• Crisp, open and precise-sounding
• Solid, traditional casework
• Good spread of analogue connections
• Beaten for dynamic expression
• Primitive on-unit buttons
$2,650
EarMen was created as an arm and sister brand to respected European manufacturer Auris Audio by its founder Milomir “Miki” Trosic to serve a specific purpose: enhance portable listening. Unlike Auris Audio’s catalogue, which isn’t afraid of the super high-end (as its 24k gold Hawk tonearm and high-spec, hand-crafted range of amplifiers demonstrate), EarMen’s was to be filled with small, affordable, battery-powered and USB DAC/headphone amplifiers designed to give phones, computers and other portable/desktop devices the sonic boost they so desperately needed. But then in late 2021, once EarMen had a nice line of such units under its belt, Trosic couldn’t help himself; he took the EarMen brand a step further by developing a stack of more serious headphone components for the desktop — the Tradutto DAC, Staccato streamer, and the two-box CH-Amp analogue headphone amplifier that is under scrutiny here. Indeed,
