, the device will ship at the end of April for £499 (around $740). Of course, you'll need to be willing to fill not one, but two pockets with audio tech for your evening walk.