> Storm Little-2
(Info:
Storm-Amp - but in Chinese only).
I was asked by the designer to review this amp. I have had very mixed feelings. Some Storm amps have been good, and others – not so good. This one looks nice, is nice and small, and at $120 is attractively priced. And it sounds pretty good, but does have a “flavor”. See below.
Build Quality: A: The nicest build of a Storm amp I have seen – includes built-in rechargeable battery, and a USB charging cable – very nice. One little issue – “Storm” was misspelled twice
. But there was no noise, hiss, or any other issues.
Treble: B+: The treble is reasonably neutral. Unlike some other Storm amps, the treble is very clean. However, it is dark -the amp lacks extension and air compared to my reference amps. It mated much better with my Senn PXC350 than with my AT ESW9. The treble that is there is pretty smooth, so this is more of a flavoring than a problem.
Midrange: A-: The mids reasonably clean, transparent, and neutral. Good performance for the money Skye Edwards’ voice on Morcheeba’s “Trigger Hippie” was rendered well, sounding right – not too think or too plump.
Bass: A-: Good bass quantity, and reasonably tight and well defined. Good performance here as well. I got the kind of gut-wrenching bass I expect from Morcheeba’s “Moog Island”.
Neutrality: B+: Too “dark” to be really called neutral, but not in a way that got in the way of the music once you were used to it, provided you are not trying to use it with dark-sounding headphones.
Soundstaging: B+: good width, good depth. Average performance here – many amps I have heard do better, but nothing really problematic.
Transparency: A-: Quite good performance here, for the price class. Essentially clean and grain-free sound.
At $120, the Storm Little-2 is a nice, full featured, very small portable amp that sounds good with the right headphones. It’s very quiet operation will make it just the ticket to mate with IEMs that the owner things are a little too bright.
Conclusions (12/11/08)
NOTE: All new reviews have to be added to the end of the thread due to the length of this post - only the rankings will now change. I have put in links to the posts with the reviews.
OK, so now it’s now 44 amps! Here is my view on how the amps stacked up. Note that the sum of the "Grades" I give does not always tell the whole story in how I rank them, since the whole is sometimes greater or lesser than the sum of the parts, and I am often forced to split hairs here, since the list has gotten so long. Also please note that even if these amps include a DAC, that DAC performance was NOT a factor in these rankings AT ALL. Also, for clarification, this ranking is based on sound quality ONLY, and does not take things like size or battery life into account.
1. Triad Audio Lisa III
2. Qables iQube
2. RSA Mustang P-51
2. Larocco Audio Pocket Reference II mk 2 (availability unknown - PLEASE read entire review)
3. Headamp Pico
3. Meier Audio 2MOVE (and the older MOVE)
4. RSA SR71
4. RSA The Predator
5. RSA The Hornet “M”
6. Xenos 1HA-EPC (discontinued)
7. RSA Tomahawk
7. Meier Audio XXS / Headsix
8. TTVJ Portable Millet Hybrid
8. Decware Zenhead
9. Xin Reference
9. Meier Audio Porta Corda III (discontinued)
9. Xin SuperMicro IV (current version auditioned 1/22/08)
10. ALO Double Mini3
10. Headamp AE-2
10. Graham Slee Voyager
11. Go-Vibe 7
11. Mini3
12. Leckerton Audio UHA-3
13. Portaphile V2^2
14. mSeed Spirit (discontinued)
14. Mini-Box E
15. Storm 3 (NOT B3)
15. Storm Little-2
15. Storm B4
16. iBasso P-1 (discontinued)
17. Visely HEA- 1
18. Microshar uAmp107
19. Practical Devices XM4
19. C&C XO
19. iBasso T2
20. Go-Vibe 6 (discontinued)
21. Xtra X-1 Pro
22. Xenos 0HA-REP (discontinued)
22. iBasso T1 (discontinued)
23. Xtra X-1 (discontinued)
24. C&C Box V2
25. Storm B3
25. Little Dot Micro+ (discontinued)
As always, this is JUST MY OPINION, but I hope it has been helpful.