Best known for their award-winning headphones and microphones, Austrian Audio is breaking into the headphone amplifier market with the new Full Score One.
Announced alongside The Composer headphones model later last year, The Full Score one is now available across the UK and EU markets.
Said to be the perfect companion to Austrian Audio’s The Composer reference headphones, the Full Score One hopes to redefine the standards of audio excellence at its price point.
A key pillar of the design is what the company calls its “True Transient Technology”, which is said to deliver “breathtaking transients
with superb clarity and detail.”
The Full Score One boasts a fully discrete analogue amplifier design free from any integrated circuits, intending to deliver crisp detail and negligible noise.
While Austrain Audio recommends pairing the Full Score One with their own headphones, the unit has the ability to accommodate a wide range
of headphone impedances, from 10 Ohms to over 300 Ohms, making it a very versatile option for HiFi enthusiasts and producers alike.
As with any good reference audio equipment, be it for HiFi or professional studio applications, delivering a low Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) is key. Austrain Audio is quick to point out the Full Score One’s technical prowess here with its wide band, fully symmetrical voltage feedback circuit coupled with a triple emitter follower output stage biased in class B, a highspeed complementary push-pull gain stage, and a cascoded parallel differential input stage.
These design choices are said to make for some exceptionally low Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) figures at every output level and over a wide frequency range. A quick glance at the product page specifications shows a maximum output voltage of 19dBV, 9 Vrms @ 0,01% THD (5 Hz – 20 kHz).
According to Austrian Audio CEO Martin Seidl, “Our technical approach to our first headphone amp was comparable to building a very low-noise power amplifier. The Full Score one handles low-impedance headphones down to 10 Ohms and high-impedance, low-sensitivity headphones with over 300 Ohms.”
Customers can order the Full Score one in the European Union starting March 2024, and availability in the United Kingdom will commence in April.
The Full Score one is priced at €1,499 (EURO) and £1,299 (GBP).
