UPDATED 2/22 REVIEW 13 USB DAC amp - Predator, Pico, 2/3MOVE, D10 D3 D2 Viper/Boa D1, Lyrix, MicroAmp, Vivid V1, Nuforce, XM5

[souperman]

Originally Posted by qib

Oh right, thanks. I've been looking at future rigs for my laptop and got pulled into the pico or predator as i can use them for my portable headphones as well as laptop. What portable dac/amp would you recommend for the darths then? Thanks.

I think portable dac/amps have their place in the market, but personally I don't see why you wouldn't go for a desktop amp especially to drive darths? Just wondering. I used to be part of the portable dac/amp craze myself.

Anyways, great review Larry! Can't believe this was the first time I ran across the review.

[Kabeer]

Originally Posted by HeadphoneAddict

On another note, I've been asked to expand on my comments about "Positive Synergy with Pico and Denon D2000."

I've discussed elsewhere that my D2000 with APS v2 cable are great headphones, but they are a little dull or boring at times, like a closed HD600. A good amp can wake them up, and I've found that the Pico gives them some "Zing" that makes them a little more exciting, so I don't have to go to my Grados or Ultrasones for "exciting" when listening to ripped music on my Macbook. The bass is well controlled but is powerful enough to make the skin around my ears vibrate, the mids are rich and detailed, and the highs have a sparkle to them. Skylab also seemed to think the Denon have a synergy with the Pico, but he tried it with stock D5000, of which my APS re-cabled D2000 would be similar to that.

I think certain headphones are more picky about the amp you use, HD600 and D2000 included. My DarkVoice 336i that is so good with my Grados and Ultrasones didn't seem to give the HD600 and D2000 a lot of "Zing" - but my new Woo WA6 amp is burning-in to have a lot of energy with the Denon, once I got past 500-600 hours on the huge v-caps and blackgates capacitors.

Ooh, Larry, I just realised something. Do you think this synergy with the D2000 is more to do with the amp part of the Pico, or the DAC?
My primary use will be with an iMod, so its purely the amp sections synergy im interested in?

Thanks!

[qib]

Originally Posted by souperman

I think portable dac/amps have their place in the market, but personally I don't see why you wouldn't go for a desktop amp especially to drive darths? Just wondering. I used to be part of the portable dac/amp craze myself.

Anyways, great review Larry! Can't believe this was the first time I ran across the review.

I know but me wanting a portable is because of the plane rides that i would be making, where the closed darths will be used. I wouldn't mind getting a desktop amp and dac in the future but i'm still thinking in necessity mode, where minimizing costs are priority.

Im also curious as to the setups that people use for the darths. So far what i was planning for a future rig is

Laptop based rig:
Jambo DAC
Woo WA6 or Little dot MKIII/IV (Budget)
Darth Beyer

or maybe a pico dac with the darkvoice 337/336i? Then i can use the pico for plane rides. Any opinions?

[HeadphoneAddict]

Originally Posted by Kabeer

Ooh, Larry, I just realised something. Do you think this synergy with the D2000 is more to do with the amp part of the Pico, or the DAC?
My primary use will be with an iMod, so its purely the amp sections synergy im interested in?

Thanks!

The amp part.

[HeadphoneAddict]

Originally Posted by qib

I know but me wanting a portable is because of the plane rides that i would be making, where the closed darths will be used. I wouldn't mind getting a desktop amp and dac in the future but i'm still thinking in necessity mode, where minimizing costs are priority.

Im also curious as to the setups that people use for the darths. So far what i was planning for a future rig is

Laptop based rig:
Jambo DAC
Woo WA6 or Little dot MKIII/IV (Budget)
Darth Beyer

or maybe a pico dac with the darkvoice 337/336i? Then i can use the pico for plane rides. Any opinions?

I currently use the Pico to feed my Dark Voice 336i in my basement rig, and it works well (I use my Apogee mini-DAC to feed my Woo WA6 in my main rig).

