What's going on with HeadRoom?

[Knuckledragger]

I'm a bit slow on the uptake, but I just noticed the Balanced Home amp is discontinued. So is the Millett Desktop Hybrid and both Max amps. The Balanced Home was my favorite "all-in-wonder" solution for DAC/amp/preamp. It covered all the bases and did so pretty well. I suggested it to a friend of mine in the antique business (who ended up going with speakers, the cretin.) The Max products were never in my price range, but their existence amused me. Anyone know what HeadRoom has in the works to replace these models? Maybe Tyll can get off Daisy long enough to enlighten us.

[Duggeh]

Wasn't the idea that they managed to cram a whole lot of that top level performance into the newer micro and desktop range?

[n_maher]

Wasn't the idea that they managed to cram a whole lot of that top level performance into the newer micro and desktop range?

Yes, and the fact that they're developing a new flagship line that is not based on modules of any kind. My NDA keeps me from saying more.

[guzziguy]

I just hope that they make enough of them.

[Dusty Chalk]

Yeah, I probably could have guessed that they were working on a new flagship line without having any inside information.

Bad time for it, though (Christmas shopping season). I hope it's soon.

[n_maher]

Bad time for it, though (Christmas shopping season). I hope it's soon.

It's not, and they aren't worried. I don't think you'll see the new max for a year or so.

[Dreadhead]

cool! I wonder if it will be op amp mixed with discrete again.

[n_maher]

cool! I wonder if it will be op amp mixed with discrete again.

Nope.

[luvdunhill]

I think that NDA was really a SDA

[n_maher]

I think that NDA was really a SDA

I was thinking VDA, vague disclosure agreement.

[Dreadhead]

I was thinking VDA, vague disclosure agreement.

Quite!

[Dreadhead]

Headroom Menace?

[n_maher]

Headroom Menace?

Nah, The Menace is not a commercially viable product any way you slice it.

[kevin gilmore]

solid state and all discrete might be nice.

and appropriate for a product priced up there.

[crappyjones123]

headroom beta 22s? who doesnt want a beta?

[luvdunhill]

I was thinking VDA, vague disclosure agreement.

oh that's much nicer than a shill disclosure agreement

[JBLoudG20]

headroom beta 22s? who doesnt want a beta?

The type of people who buy a headroom product? Headroom is plenty capable of designing a high end product.

[Tyll Hertsens]

I'll just repost a comment here that I posted in our forum area.

I'll downgrade from a "Buy" to a "Hold Long Term".

Given the state of the economy, I'd say a 'hold' recommendation is pretty good.

Okay, seriously, great question, let me do you the honor of a serious answer. There are a number of issues here, and I'll address them in brief from an 'outside looking in' point of view, but I'll add there are numerous internal resource management issues, I won't bore you with, that adds various weights to the scale.

Discontinuing the Max and Home. We feel that a statement product isn't of too much use once the statement has been fully made and the technologies therein have been moved to lower cost products. It's now time for us to do a fairly long development project to make the next statement.

This is something we were going to do more in the early 09 time frame, but due to the economy and soft sales in Oct/Nov we took the opportunity to 'cash out' the remaining inventory of Max and Homes in order to finance our Christmas season without tapping our credit line, and to reduce the inventory future labor requirements to support the line in order to enter next year---which is very likely to continue to be economically soft---a little leaner and meaner.

Desktop Audiophile. First, I'll make a little argument that stretching a product line is a good thing: When we introduced the first BlockHead and the concept of balanced amps, there was ZERO demand for such a product as there were ZERO people who had balanced headphones. Well, long story short, that turned out pretty good and today I'd guess at least 10% of our dollar sales are attributable to balanced headphone related products.

The link to the Desktop Audiophile, I would argue, may be more direct. Once you make something like the current Desktop Amp you realize that you've made a promise to customers. The Desktop Amp is---and eventually will be---better called something like a Desktop Preamp. As we struggled to convey all the versatility to customers we found ourselves up against a conceptual wall: people just didn't understand what it does. (I'm not talking about you guys, but about the average audiophile who is savvy about normal audio gear but not about headphone gear.) If you tell someone, "this gizmo is the center of a desktop audio system, well, you've got to show them a desktop audio system someway or another.

Now, here's the tricky bit: We could either spend a whole lot of time slapping people upside the head with a whole bunch of words (which mostly don't get read in an ad) and get them to understand that a Desktop Amp is basically a preamp on your desk, or we could simply show them a picture that made it possible to make some assumptions based on their understanding of big stereo systems.

