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Eleven XIAudio Broadway Headphone Amp Review

Rate this headphone amplifier:

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 135 68.9%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 54 27.6%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 4 2.0%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 3 1.5%

  • Total voters
    196

amirm

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This is a review, listening tests and detailed measurements of the Eleven XIAudio Broadway balanced battery operated desktop headphone amplifier. It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $2,599.
Eleven Audio XIAUDIO Broadway Balaneced Headphone Amplifier Battery Portable Review.jpg

As you see, the unit only supports balanced headphone output. The volume control has excellent, fluid feel that is superior to many other implementations out there. And the knurled engraving on it helps with gripping it. Back panel shows balanced only input connection as well:
Eleven Audio XIAUDIO Broadway Balaneced Headphone Amplifier Battery Portable back panel Review.jpg

As noted, the unit sports a set of batteries internally which can power the unit for a few hours. As such, the power switch is momentary to turn the unit on and off. Being class A, the box uses fair bit of power and stays warm to touch, partially defeating the feature of battery operating it.

I like the choice of Meanwell power supply which is a nice brand of switching supplies.

What I absolutely did not like where the corners and edges of the unit. They are extremely sharp! I almost got a "paper cut" from just picking it up! They should be sanded to be smoother.

Testing proved challenging as the unit was very prone to ground loops when using my standard headphone load box. The loadbox has a power supply to operate its relays and was causing sever ground currents and reducing measured performance. I had to jump through a few loops to get around this. When using normal headphones, there is no power supply involved so you should not see this impact. Then again, something is causing this leakage which I usually don't see to this degree.

Another thing I didn't like was the gain switches: they are underneath the unit. If you only have one headphone, that is not so bad but if you have multiple, it is a pain to keep flipping the unit to change gain. And with those sharp edges, the hassles becomes twice as much!

XI Audio Broadway Measurements
I first tested the unit using high gain and with AC power:
Eleven Audio XIAUDIO Broadway Balaneced Headphone Amplifier Measurements.png

I then unplugged the AC cable and it made no difference:
Eleven Audio XIAUDIO Broadway Balaneced Headphone Amplifier Battery Measurements.png


I then switched to low gain and was surprised that the SINAD reversed for each channel and there was clear output mismatch now:
Eleven Audio XIAUDIO Broadway Balaneced Headphone Amplifier Low Gain Measurements.png


Something is not right in low gain mode.

Anyway, the performance is good enough but nothing competitive to headphone amplifiers at a quarter of its price:
best balanced headphone amplifier review 2023.png


Baseline noise level was also too high:
Eleven Audio XIAUDIO Broadway Balaneced Headphone Amplifier SNR Measurements.png


So best to not use it with sensitive IEMs:

most quiet headphone amplifier review.png


Perhaps realizing this, the company has a lower grain version of the unit.

Frequency response is excellent:

Eleven Audio XIAUDIO Broadway Balaneced Headphone Amplifier Frequency Response Measurements.png


Let's measure power into 300 ohm:
Eleven Audio XIAUDIO Broadway Balaneced Headphone Amplifier Power 300 Measurements.png


300 milliwatts should be enough to drive just about every high impedance headphone to pretty loud levels (my minimum standard is 100 milliwatts). Distortion though sets in pretty early and clearly no match for state of the art headphone amplifiers.

Since I could not use my loadbox, I had to resort to my older passive balanced load which was at 25 ohm, not the usual 32:
Eleven Audio XIAUDIO Broadway Balaneced Headphone Amplifier Power 25 Measurements.png


Very strange distortion mechanisms there with those twists and turns before eventual clipping. I ran the unit on battery for both of the above measurements and the lines completely landed on top of each other indicating there is no noise or distortion difference.

Channel balance test was bamboozled by immediately channel offset which exceeded my 0.5 dB deviation:

Eleven Audio XIAUDIO Broadway Balaneced Headphone Amplifier Channel Balance Measurements.png


High gain was better (not shown) but then again, you use low gain when you care about channel balance.

