If you’ve decided to invest in an audiophile-grade set of wired headphones or IEMs, you should definitely consider acquiring a headphone amp to power them. Perhaps something like Rotel’s slick new DX-3. It’s the company’s first headphone amp and it combines premium amplification circuitry with state-of-the-art digital-to-analog conversion. It will be available in Europe and the U.K. in March in either black or silver colors, and it’s expected to arrive in the U.S. soon after, for $1,499.
Granted, that’s not exactly an impulse buy for most people, but a headphone amp with the DX-3’s specs will likely last for decades and can grow with you as your needs (and your system) change.
The most striking thing about the DX-3 is its size and design. At 8.5 inches wide, 3 inches tall, and 9.75 inches deep, it’s only slightly larger than the Wiim Ultra network music streamer — another device that’s perfectly proportioned for desktop use. Clad in aluminum, the DX-3 has a full color display, two headphone outputs (4.4mm balanced, 6.35mm unbalanced), a three-setting gain switch, a source selection button, and an oversized, diamond-knurled volume knob.
Inside, however, is where you’ll find the DX-3’s critical components. Digital-to-analog conversion (DAC) is handled by an ESS Sabre ES9028PRO chip — an 8-channel DAC with four dedicated channels per side (left/right).
There’s almost nothing that DAC can’t handle. It will decode PCM up to 32-bit/384kHz and has native DSD support up to DSD256. You can choose to supply digital audio via optical, PC-USB, coaxial, or wirelessly via Bluetooth, with AAC, aptX, and aptX-HD codec compatibility.
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If you want to bypass the DAC, there’s a dedicated analog amplification path that’s serviced by a set of stereo RCA jacks.
Rotel says that amplification is courtesy of an “ultra-low noise, custom in-house manufactured, toroidal transformer with high current drivers and high-quality capacitors,” and that power is controlled via an audiophile grade NJW1195A fully differential analog controller delivering precise steps as refined as 0.5dB. The three-step gain control lets you fine-tune output power to match the specific impedance and sensitivity of your headphones.
Want to use the DX-3 as standalone DAC or pre-amp? You can do that too, with your choice of unbalanced RCA or XLR balanced analog outputs. Finally, Rotel includes an aluminum-body remote so you can control the DX-3 from as far away as your headphone cables will let you sit (or further).
The only thing missing is networking — there’s no Ethernet or Wi-Fi. However, Roon users can nonetheless stream all of their favorite sources to the DX-3 if you use the PC-USB input, which is recognized as a Roon endpoint.
