Two hi-fi greats just released very tempting small headphone amps: one for your phone, one for your desk
- The Campfire Audio Relay is a USB-C DAC/amp for headphones
- Pro-Ject Head Box E is a very small desktop headphones amp
- Campfire Audio Relay: $229 / £229 | Pro-Ject Head Box E: £89 (about $120)
Two of our favorite hi-fi firms have released two very different headphone amps. One’s designed to live on your desktop, and the other in your pocket or purse, but both promise a significant audio upgrade for fans of the best wired headphones and best wired earbuds.
The amps are the Campfire Audio Relay, a portable headphone DAC/amp with a USB-C connection; and the Pro-Ject Head Box E, a compact desktop headphone amplifier. Both are available from July 2025, and both cost less than you might expect.
Campfire Relay and Pro-Ject Head Box E: key features and pricing
Let’s start with the most affordable of the pair, the Pro-Ject Head Box E. That’s just £89 / €119 (around $120 / AU$180), and unlike similarly priced amps it doesn’t use an integrated chipset for its amplification: Pro-Ject says that it has used carefully selected discrete components to deliver a sound that punches above the amp’s modest price tag.
The Head Box E delivers 665 milliwatts into 32 ohms, and it’s deliberately simple: it has a pair of 6.3mm and a 3.5mm headphone outs on the front – which can be used simultaneously for shared listening – and RCAs on the back. The RCA out is bypassed so it can send unaltered audio to your hi-fi system. According to Pro-Ject, it “outperforms the headphone stages typically found in stereo amps”.
The Campfire Audio Relay is even smaller, and it’s built around the AKM 4493 SEQ DAC chip that according to Campfire, delivers “just the right amount of color and a touch of a classic analogue sound signature.” It has 3.5mm and balanced 4.4mm outputs and USB-C for wide connectivity with phones, tablets and computers.
The Relay has selectable high/low gain, six filter modes and variable bit rates up to 32-bit / 768kHz, and it supports both PCM and DSD playback.
The Campfire Audio Relay is £229 / $299 / AU$399 and if you’re in London this weekend you’ll be able to check it out at CanJam London.
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