HELM Audio DB12 AAAMP Mobile Headphone Amplifier
Once upon a time I went to the cinema. It was in the middle of London. The one we use in the UK for our big red carpet movie premieres. As such it always had the best sound and projection systems.
But this time was different. As the lights dimmed and the curtains swished open, a bonkers set of images, sounds and amazing surround effects enveloped us, only to crescendo into a massive set of letters on the screen as the sound system went “BwwwaaAAAAAAAAAAAAA!” and the letters THX showed up, all shiny and the words “The Audience is Listening” appeared beneath it.
This was Lucasfilm, an Indiana Jones movie and what they called The Tomlinson Holman eXperiment. It was before I ever became a home theatre journalist but I recall telephoning the cinema the next day and getting hold of the projectionist. He was a man mostly working on his lonely own, so even a mere punter on the phone, with suitable enthusiasm, meant that he chatted to me for about half an hour.
The whole THX thing is huge and is all about the movie makers’ vision, in FULL QUALITY of sound and projection getting all the way to us the end consumers, without it looking naff and sounding weedy. It started with actual quality stipulations for filming and sound recording and took into account some real secret research into how people enjoyed sound. This resulted in a ‘secret THX EQ curve’ which was just a serious lift of the very high frequencies and a ridiculous vast bass slope at the bottom end, of extra low end phatness. THX accreditation and licensing extended to VHS tapes and then later DVD recordings as well as AVR kit and it became a series of home standards. At first, this meant that a home THX approved system could be made jokes about like the prickles being blown off a hedgehog by sound in the cartoon movie ‘Over the Hedge’, as it played at over 100dB. These were huge systems, so while movies continued to have ever yet more bonkers versions of this THX starter pre-bit shown, the THX folks set up some other, more sane standards for European home use, called THX Ultra and Ultra 2.
Basically, if it says THX on it, it kicks ass and should sound awesome.
And this thing, the HELM Audio DB12 AAAMP mobile headphone amplifier, is all about a new tiny-wee THX standard called AAA™, designed for use with headphones. Their website says this;
“THX AAA™ World’s Most Linear Amplifier Technology for Headphones and In-Vehicle Audio Systems.THX Achromatic Audio Amplifier (THX AAA™) ensures the ultimate no-compromise headphone audio experience by delivering the world’s highest fidelity audio with infinitesimally low levels of noise, distortion and power consumption.”
And that’s a big claim. The product we have is from China and has this THX accreditation. Oh and if that triple A isn’t after the wee battery’s label, then I am skinny! Like the ‘Source of Zurg’s Power’ in Toy Story.
So is it any good? Does it work? Let’s go see…
PERFORMANCE
First off, this thing is definitely made for mobile use, and owners of well made headphones. I tried it with some cheap Marshall cans that cost £60, a set of Audiofly earbuds that were priced £40, and a pair of AKG reference K550MKIII that were around £200. The better the headphones, the more you can tell what is going on. I tried them all and actually found myself using these headphones for pleasure with my phone to watch Netflix’s Better Call Saul while my wife watched her gosh-awful hospital soap.
Operation is simple. You charge it up, it goes in-line with your headphone cord and is has a three-way toggle switch and three buttons. The switch is for on/off and an extra position for Bass Boost. The buttons are simple up/down efforts with a HEY button between them. When running, press the middle button and it will stop or start the action on your phone, as it operates using the same system that the buttons on any telephone-use friendly headset can do.
I tried the HELM Audio DB12 AAAMP mobile headphone amplifier on my computer but I ended up with a micro-buzz, I think for having too many adaptors in the path and creating an extra micro-impedance. In any case, the up/down/stop-start buttons did nothing to my Apple iMac when running. No volume control, no stop start. The manual warns of this.
Thus, I found myself clipping my phone into a holder I have had a while, (lovely long gooseneck for lazy phone positioning just ‘zackly how you want it) downstairs in the living room and able to fully seal my head in closed-back AKG goodness, while close by enough to see my sweetie and thus not ‘worry I am ignoring being yelled for’. Heck, I fret about doing that when video editing and mostly use a single side alone, so I can hear the outside world as well.
OK, more history. You know the joke about the book that Marty McFly’s dad writes, in Back To The Future? It was about an experience all of us shared back then. This was the SONY Walkman headphone experience. The sound from the awesome tiny cassette player, through its OWN headphones, was mind blowing – stunning. I can recall the exact location when it happened to me. Folks would go around accosting their mates and astonishing their acquaintances by asking, “would you like to hear this?” and then clamping the headphones around your head and barbecuing your brains. Because back then, we were allowed LOUD headphones that ‘can crush’ as Mick Hughes, sound engineer for Metallica says. In fact, in the years afterwards, there was a flurry of deafness-injury cases brought against the manufacturers as they were so damn loud. That is what resulted in the pathetic no-more-than-98dB-allowed rules, for headphones across the industry.
And the HELM Audio DB12 AAAMP mobile headphone amplifier gets pretty much around that!
OK, it is limited by how much power is possible to be packed away into a tiny box and make it last for six hours of playback – that itself is part of what the THX AAA™ standard brags about, its low power consumption. I think they (THX) are hoping to see this tech licensed directly into telephones or headphones, rather than standalone products like this.