Show audiophiles this picture:

and they 'get it.'

Then there's the fact as mentioned above, that technically, it was a fairly easy development.

Then there's this little slap of reality: HeadRoom has to continue to grow to at least five times it current size. There are enough audiophiles to support that, but they DON'T LIKE HEADPHONES, they like speakers. You can scream and shout all you want (and I have) but you can't escape that fact. Doing the Audiophile Desktop is a broadening of the brand that allows audiophiles to identify with our products much more strongly.

Lastly, this is important but a bit too complex to go into in any depth, HeadRoom is a bootstrap operation. It is hard as hell to get the wiggle room needed to finance furthering developments. If I had a big wad of cash in my pocket, sure, I'd keep the Max for longer and I'd discontinue it only six months before the introduction of the next flagship. (It's important that there be that time off with the flagship product so you don't piss of recent purchasers.) But I don't, so I can't.

You see, your initial premise is wrong right from the start: HeadRoom is not a vehicle for outside investors. It's a bootstrap development for a couple of VC guys who invested a very small amount to see if it could turn into an "American Dream" project with a long term cash cow payoff. The goal is to get there from here eventually and with no addition need for cash. And that, amazingly and slowly, we're doing.

Now for Head-Case let me add:

headroom beta 22s? who doesnt want a beta?

That's an option. Shhh.

I was thinking VDA, vague disclosure agreement.

After talking with our team of lawyers at the NY branch office, the wording is that you can say anything you want as long as you have six ping-pong balls in your mouth and only say things once. No limitations on how slowly you talk.

[luvdunhill]

After talking with our team of lawyers at the NY branch office, the wording is that you can say anything you want as long as you have six ping-pong balls in your mouth and only say things once. No limitations on how slowly you talk.

Nate said something like "fuuddzgy bummny" to me.

[Voltron]

Thanks for the update, Tyll. Why don't you just call the Desktop an Amp in the headphone amp section and a Preamp in the Audiophile Desktop section? You could silkscreen them differently if you feel like it, but mainly you just gotta get it into the thick sculls of some stodgy-ass audiophiles.

Of course, while I type this my Desktop [Pre]Amp is convertin' digital data and pumpin' it into my Desktop Power Amp monos and through the freakin' gorgeous Harbeths on my desk.

Oh yeah, as your legal counsel I suggest that you amend your Nate NDA to include 6 ping-pong balls in each hand because he is much more likely to blurt online than out loud.

[crappyjones123]

The type of people who buy a headroom product? Headroom is plenty capable of designing a high end product.

i didnt say or insinuate they werent. only that the "research and development" on beta 22 has already been done. now if they were to make it a wee bit nicer and add some headroom flavor to it and throw it in a super nice chassis then id say that a lot of people would go for it. again, im just a mathematician and extremely myopic so i dont know much about market dynamics and what not. im sure tyll would probably be better suited to answer such a question. but given its history i think a beta would do very well in the audiophile market given its ability as a headphone and a speaker amp in one chassis. that said if headroom wants to make some brand new, i doubt ill understand any of what they will be doing with words like solid state and fully discrete but im sure ill probably like the sound they make

good luck with everything tyll.

[The Monkey]

I will depose Nate at the NYC Meet.

Tyll, it sounds like you guys are doing a nice job managing within the current economic climate. Good idea not to tap that credit line. Those are the next things we will see get yanked from under the feet of consumers and small businesses.

Also, I've been surprised to see the negative comments on HF regarding the "lack" of a flagship. I think the fact that the flagship electronics have trickled down the line is a good thing. It seems like now is a transition time at HR, but that you have not neglected efficiencies and you continue to innovate with your current core products. Most companies would have just slashed the Max line and left a void.

[n_maher]

Oh yeah, as your legal counsel I suggest that you amend your Nate NDA to include 6 ping-pong balls in each hand because he is much more likely to blurt online than out loud.

Hey, that would kind of , '/ LKL /LK 'mknc'C ML; /; /Ckl 'kLK?CASklm ACSL"KAS.

[Voltron]

Hey, that would kind of , '/ LKL /LK 'mknc'C ML; /; /Ckl 'kLK?CASklm ACSL"KAS.

Ah, I see you are abiding by your contract.

[n_maher]

Ah, I see you are abiding by your contract.

ie awomli oip fewo fewiio fwio pfiof !! :mad: