This is a review and detailed measurements of the Rega Ear Headphone Amplifier. It is on kind loan from a member. The Ear costs USD $395 from Amazon including Prime shipping. From the bit of research I did, seems like the Rega Ear was released back in 2013/2014.
It doesn't take much to get me to dislike the look of any audio device. The Rega Ear does everything to push me there:
While the enclosure is metal the front panel is the cheap plexiglass that was maybe in fashion back in 1970s. The silver buttons add insult to injury as do the easy smudges you get on it. All of this is strange as I consider Rega at the lower tier of "high-end" audio electronics.
The back panel doesn't change the impression either, neither does the AC adapter which had its case already starting to fall apart:
At least put some bling in there with gold RCA connectors or something at this price.
Now, from design point of view, an AC power supply is a good thing for amplifiers because you can convert its output to both positive and negative DC supply you need for proper, dc-coupled amplifier. The "high" 24 volt output bodes well for handling high impedance headphones as they need more voltage than they need current. Rated current output though is only 0.34 amps. This does the opposite, giving us doubt that the Rega Ear can properly drive low impedance headphones which need current to sign.
Some design choices are shocking here. Gain is fixed at whopping 28 db! I could barely turn up the volume control when listening with my Hifiman HE-400i. You had to make micro adjustment to get the level you wanted. I doubt that you will go above 12:00 o'clock position for any headphone.
Headphone Amplifier Measurements
I set the input at 2 volts and adjusted the volume for unity gain (2 volt output). This is what we get:
Distortion at 0.0025% beats the 0.003% specification which is good. What is not so good in this day and age is the 92 dB SINAD:
Distortion products are well under -100 dB so noise must be the contributor for somewhat low SINAD results which is the sum of distortion+noise.
The spec for signal to noise ratio is at max output level so I cranked up the volume control there right before the amplifier clips:
Again, the spec is met.
I am running a more realistic signal to noise ratio at much reduced output voltage of just 50 millivolts. Idea is that with headphone listening, most of the time noise is a problem with sensitive IEMs so might as well measure SNR at levels that may be used there. Using that metric, we get this:
So quite a bit lower as it normally is. This is the third device I have tested this way so I started to put them in a graph:
Even though an analog control is used, channel consistency relative to volume control position was very good:
Using the Hifiman HE-400i, by the time I could hear the channel imbalance, there was no volume left. Of course this will be different with a sensitive IEM.
Output impedance is comfortably low:
What is left is our two most important measurements: power versus distortion at 300 ohm (emphasizing voltage delivery) and 33 ohm (emphasizing current delivery). First, 300 ohm:
We have healthy amount of power at 90 milliwatts. Something was strange though: one channel was jumping up and down almost 10 dB during measurements as indicated by the "T" symbol (analyzer giving up on getting a stable reading). I played around with grounding and it made no difference. I researched and saw one other report of this problem in subjective listening. Looking at the spectrum, there was low frequency noise that would jump up and down at lower input levels. Seems like a design issue. I saw some references to power supply voltage being managed somehow based on output drive??? If so, that mechanism could be causing problems.
With 33 ohm, output was much more stable:
Here, as we have seen with some other headphone amplifiers (e.g. Schiit Magni) there is sudden rise in distortion and then clipping occurs later. This indicates distortion is not well managed even when the amp is operating within the power capacity of the power supply. Allowing that initial distortion, we get to a decent power value of 461 milliwatts. The curve though in both instances is quite a bit worse than our reference Massdrop THX AAA 789. They are in completely different class across the spectrum but especially at max volume.
Listening Tests
As usual I started my testing with Sennheiser HD-650 headphones. I was greeted with tons and tons of power with superb bass and dynamics. The sensation of subwoofer in your ear was very much drive, driving the HD-650s easily into levels that was just too loud -- even for me.
Switching to Hifiman HE-400i was a let down. Bass got distorted almost immediately. The more you turned up the volume, the worst it got. In no case did it create the great sensation of bass that I am used to hearing with HE-400i with higher performance headphone amplifiers that have more power and less distortion. As such, I don't recommend using the Rega Ear for low impedance headphones.
Conclusions
The Rega Ear is from a respected higher-end brand of audio electronics. From the point of view measurements, the Ear fails to match our state-of-the-art reference products at the same or much lower prices. The JDS Labs Atom for example will outperform it in every regard at costs 1/4 as much. Sadly you don't get fancy case either so there is nothing to hang your hat on.
Subjectively, with high impedance headphones, the Rega Ear performs very well. It may have more momentary power reserve than steady state measurements show. So if you can get a cheap used one for this type of application, it will be an enjoyable product. But if you want to buy a headphone amplifier and be done with it, regardless of what headphone you will use with it in the future, you better pass on the Ear.
Needless to say, I can't recommend the Rega Ear. There are just other better options out there today.
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
I had trouble getting my tractor running yesterday due to battery finally dying. Need money for a new one. Please donate using:
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/audiosciencereview), or
upgrading your membership here though Paypal (https://audiosciencereview.com/foru...eview-and-measurements.2164/page-3#post-59054).