When I still had shallow cup Darths I would roll the 336i tubes to either a Raytheon 6SN7GT up front, or sometimes also a Raytheon 6080 in the rear tube, to tame and tighten up the bass a bit, while bolstering the mids and the treble that were a bit shy with the Darths. When it came to mid-priced closed cans, the Darths never sounded as good as the APS cabled D2000 or ALO modded HFI-780, with any amp. With most other headphones those tubes would be too dry and more like solid state in sound signature.

[Sonic Icons]

Would be nice if the reviewer or someone could post some basic information about these six amps (I feel almost guilty for asking "more, more" after the amazing amount of work already put in by the reviewer), such as:

price
weight, ounces
dimensions, width x depth x height
battery or power requirements
front & rear panel controls, indicators, connectors

I couldn't find this information in the earlier posts, although I may have overlooked some.

[HeadphoneAddict]

Originally Posted by Sonic Icons

Would be nice if the reviewer or someone could post some basic information about these six amps (I feel almost guilty for asking "more, more" after the amazing amount of work already put in by the reviewer), such as:

price
weight, ounces
dimensions, width x depth x height
battery or power requirements
front & rear panel controls, indicators, connectors

I couldn't find this information in the earlier posts, although I may have overlooked some.

I just don't have all that information, but here is what I know without having to look it up myself.

SIZE: The Predator and Pico are about the width and depth of a 3G nano. The D2 is about the width and depth of a 2G nano. The 2MOVE and Lyrix are about the width of a iPod video/classic but not quite as deep. Those are all less than 1" tall. The D1 is is a little wider and deeper than an iPod video/classic, and about as tall as 3 iPod videos.

POWER: The Predator charges with a 5V wallwart. I haven't found a USB charger that will fit the jack yet. The D1, D2 and Pico use a 12v charger. The Lyrix can charge with the 12v Pico charger, but the 16v they sold me will charge it faster. I didn't check the voltage on the 2Move charger while I had it.

SWITCHING: The Pico, D2, D1, 2MOVE and Lyrix have auto-sensing switching to pick the input that is getting the active signal. The Predator has a USB/Analog input switch on the front.

FEATURES: The Predator has a power switch and input switch on the front, along with an analog input and headphone out 2.5mm jack, and has a 3-level gain switch and 5v power input on the rear.

The Pico and D2 both turn on with the volume knob, and have a hi/lo gain switch on the front, with a USB and 12v power input on the rear.

The Lyrix has everything on the front, the 16v power input, USB input, analog input and headphone out, and bass/crossfeed/gain switch, and it turns on with the volume knob.

The 2MOVE has power input and USB input on the rear, and it doesn't have a charge circuit and can take 6-12v input. The unit turns on with the volume knob, and has analog input and headphone out plus a crossfeed switch on the front.

The D1 has no gain switch, turns on with the power knob, and has analog input and headphone out on the front. When using the DAC/Digital inputs on the rear, the analog input turns into a line-out. If you are using the DAC, only one of the front 3.5mm outputs at a time is active - either headphone out or line out. On the rear is the 12v power input, and 3 digital inputs (USB, COAX, and Optical).

EDIT: Battery LIFE: Predator 56 hour, Pico 20 hour, D2 15 hour, D1 15 hour, Lyrix 20-24 hour, 2MOVE ???

[HeadphoneAddict]

(1) The Headroom Micro DAC and Micro AMP, 2006 version, AKA HR Micro Stack portable:

The HR Micro Stack came into my possession the first week of March, and I initially considered including it in this review, but I wanted to focus on the newer smaller combination portable USB DAC/amps first. Headroom now has a 2007 Micro portable DAC/Amp for $598; but the DAC chip is different, and they admit that the new Analog Devices DAC is a slight downgrade from the 2006 portable with Cirrus Logic CS4398 chip (they claim the 2007 desktop Micros with the CS4398 are still as good or better, but without 9v battery power).

