Austrian Audio The Composer & Full Score One

Austrian Audio are courting the hi‑fi audience with their high‑end headphones and amp. Have they still met the needs of studio users?

It’s five years now since Austrian Audio launched their first product, the OC818 capacitor microphone. Since then, they’ve built up an impressive range of mics, headphones and related items. Until now, all of them have been targeted at studio applications, but with their new open‑backed headphones and matching amp, they’re making a pitch for the hi‑fi market too. And thankfully, it’s a pitch that is based in science, rather than the pseudo‑science beloved of some hi‑fi manufacturers.

This is particularly evident with the new Full Score One headphone amplifier. Designer Paul Weinreich has written a lengthy white paper explaining the thinking behind the circuitry, a fascinating document that covers practically every aspect of the design. The most striking takeaway from this is the focus on transient reproduction, which in turn delivers a colossal bandwidth. When enabled, the Full Score One’s True Transient Technology delivers a maximum slew rate of 300V/µs and a ‑3dB point of 2MHz. Disabling it using the front‑panel button brings these figures down to a more normal but still impressive 5V/µs and 75kHz respectively. The same sort of attention to detail or design overkill, depending on your point of view, is apparent throughout, even when it comes to such mundane aspects as protection from short circuits.

Up to three sets of headphones can be connected at once, courtesy of two quarter‑inch jacks and a four‑pin XLR. This provides what is often referred to as a ‘balanced’ connection, and can be hidden with a ltitle sliding door when not in use. Apart from the power and True Transient Technology buttons, the only other control is a large and nicely weighted volume pot. The rear of the Full Score One is equally minimalist, with just an IEC mains inlet and analogue audio ins on XLR and phono.

The Full Score One’s ‘balanced’ XLR socket can be covered by a sliding door when not in use. The two buttons to the left of the front panel toggle power and True Transient Technology.

Compose Yourself

The Full Score One has been introduced alongside a high‑end pair of headphones, which are also pitched at both studio and hi‑fi customers. The Composer employ the latest version of Austrian Audio’s “high‑excursion” driver design, which features a diaphragm coated with “diamond‑like carbon”. These drivers are housed in large, open‑backed earcups, each of which sports a two‑pin banana socket on the back. Three separate 3m cables are supplied, terminating in XLR, Pentaconn and jack connectors. Like many high‑end headphone models, The Composer use a two‑part frame with an outer, structural part and a cushioned inner band that rests on top of the head. The relative heights of the two can be adjusted to make the earcups sit higher or lower on the ear; and as well as rotating on two axes, the earcups also can also be clicked from their initial upright position through three increasing angles of forward tilt. Be warned, though, that it’s easier to accidentally dislodge the sprung metal clip that sets this position than it is to push it back into place (ask me how I know...).

Austrian Audio’s industrial designers have done a good job of making both products...