Based in Serbia, Trafomatic are well known in audio circles, not least for their £100 000 Elysium amplifiers, but they also produce more moderately priced products. However, £2350 is a serious commitment for a headphone amplifier, Janine Elliot takes a listen to the Audio Head 2 and tells us if it is worth the outlay. 

“The culminating sound quality from this beautiful looking machine shows Saša’s love for creating the best sound as well as his great knowledge of valve design, and this model goes much further than the Experience 1. This latest model also has an input for 4-pin balanced headphones as well as traditional ¼”-jack variants (the original release of the Head 2 had a combo XLR/¼” jack). Just as the Belus I reviewed had some original architecture in its design, so does this; firstly the model features the ability to make it highly attractive to both the shy and not so shy listener alike; yes, as well as offering excellent private listening on cans, by turning the left of the two knobs fully clock-ways transforms the unit into a fully-fledged (well, single input) pre-amplifier with XLR and RCA outputs for your balanced or non-balanced power-amp…”

Read the full review here