When it comes to high-end audio, the right headphone amplifier can completely transform the listening experience. A great amp doesn’t just power your headphones; it brings out their full potential, enhancing detail, dynamics, and overall musicality. Austrian Audio has built its reputation on precision engineering and professional-grade sound, and with the release of the Full Score One, the company sets its sights on delivering a premium analog amplifier for discerning listeners. In this review, we’ll take a closer look at how the Full Score One performs in terms of design, usability, and sound quality.
What You Get
- Full Score One analog headphone amplifier
- Power cable
Build
The Austrian Audio Full Score One is a premium desktop analog amplifier. It’s a heavy-duty structure that’s shaped like a long pill, but it’s not as cumbersome as it might seem. While the Full Score One is a large unit, the amount of space it takes up on a desktop isn’t too significant. The Full Score is designed to fit neatly on any desktop surface, never occupying too much space in your setup. This is a very clean-looking amplifier with not many additional switches or knobs aside from the necessities. The Full Score One has two big buttons, one for power and one to activate True Transient mode.
For its headphone outputs, the Full Score One offers two quarter-inch connections and a 4-pin XLR, the latter of which is revealed by a slider on the front. The volume knob is nicely sized and feels good to turn, never feeling flimsy or limited in its rotation. On the back, there might not be as many options as you may like from an amplifier, but it offers enough for simple headphone setups. You get inputs for left and right XLR as well as RCA, that’s about it. This is a pure analog headphone amplifier, so if you’re looking for an amp that can handle more than that, the Full Score One might not be what you’re looking for.
Design
The Full Score one is a robust, fully discrete analog headphone amplifier that employs a wide-band, fully symmetrical voltage-feedback circuit. Its core amplification chain includes a triple-emitter-follower output stage in Class B, a high-speed complementary push-pull gain stage, and a cascoded parallel differential input stage, engineered for ultra-low total harmonic distortion (THD) across a wide frequency and output range.
A standout feature is Austrian Audio’s proprietary True Transient Technology (TTT), which delivers extremely fast, voltage-invariant rise times and high slew rate, enabling the amp to reproduce even the steepest signal transients, including percussive snaps and delicate string plucks, with clarity and precision. A front-panel button allows the user to toggle TTT on or off depending on the source material.
Sound Impressions
While the Full Score One can work with a myriad of headphones, Austrian Audio’s Composer headphones are its main draw. It’s what you’d hope would synergize best with this amplifier, so I spent a lot of time with this pairing. Eventually, I got curious about what the Full Score One could bring to other headphones, so I brought out the Abyss JOAL and Dan Clark Audio Noire XO. Here are my full impressions of the Full Score One based on these pairings.
Starting with the Composer, I was immediately impressed when I played my first track. Charlie Hunter and Ella Feingold’s “There’s Still A Riot Goin’ On” showed me what this combo truly had to offer in terms of imaging and bass timbre. It also showed me the ability of the amp’s True Transient Technology, which made a whole lot of difference. Without it, the bass is very resonant, reproducing a lot of frequency content, but not solidifying it. True Transient Mode brings them in to from a clear body and elevates the sub-bass in the process. Without the Full Score One, The Composer doesn’t have this much impact. The tone is richer, featuring greater rumble and smoother textures that are super gratifying.
The Full Score also locks down the soundstage and imaging with The Composer. Everything appears with a studio-like precision. Without the Full Score One, The Composer is wide but doesn’t present nearly as much open space as it does with the amplifier accompanying it. The stereo field is more breathable, allowing for better localization with individualized layers. As for the mids and highs, the vocals are a major highlight. They are super clear, to a degree where the frequencies are so transparent that it feels like the song is being performed to you. Notes have a ton of snap to them, featuring good weight and a clean timbre to support this level of newfound finesse. The highs can get a bit peaky sometimes, but that’s something I only noticed with the Composer. Otherwise, the Noire XO and JOAL didn’t have the same response from the Full Score One.
Speaking of the JOAL and Noire XO, the Full Score One operates a bit differently. The JOAL was harder to drive and required more volume from the amplifier. Clarity and imaging were still consistent with the quality shown by the Composer, but some of its weight was taken away. The JOAL’s bass was lighter but still clear. Its midrange still had some strike to it, but vocals don’t have the same lushness to them compared to the Composer. However, I preferred what the Full Score One added to the highs here, because they are much more sparkly here.
Lastly, there was the Dan Clark Noire XO. The Full Score One spreads the stereo field out wider than both the Composer and the JOAL. It’s the most immersive space of the two, as the Full Score One makes panning movements very distinct. There’s a holographic dimension to it, making the soundstage more ethereal and less locked into distinct positions. The bass has rumble, but not as much as the Composer. With the amp, the lows on the Noire XO are more physical than with the JOAL, offering a thumpier tone that the Full Score One propels with smoothness.
Summary
The Austrian Audio Full Score One proves itself as a powerhouse analog headphone amplifier, delivering refinement, precision, and musicality across a wide range of headphones. Its True Transient Technology unlocks new dimensions of clarity and impact, particularly in bass and imaging, while its robust analog design ensures clean and transparent playback. Whether you’re pairing it with Austrian Audio’s Composer or exploring its synergy with high-end models from Abyss or Dan Clark Audio, the Full Score One consistently enhances detail, dynamics, and soundstage. For listeners who value an uncompromising analog signal path with innovative transient response control, the Full Score One stands out as one of the most compelling desktop headphone amplifiers available today.
The Austrian Audio Full Score One is available at Audio46.
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