Auris Audio also equips the Headonia 300B with the popular German-made Mundorf Capacitors. Mundorf capacitors are known for their ability to deliver transparent and clear sound, with minimal coloration or distortion. This makes them ideal for applications where preserving the integrity of the original audio signal is paramount. They are praised for their ability to reproduce fine details, enhance dynamics, and provide high resolution, allowing listeners to hear subtle nuances in the music. This makes them a perfect match for the Headonia 300B, and combined with Lundhal transformers, it's about as clean and pristine an audio signal and amplification can be. It pays off in the end too. 

I'll go ahead and be honest about the fact that you're going to want to pair this reference tube headphone amplifier with a high-end reference headphone to get the most that the amplifier has to offer. You wouldn't want to give a 500-hp racecar to your grandma, so why would you pair anything but the best headphones with a headphone amplifier of this caliber? Regardless, the Headonia 300B will take them to the next level with amazing power and clarity. 

Bottom End: The thing I love about tube amplifiers is the body and musicality of the presentation. The Headonia performs above and beyond in this regard, delivering well-rounded and articulate low-end. It helped to fully flex the sonic muscles of any headphone I threw at it, whether it was a planar magnetic or dynamic driver. Planars had the better articulation of the two along with accuracy in the low end. The 300B tubes allowed the lower frequencies to be impactful without any bloat whatsoever. The balance was more pronounced when listening to older recordings like the Beatles - with more lows evening out the often high-heavy sound of more treble-friendly mixes. Articulation was enhanced with larger ensembles like in Hans Zimmer's score from the Last Samurai. Oftentimes the layering and subharmonics he likes to incorporate with subtle synthesizers in his mix go unnoticed from lesser audio systems, but the Headonia 300B brings them fully into the fold, exposing the low basses or sub-synths as if they were a new recording entirely. 

Mids: Talking about mid-frequencies is like determining how much mashed potatoes and gravy you want to eat at Thanksgiving, right? You either like them super chunky, pureed, no gravy, or a 4:1 gravy to potato ratio. Mids are tricky to talk about and define, I think partially because it's so easy to talk about lows and highs. But don't be mistaken by what I'm trying to say here: mids aren't just "everything in between." There's a surprising amount of definition and articulation that can come from an amplifier that delivers a well-balanced midrange and soundstage. I'll give you a tip here: always listen to the vocals for midrange as a start. The human voice is incredibly diverse and usually falls in the wide spectrum of midrange frequencies. Males typically fall in the lower mids and female voices in the higher midrange. How well the vocals stand out against small ensembles versus larger ensembles is a great indicator of the breadth of frequency clarity of an amplifier (combined with the soundstage or imaging that a headphone provides for instance). A system with poor mid-performance would deliver music that sounds claustrophobic or a little muddled. Beastie Boys is a great example of how this midrange can still stay well-defined and dynamic with a lot going on in the song. The Headonia 300B delivers great midrange clarity in just about every genre I've thrown at it. Juxtapose that with something on the opposite end of the spectrum like Jon Foreman's (lead singer of rock band Switchfoot) new solo album "In Bloom," and you have an amplifier that brings intimacies to a whole new level. Singer/songwriter and jazz genres benefit greatly from the 300B's warmth and personality, with lively and dynamic vocal performances. It delivers proximity to the recording like only a high-end tube amplifier can. I would recommend this amplifier based on the midrange performance alone. 

Highs: Higher frequencies can either make or break a piece of audio gear. Too much in the higher frequencies and the sound becomes harsh and fatiguing. Too little in the highs and the music becomes a muddied, bloated, ill-defined mess. Right off the bat, with the Headonia 300B being a tube amplifier we don't have to worry about the former. The tube combination of the Headonia is perfect for a balanced and well-defined presentation. The performance of the higher frequencies will vary based on what headphones you decide to pair the amplifier with, but overall they were extremely pleasant in everything I listened to. Articulation really shines here. Take for instance the acoustic picking features in Jon Foreman's album: the highs define the instrumental performance of his playing, with the precision of the thumb and finger plucking or strumming of the strings balancing perfectly with the body and fullness of the resonance after the string vibrates. The highs are perfectly married with the rest of the frequency spectrum in a way where each performance, each song, and every album expresses its own distinct emotion in the way it was designed. That is the mark of a truly great headphone amplifier, and the Headonia 300B sets the bar at a completely new level for headphone tube amps. It's really a remarkable piece of equipment.