• Welcome to ASR. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!

Amps with Crossfeed Implementation: Recommendation for Planar Magnetic Headphones?

m0pher

Member
Joined
Aug 6, 2024
Messages
8
Likes
2
Location
New York, NY
I listen to music primarily on headphones. Been getting into older recordings recently that have hard left/right channels, I supposed recorded in days when music was primarily mixed for consumption via speakers? At any rate, I've been reading that some amps offer a crossfeed feature that can help with that. Are there any recommendations from this community about amps with good implementations of this feature? All my headphones are planar magnetic and I recently saw a YT review of the Feliks Audio Euforia Evo that has this feature but also said this amp is particularly picky when it comes to pairing with planars, so figured I'd ask here.
 
Are there any recommendations from this community about amps with good implementations of this feature?
iFi is the only brand that comes to mind with analog crossfeed built into their headphone Amps (called XSpace).

Though I don't particularly like that brand, their headphone amps should do the trick just fine.
 
Thanks. Why don't you like the brand?
They exploit biases and FOMO for profit, fudge their numbers, and make rookie engineering mistakes when batteries are involved:


iFi just doesn't strike me as a brand that particularly respects its customers.
 
Last edited:
MiniDSP HA-DSP (discontinued) is crossfeed-capable, but implementing it is somewhat technical in nature, and the last time I checked, there were no howto guides.
 
I use a crossfeed plugin on Windows, but I don't know of a simple and free way to do it on Mac - you can use AU plugins with a utility called Soundsource, which itself costs $40. But, it's doable.
 
The RME ADI-2 DAC provides a Crossfeed effect, which reduces the artificial surround ambience that some productions have to make them sound better on speakers, but which sounds unnatural on a headphone. Bauer Binaural method is used, with five selectable strengths of narrowing the upper frequencies.
 
In case you are a Roon user, crossfeed is an available DSP option.
 
I listen to music primarily on headphones. Been getting into older recordings recently that have hard left/right channels, I supposed recorded in days when music was primarily mixed for consumption via speakers? At any rate, I've been reading that some amps offer a crossfeed feature that can help with that. Are there any recommendations from this community about amps with good implementations of this feature? All my headphones are planar magnetic and I recently saw a YT review of the Feliks Audio Euforia Evo that has this feature but also said this amp is particularly picky when it comes to pairing with planars, so figured I'd ask here.
Meier Audio devices have switchable analog crossfeed.
I even have a Corda Jazz on my desk right now.

There are various DIY projects for looping crossfeed into the HPA, as well as plenty of EQ/DSP software that allows for this.
 
Back
Top Bottom