I powered it up, after finding that the USB C power connector is finicky and actually has a ‘way-up’ it requires you to plug this in by. Absurdly, the LED does not illuminate green for charging, unless you plug it in the right way up. And USB C was designed to get around that, which is tech humour for me. Once charged, this shows blue and goes red during use if you get low battery. On the other flank you find the main control. That is the site of another micro LED that shows green when on and glows blue when you switch in the bass boost.
You do have to be careful and follow what amounts to ‘gain structure for idiots’ instructions to get the best sound and you must make sure that you don’t do as I did and plug them in and out whilst ‘on’ and wearing the headphones. Like a fool, I gave myself a couple of loud clicks that hurt.
START HERE FOR SOUND ONLY STUFF!
As well as the recent crazed addiction first to the whole of NARCOS and the late to the party but just as gripping Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, on Netflix, I am a sad social media case. I avoid taking part in some as Facebook is already too invasive, so I am not a TikTok person. But I have been listening to a lot of darn Sea Shanties of late.
And the human voice is killer for HiFi reviewing as it’s what our brains are actually made for, thus layered vocals are revealing of fidelity. Or the utter lack of it, when played by bluetooth from my phone through my car’s stock system off YouTube. The sound was lovely but no way could you make out the layers.
After some messing about and a very short and low gradient learning curve, I was plugged in to the HELM Audio DB12 AAAMP mobile headphone amplifier and played that Nathan dude…yet again.
Only now, I could make out the layers and detail. That daft low bass singer with the baby face was distinct and the richness from the 40Hz to 100Hz bass shelf was fabulous. It made me want to play it so loud that the prickles blew off the hedgehog and of course it has its limits. But the improvement in clarity, depth, detail and separation has, for the first time in mobile telephone history, made my every day carry tech into a thing of worthy hifi listening. How ever stupid one feels, with a bastard great huge pair of pro reference cans plugged into a telephone, looking like a can-geek!
This is a fabulous little piece of kit and MUCH cheaper than simply trying to decide which of a dozen providers of super-resolution files you are going to invest in instead of the resolution we find in the everyday digital world. But I reckon if you did have posh MQA, FLAC or any of the high bitrate file systems that the posh tune services tend to use, you will find even greater benefits.
I found this company via the CES listings and pursued it eagerly but with a worry that I might not be impressed. I was not sure what to expect, so the high build quality was a delightful surprise. The whole thing is packed and presented gorgeously and you will keep the box, even though you get a high quality steel snappy-top case (like for spectacles) with each one.
Highly recommended. Oh.. and while I swagged the unit, I NEVER ever, have affiliate links. My reviews are genuinely independent.
VERDICT
HELM Audio DB12 AAAMP Mobile Headphone Amplifier
Price $179.99, or 30% off ($149.99) with AMPED $30 at time of writing
Website: www.helmaudio.com
HIGHS: An improbable transformation to your headphone experience, that gets better, the posher the cans used.
LOWS: There is a limit to the wattage power of the unit that can be easy to find if tried on too loud a setting.
Performance: 5 Scintillating improvement to intelligibility and clarity
Design: 4 Brushed Aluminium case, braided cover to silver cable
Features: 4 Stop, start, up, down buttons, plus THX boost and THX + Bass Boost
Overall: 5 A truly worthy device that gifts you high end sound from any phone
FULL SPECIFICATIONS
HELM Audio DB12 AAAMP Mobile Headphone Amplifier
Input: Stereo Tip/Ring/Ring/Sleeve 3.5mm male jack plug.
Output: Stereo Tip/Ring/Ring/Sleeve 3.5mm female jack inline socket.
Amplifier THX’S AAA™Amplifier – THX Certified
Frequency response: 20Hz-20kHz, +0.01/-0.2dB with 32 Ohm load
Crosstalk: -91dB, 10k Ohms: 0.0028184%
Noise (A-wt): 10uV, potentiometer on nil
Signal To Noise Ratio: 114dB 300 Ohms, <1%THD
Harmonic Distortion:
THD: -102dB @16 & 32 Ohms/10mW-5mW: 0.0008%
THD: -109dB @10k Ohms/0.49mW: 0.00035%
Intermodulation Distortion:
IMD: -70dB SMPTE 70Hz +70kHz, 16 Ohms, 0.03%
IMD: -80dB SMPTE 70Hz +70kHz, 32 Ohms, 0.01%
IMD: -80dB SMPTE 70Hz +70kHz, 10k Ohms, 0.03%
Output Power: 109mW per channel 16 Ohms. 1%THD; 111mW per channel 32 Ohms. 1%THD
Output Impedance: 0.4 Ohms
Gain: 0dB for ‘Off’: +12dB full range for ‘On’: +12dB full range with +6dB bass boost between 60Hz & 100Hz applied for ‘Bass Boost’
Power: Internal USB-C socket supplied battery, 6 hours life, 2.5 hours fast charge time.
Dimensions: 70 x 22 x 12mm. Two inch braided silver (Ag) cable from device to socket, two feet from device to plug
Weight: 1.08 Oz, 30.55g
Included: Mobile Headphone Amplifier, USB cable, carrying case, quick start guide