XIAudio Headphone Amplifier Listening Tests
I started my testing using my everyday Dan Clark Stealth headphone which is low impedance and requires a lot of power to drive. At reasonable volumes, the sound was good and no different than any other performant headphone amplifiers. As I cranked up the volume though, I started to hear a strange modulation of high frequency notes. It would elongate these notes as if put through a synthesizer! Push it a bit more and you had clear distortion and as such, unlistenable. Mind you, you were pretty much at the upper end of what you could tolerate as far as loudness.

Things improved -- as they usually do -- when the more sensitive Sennheiser HD650 headphone was put to task. There was ample volume and good sound to be had. Push some more though, and distortion clearly set in.

With neither one of these headphones did I notice anything extra fidelity in lower volumes when distortion was not present.

For comparison, I plugged both headphones into my reference Topping A90 headphone amplifier on my desk. The A90 pushed the Stealth to far, far higher loudness level, eventually causing the left channel driver to tick. There was no hint of distortion. We are talking a large gulf in loudness level between the A90 and Broadway. Same situation existed with the HD650 were the A90 was out to take prisoners, pushing it to levels of loudness which could cause near instant hearing loss!

Conclusions
Other than channel balance in low gain, the Broadway headphone amp has good enough performance both in distortion and power levels. As such, it can provide satisfactory experience with many headphones. Its battery operation is novel if you have a scenario where you want to lug such a large box around for portable use. Compared to other headphones amplifiers though, its performance falls short quite a bit including in available power and headroom. Its class A operation wastes power but doesn't bring anything as much as fidelity. So good enough if you have it, but nothing you want to go and buy especially at this price.

I can't recommend the Eleven Audio XIAudio Broadway headphone amplifier. There are so many better choices out there if you don't need battery operation.
 
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amirm

amirm

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I watched a video review of this and the guy there claimed that you can "roll the batteries" (switch for different brand) and get different sound!
 

RF Air

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I can only think that if you want to use for musical performance and low noise DC battery filtering. Signal noise is often associated to switch box/live gear for live performance.
 

enricoclaudio

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Thanks @amirm for another honest review. My only comment would be: that thing is ugly as hell.... Looks like a very expensive DIY project or prototype unit...
 

Tks

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I thought upon seeing an image of the device before reading: "Oh interesting, I had no idea the OEM design of the old THX789 enclosure is now out in the wild and being used by others, let's see what this $200 amp can do". This preconception was made due to things like the font and just lackluster look of that atrocious font, and philips head screws front and center sticking out on the amp.

I start reading and I'm hit with that $2600 price tag.

giphy.gif


I'm honestly having a hard time believing that's not a typo.
 

Rja4000

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Thanks for another interesting review.
As I cranked up the volume though, I started to hear a strange modulation of high frequency notes. It would elongate these notes as if put through a synthesizer!
Dumb question: how could that effect be measured ?
 

audiotron

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Who came up with the $2599 price tag? For a couple hundred more you can get the Technics SU-G700M2 with a headphone jack.
 

Mnyb

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The battery operation may actually be some high end stunt , you probably supposed to listen with the charger unplugged for “blacker blacks” there are other such products?

A friend had mc head amp that was battery operated that you had to charge between uses.
 

IAtaman

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So good enough if you have it, but nothing you want to go and buy especially at this price.
I think that is a very fair assessment.

Battery is mostly for purists that want a perfect power source I suspect, and not for portable use.

One of these days, there will be a true Class A amp that will measure well. It will have VU meters, it will be balanced and it will not be $8K. One of these days..
 
Last edited:

Arnas

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Thanks @amirm for another honest review. My only comment would be: that thing is ugly as hell.... Looks like a very expensive DIY project or prototype unit...
All of their amps and dacs look super ugly. Everyone knows that ''Design'' sells.
Hell, im gonna get Matrix sabre for design alone.
 

AndreaT

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Something is not right in the design and project: why distortion and noise are higher at a lower gain? Not competitive with offers from Topping (like the L30 II) at a tiny fraction of the price of this unit. The claim that rolling batteries changes the sound is also ridiculous and adds to my suspicion: something other than impeccable engineering is in the recipe of this HPA.

Thank you Amir for this review.
 

Music1969

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Its battery operation is novel if you have a scenario where you want to lug such a large box around for portable use.
Looks like a Topping G5 or Chord Hugo 2 is a better option for portable
 
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