Sennheiser have announced their successor to the HDVD800 with the launch of the HDV820 digital amplifier. It was 2013 when Sennheiser first launched their HDVA600 analogue and HDVD800 digital headphone amplifier to pair with their HD800, HD700 and HD6xx range of headphones. They were incredible feats of engineering and the sound was amazing from both of the units. Wind on 4 years and Sennheiser are now replacing their much loved HDVD800 with the brand new HDV820 digital amplifier.
Choosing to stick with the amazing and highly regarding ESS brand of DAC chipsets Sennheiser have chosen to up the anti and selected the DAC capable of receiving data from any source outputting up to 12.3MHz. The previous HDVD800 was capped to 24/192 so this will be a big step up.
A bold move has also been taken by Sennheiser with their range of outputs levied on this new amplifier. With a breadth of audio outputs that include XLR3, XLR4, 6.3 mm- and a 4.4 mm Pentaconn socket, it is easy to find the optimal way to connect your headphones with the HDV 820. It performs brilliantly with digital sources, whether optically via coax or via USB, and features balanced (XLR) and unbalanced (RCA) analogue inputs.
We are keeping an eye out at this years Munich High-End show in May as we will then have further details in relation to price. I speculate that it will be around the £1500 – £1600 mark and release date is still to be announced.
