The southern end of Manhattan has been flooded. Where cars were rolling just a minute ago, a ship is now clearing its way through New York’s urban canyons. While the temperature keeps falling in Roland Emmerich’s movie »The Day After Tomorrow«, it goes up and up in the audience. Fear is spreading. Of course, there are different ways to experience this scenario. The scope of possibilities ranges from the full-fledged home cinema to a notebook computer with built-in loudspeakers. It’s logical that the degree of emotional turmoil depends on the equipment in use. Over the 1“ broadband speaker of a computer the cracking of an ice block sounds like a breaking matchstick. Or otherwise put: simply ridiculous. Using a headphone can be a remedy, that much is clear – provided it is driven by a suitable amplifier which has been custom-designed for this purpose. Such a device is made in Bergisch-Gladbach.

Good for your ears

Besides their excellent phono preamps Lehmannaudio has also established a reputation during the past years with special amps for headphones: with the entry level Rhinelander (ca. 370 EUR) to the Linear (ca. 770 EUR) to the luxury version, the Linear SE, which is ready to change ownership for a price starting at 1,450 EUR. Who prefers to acquire this machine with an exclusive real wood veneer, must shell out another 350 EUR. Sounds like a lot of money, but one look at the perfect housing puts the additional charge into perspective. At least none of the editorial staff wants to have their  Linear SE »naked« any longer.

In addition to the company logo, a blue On LED and a smoothly rotating volume control there are two parallel ¼“ jack output sockets on the 5“ wide front. By the way, customers are invited to create their personal Linear SE, for Lehmannaudio offers three colours each for the front panel and the knob: aluminium, black aluminium and chrome. The bright LED is even available in six colours. However, the matching procedure takes the biscuit with no less than eight (!) different housing versions. In view of the stylistic command regarding the choice of options one can hardly believe that firm owner Norbert Lehmann is an engineer. Because these people are often said to be resistant to advice when it comes to aesthetic.