Review: HeadAmp Pico w/ DAC

[cansman]

Thanks for your efforts. I like your photos too!

Cheers!

cansman

[Threnody]

Oi mate, boss review! As previously said above, you should really be getting paid for this--especially from one Mr Wilson. I know I would be charging: at half the talent, twice the price.

Very informative and plenty of gumptions. Glad my order for the Pico is in queue (now please, Justin, get it rolling ).

[krmathis]

Awesome review!
Thanks a lot.

[Hadden]

Nice to see the criticisms were not glossed over as with many reviewers. Really great job.

[G-man]

holy cow... soo many words. if only other reviewers were this good. are you a professional by any chance? (if you are, then the question was in earnest, if not, the question is a joke)

[Andrew_WOT]

Originally Posted by Asr

The two-way gain switch flips between multipliers of 3 (Low) and 8 (High) to accommodate a wide range of low- and high-impedance headphones.

Wasn't it 2 for low?

[Edwood]

Reviewer Biases & Process

LOL, love that section that prefaces the review itself.

Insanely thorough review. I had to wait until I was at a desktop computer to read it, though. Heheh.

I prefer the Pico as an all-in-one solution. It's so convenient. Plug into any usb port on any computer and Presto! Sweet sweet music.

No drivers. No fuss. Just music.

-Ed

[Aurven]

wonderful wonderful effort!

[sonq]

Great approach...this allow readers to interpret the outcome within their own preferences. Eg warm Pico may be prefered for others over the AE... the detail in depth descriptions allow this. Great effort.

[Andrew_WOT]

Originally Posted by Aurven

wonderful wonderful effort!

X2

[Asr]

Originally Posted by HeadphoneAddict

Did you try the Pico as a DAC pre-amp, feeding a full size amp? I would love to hear what you think about that, as I think the Pico sounds better when it is feeding a good fullsize amp than when feeding headphones.

I have not tried the Pico as a pre-amp. I may try it later though and if I do, I'll post the results in this thread.

Originally Posted by Iron_Dreamer

At one point you say the Pico is "boringly neutral," which I would take as a complement to it. If only all amps could be boringly neutral, then we wouldn't have to worry about the differences of amps, and get along to headphones/speakers and sources. I don't think the Pico is lacking bass, rather, its' neutrality simply shows headphones for what they are. Neither the AD2000 nor W5000 are particularly bassy (something that going balanced helps).

Anyway, the fact that you could even have a reasonable comparison between the Pico and several high-end CDP's speaks volumes to the prowess of the Pico's DAC. It performs at least as well as numerous $1k+ DAC's I've owned. I think your comparison shows that Justin has probably extracted about as much as possible from the parts and form factor chosen.

I don't feel that the low gain setting is an issue for low-impedance cans, even IEM's. Sure, you don't have as much range on the volume knob as you might from an amp with little to no gain () but it's not to say that the proper volume cannot be reached. You just need to be more careful in adjusting the volume, particularly with IEM's. The Pico certainly sounds better than amps designed specifically for IEM's, so I think this minor issue shouldn't be a deterrant from obtaining better sound quality.

That's a good point about my "boringly neutral" comment when you said it shows headphones for what they are - I indeed found that to be the case. And at least in the area of the bass differences between it and the AE-2 that I noted, I believe that's mostly coming from some bass "distortion" off the AE-2's X7R ceramic caps, as I've been informed. I did prefer this bass distortion.

I did think the CDPs that I compared the Pico to were over-the-top, and I did briefly look for products that I thought could serve as worthy competitors but found none. I think that also speaks volumes about the Pico's DAC prowess. And my listening did form and cement my opinion that the Pico is the ultimate "extraction" from the parts used as you put it.

Oh I agree that adjusting the volume does need to be done carefully with IEMs. A good volume level can certainly be attained with IEMs but I found the precision control lacking, particularly in comparison to the AE-2's Low gain. I needed to be extremely precise with the 32 Ohm UE triple.fi 10 Pro which created frustration, I would've appreciated more gradual fine-tuning that a lower gain would've brought.

Originally Posted by gautam

holy cow... soo many words. if only other reviewers were this good. are you a professional by any chance? (if you are, then the question was in earnest, if not, the question is a joke)

I'll take your question as a joke.

Originally Posted by Andrew_WOT

Wasn't it 2 for low?

If it was, I never saw it mentioned by Justin. On the AE-2, 2 is Low and 4 is Med, and I definitely got better volume control on the AE-2's Low gain compared to the Pico's Low gain, so I'm sure it's probably 3.

Originally Posted by Edwood

LOL, love that section that prefaces the review itself.

Insanely thorough review. I had to wait until I was at a desktop computer to read it, though. Heheh.

Well I once received feedback from someone that my reviews contained no information about the sound that I personally look for from amps and affect my biases, so I figured I'd start adding that part to every review. And as HeadphoneAddict noted, I tried to think of common questions that readers would have so I fleshed out the review with answers to all of those. I tried to compact the review into fewer pages when I saw it was 13 pages in MS Word but really couldn't see anything to remove. Sorry if this makes too long to read quickly but it is at least my definitive review of the Pico.

Originally Posted by sonq

Great approach...this allow readers to interpret the outcome within their own preferences. Eg warm Pico may be prefered for others over the AE... the detail in depth descriptions allow this. Great effort.

This isn't meant against you specifically but I'd like to formally and publicly rant about "warm-sounding" amps. I absolutely believe that solid-state amps should not add their own colorations to the sound. I did say the Pico departs somewhat from the HeadAmp sound established by the GS-1/Gilmore Lite/AE-2 but even then, it's not really that warm-sounding in comparison to other amps I've heard. It's more of what a HeadAmp product should sound like to achieve an ideal pleasing frequency balance and the mid-range doesn't interfere with the bass or treble at all. There are plenty of other amps that I would call warm-sounding. And I may be in the minority on Head-Fi but I do not desire a warm mid-range from an amp at all and I don't understand why many other people here seek that quality from their amps, it unnecessarily adds to the variability of system-building.

[MWA]

Initially it sounded boringly neutral

Oh man, music to my ears.

I like my DAP (iAudio 7) and IEMs (Klipsch Image X10) very much. I don't want to change the characteristics of the sound. What I want, and I apologize if my language is imprecise, is to have more detail and presence at very low volumes.

To Asr, congratulations on an articulate and well thought out review. Specifically, thanks on describing aspects of the Pico that could use improvement. In our platonic world nothing is perfect and that goes for itty-bitty amps. I tire of the magazines, review after review that do nothing but drool, supplicate themselves and offer praise at the gilded altar of the magazine's revenue base. Being a conspiracy theorist, I always feel I'm being duped by advertisers.

In three to four months I should join the gleeful ranks of Pico aficionados. That is if the proof of my theorem relating que numbers to delivery dates holds up .

[Kel Ghu]

Excellent review! Nice work!

Though, this review is more of an amp review to me. "DAC mode" review against bithead is not enough imho, because it has a worse DAC and amp. The pico is meant to be used for both its DAC and amp together. But the review doesnt compare any good combination of DAC and amp.

[PeterDLai]

Great review and a very insightful read...

[Blueiz]

Originally Posted by Andrew_WOT

Wasn't it 2 for low?

Yep....

Low Gain: 2 High Gain: 6 per Justin just recently in his Pico thread.