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Review 1 of 3
Price Paid:
$390.00
from Take5online Summary:
This new unit has been running for 40 hours now and its beginning to sound very lush, fluid like smooth yet very revealing and sound decays surprising more present when comparing to other standard pre-amp sockets I've heard. This Amp is super dead quite with the deepest blackest noise floor.
Its powering my Sennheiser HD 595 mostly in the evening when little people sleep and so this amp is a perfect addition. It keeps up to my speakers and power amps very well. My new Classé equipment doesn't have a socket and so its connected using a spare set of dhlabs wires during the breakin but I have tried using Oyaide Pa02 and DIY Silvers with better results. All Progold treated. The volume is set at ¼ for the HD 595 and more like ½ for my old affordable HD 43? Sennheisers. The amp has a very big energy reserve. When the power plug was pulled out of the back, it played for many seconds after. Simple minimalist design. Truely a bargain for me considering the unexpected improvements. Strengths:
Well built case. Nice aluminum face plate and well isolated from interconnect or power supply noise. Quiet and tight volume control and sockets. Class A smooth liquid like fluidity, relaxed yet punchy or snappy, quick, responsive, strong grip on headphone diaphrams, producing very deep tight bass and crystal clearity. Revealing of the most silence background details. Wide soundstage, instruments well separated. This unit isn't the final word in deepest bass, reproduction or articulation but most audiophiles I feel would stop here. Also, many strengths listed does describe the source gear. Weaknesses:
At this price point these items are easily overlooked. Plastic power button on the back of the unit, if used too much could break. The unit is somewhat light and required holding it down when changing the ¼" plugs. Rubber feet could be tweeked more to eliminate vibrations and maybe stickier to hold the unit more from moving. Creek recommends 24 hours breakin but I'm on 36-40 hours and its was changing still. I recommend that you have good equipment on the front since it is very revealing and I noticed when listening to radio it sounds so much more grainy, rightly so because my radio is more grainy or grating than other sources but on cheaper headphone radio sounds smoother but with lost clearity also. Similar Products Used:
Not much experience with other amps but when comparied to standard headphone sockets eg. current tape deck, older $2k Harman Kardon HT ssp or $2k Rotel preamp socket, its subjectively much better.
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