Definitely audiophoolery. The Balanced Desktop amp from Headroom uses the TI 627 op-amp, which is an op-amp model with a deliberately low slew rate to roll off frequencies over 10 kHz. A pair of 637's cost $5 more retail through Auzentech, and have over twice the slew rate (you can look up the exact number on TI's spec sheet). So Headroom has deliberately chosen poor components so that their balanced output amplifier will have an audible increase in quality. This is the sort of thing that the editor(s) should do an article about, because it's exactly the sort of thing that Audioholics does.