It doesn't take much to get me to dislike the look of any audio device. The Rega Ear does everything to push me there:
While the enclosure is metal the front panel is the cheap plexiglass that was maybe in fashion back in 1970s. The silver buttons add insult to injury as do the easy smudges you get on it. All of this is strange as I consider Rega at the lower tier of "high-end" audio electronics.
The back panel doesn't change the impression either, neither does the AC adapter which had its case already starting to fall apart:
At least put some bling in there with gold RCA connectors or something at this price.
Now, from design point of view, an AC power supply is a good thing for amplifiers because you can convert its output to both positive and negative DC supply you need for proper, dc-coupled amplifier. The "high" 24 volt output bodes well for handling high impedance headphones as they need more voltage than they need current. Rated current output though is only 0.34 amps. This does the opposite, giving us doubt that the Rega Ear can properly drive low impedance headphones which need current to sign.
Some design choices are shocking here. Gain is fixed at whopping 28 db! I could barely turn up the volume control when listening with my Hifiman HE-400i. You had to make micro adjustment to get the level you wanted. I doubt that you will go above 12:00 o'clock position for any headphone.
Headphone Amplifier Measurements
I set the input at 2 volts and adjusted the volume for unity gain (2 volt output). This is what we get:
Distortion at 0.0025% beats the 0.003% specification which is good. What is not so good in this day and age is the 92 dB SINAD:
Distortion products are well under -100 dB so noise must be the contributor for somewhat low SINAD results which is the sum of distortion+noise.
The spec for signal to noise ratio is at max output level so I cranked up the volume control there right before the amplifier clips:
Again, the spec is met.
I am running a more realistic signal to noise ratio at much reduced output voltage of just 50 millivolts. Idea is that with headphone listening, most of the time noise is a problem with sensitive IEMs so might as well measure SNR at levels that may be used there. Using that metric, we get this:
So quite a bit lower as it normally is. This is the third device I have tested this way so I started to put them in a graph:
Even though an analog control is used, channel consistency relative to volume control position was very good:
Using the Hifiman HE-400i, by the time I could hear the channel imbalance, there was no volume left. Of course this will be different with a sensitive IEM.
Output impedance is comfortably low:
What is left is our two most important measurements: power versus distortion at 300 ohm (emphasizing voltage delivery) and 33 ohm (emphasizing current delivery). First, 300 ohm:
We have healthy amount of power at 90 milliwatts. Something was strange though: one channel was jumping up and down almost 10 dB during measurements as indicated by the "T" symbol (analyzer giving up on getting a stable reading). I played around with grounding and it made no difference. I researched and saw one other report of this problem in subjective listening. Looking at the spectrum, there was low frequency noise that would jump up and down at lower input levels. Seems like a design issue. I saw some references to power supply voltage being managed somehow based on output drive??? If so, that mechanism could be causing problems.
With 33 ohm, output was much more stable:
Here, as we have seen with some other headphone amplifiers (e.g. Schiit Magni) there is sudden rise in distortion and then clipping occurs later. This indicates distortion is not well managed even when the amp is operating within the power capacity of the power supply. Allowing that initial distortion, we get to a decent power value of 461 milliwatts. The curve though in both instances is quite a bit worse than our reference Massdrop THX AAA 789. They are in completely different class across the spectrum but especially at max volume.
Listening Tests
As usual I started my testing with Sennheiser HD-650 headphones. I was greeted with tons and tons of power with superb bass and dynamics. The sensation of subwoofer in your ear was very much drive, driving the HD-650s easily into levels that was just too loud -- even for me.
Switching to Hifiman HE-400i was a let down. Bass got distorted almost immediately. The more you turned up the volume, the worst it got. In no case did it create the great sensation of bass that I am used to hearing with HE-400i with higher performance headphone amplifiers that have more power and less distortion. As such, I don't recommend using the Rega Ear for low impedance headphones.
Conclusions
The Rega Ear is from a respected higher-end brand of audio electronics. From the point of view measurements, the Ear fails to match our state-of-the-art reference products at the same or much lower prices. The JDS Labs Atom for example will outperform it in every regard at costs 1/4 as much. Sadly you don't get fancy case either so there is nothing to hang your hat on.
Subjectively, with high impedance headphones, the Rega Ear performs very well. It may have more momentary power reserve than steady state measurements show. So if you can get a cheap used one for this type of application, it will be an enjoyable product. But if you want to buy a headphone amplifier and be done with it, regardless of what headphone you will use with it in the future, you better pass on the Ear.
Needless to say, I can't recommend the Rega Ear. There are just other better options out there today.
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
I had trouble getting my tractor running yesterday due to battery finally dying. Need money for a new one. Please donate using:
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/audiosciencereview), or
upgrading your membership here though Paypal (https://audiosciencereview.com/foru...eview-and-measurements.2164/page-3#post-59054).