I was a frequent visitor of the RMFA in Denver, the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest before it closed down. My Audio friend from Atlanta , Steven Harris, joined me before he went to West Virginia building up a farm including a special audio room. He inspired me going for a Boulder 2008 phono preamp. So far I never had the chance visiting him, maybe next year!

Denver is a nice city. I had some time and took my car to the one hour distant city of Boulder. You see the Rockies when entering the small city. Very similar to the little emblem Boulder Amplifiers is using for the 812, a dedicated preamp for streaming and !!! providing a very special headphone preamp !!!. The first one they ever built.

Having long experience with Boulder I went for the 812.It is one of the less pricy „monuments“ Boulder is producing right now.

the headphone is a Yamaha 5000 SE

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Coming from a deep background in listening to different headphone amplifiers (see this blog), tube and not tube based, I also experimented with Stax, Ultrasone, Focal, Sennheiser, Beyerdynamic, Yamaha headphones etc. – only the top gear (!). It is a mixture of both how you are happy with the sound. Nevertheless I sold some to good friends in Australia (Sennheiser HE-1) etc.
I think you may trust me when I speak about some small expertise – also regarding the Yamaha 5000 SE. I now have heard the Boulder 812 for some more than 30 hours.

When I went for the dCS Bartok DAC with streaming I did not vote for a headphone card despite dCS is offering this. The reason is I am using the Bartok as DAC in my big system. The Boulder 812 comes for my “Nightwatch System”, including a Wadia 581 SE (with SACD). I always need to have a good chain for my over 10.000 CDs, maybe it is even more which I collected in a long life. I will not use the 812 for my 7000 LPs – these are for my big system. The Wadia only needs a good preamp cabled by Purist Audio Auctoritas XLR.

Why I am saying this? I want to provide you with the preconditions when I went into the testing of the Boulder 812 in the headphone setting (only this one!).Let me start with the listening position. Yes, it is close to my bed. Nevertheless I prefer listening sometimes in a “Roman condition without/with wine”. The sound I hear from  “Soriba Kouyate – Live in Montreux” , maybe he is the master of kora, is full and warm, the instruments, sax, kora and drums, are precise, clear and swinging – yes it moves me.               

”Oded Tzur – My Prophet” is one of these phantastic ECM tenor saxophone driven recordings. You hear the blowing of the sax in its finest way, very subtle and overwhelming. This is an excellent recording. You hear the difference when you go for “Phil Collins -But Seriously, the 2016 remasters” by Abbey Road. What a squeezed sound this is! The Boulder 812 transports the quality of the record seriously. So: Only good records will find its way into this chain.

”Wilco – The Whole Love” is a good rock format. The record is put on two different CDs. When I went to Atlanta some years ago I was fascinated of this group enjoying the concert in the Atlanta music hall. Later on I think I collected all LPs from them. Here they sound brilliant, wide open, very detailed, pushy and engaging.

”The Rolling Stones – Foreign Tongues”, the new Stones Album will arrive on 10th of July. I was able to listen to two songs, Jealous Lover and Divine Intervention from CD via this chain. The music is great, it’s a kind of Rock’n’Roll Party. The bass is exceptionally good transported, the sound deep and powerful.

The headphone section of the 812 is a high quality section. The technical details you find on the web, also the technical inventions Boulder developed. Wonderful music do I hear.