This is a fairly large (for portable) two-piece set, with a separate DAC and matching Amp section. When strapped together with the optional Micro-Strap they act as one large unit and take up a 3W"x4D"x3H" piece of desktop. That is bigger than the iBasso D1, so it certainly wont fit in your pocket (not even a coat pocket), and is really what I would call transportable. Even worse, this means you get two medium-to-large sized power bricks, with proprietary connectors on the amp and DAC side, and no internal charging circuit. You have to buy a separate battery charger, and the one I have can only do two 9v at a time. Yikes. I haven't tested battery life, but I have read tales of the amp chewing through a pair of 9v re-chargables in 8 hours, and the DAC lasting maybe twice that. I will try to test out the 9.6v re-chargables that HeadRoom sells soon. See a recent previous post for battery life of the other amps reviewed.

I now have about 400 hours on the Micro Stack, about half from just regular use of music and not running it 24/7 after the first 180 hours. And I just feel that I need to add this to my review, and to let people know what to expect if they buy a used one down the line. There are a fair number of these out there, and they don't go up for sale used very often, and there is a good reason for that - they sound good.

I did my comparison against the Pico, and planned to pull out one of the other amps should the Headroom fall above or below the Pico, but I made a lucky guess and found them to be fairly equivalent. I used all the same program material, and listened with my RS-1 and D2000 (my HFI-780 were with mrarroyo at the time).

The HR Micro Stack via USB reproduces vocals and real acoustic instruments well, with no colorations and drop outs. Diana Krall was smooth, without sibilance, but female vocals and saxophones were just ever-so-slightly cooler than I like. Pianos were sharp with quick attack and smooth decay, and were not piercing. The sound does not seem boosted or sucked out in any areas.

There is a nice sense of ambience and space around the instruments, without making the venue sound cavernous (or microscopic). Rather, it is just right. With classical music I dare say it can recreate the large hall ambience slightly better than the Predator, and it reproduced the Cathedral-sized venue for Handel's Messiah as well as the Pico did. With smaller nightclub venues, and studio recordings, the ambience and dynamic range was good as well. I did not hear the sound of the instruments or the echos disappear too fast like with the Lyrix USB DAC (or Travagans Green).

Switching to optical digital, I can hear slightly better air and ambience with Headroom's optical input and my Macbook. I should note that while optical is a little more transparent, the USB performance is still pretty darn close to optical. Even when playing native 24/96 program material from Linnrecords.com Hi-res downloads, and setting the Macbook optical output to 24/96, the differences in sound between the HR optical input and the USB input of both the HR and Pico were fairly small (maybe a 5% improvement).

So, what about all my previous postings about the Micro Stack being a warmer and more musical setup, if it really sounds like a Pico? Well, I use the Micro Stack with crossfeed switched on 90% of the time. And the HR Micro Amp's sound warms up when you hit the crossfeed, even more than the Lyrix does with crossfeed. Whether it is better that way depends on the listener, the source, the program material and the headphones. With crossfeed off, there is very little difference in sound between the Headroom Micro Stack via USB and the Pico via USB. However, the HR Micro Stack is just a bit richer in the mids than the Pico when crossfeed is on, but also sounds slightly rolled off in the highs with crossfeed (more rolled off than the Predator). To my ears, the Lyrix and HeadFive tend to lose a little of their air and ambience when crossfeed is on; but the HR with crossfeed still seems to retain decent space and ambience, despite the slight rolled off highs.

Basically, via USB the $598 HR Micro Stack's performance and sound signature were similar enough to the $499 Pico to call it a draw. But, the optical S/PDIF digital input adds a small additional layer of ambience and transparency to the sound. The trade-offs for the gains with optical are bigger size, inconvenience of recharging batteries externally, out of production and higher cost. This is great for my iRiver and Sony portable CD Player with optical at the bedside. But if you are putting together a computer only rig and just wont use the S/PDIF inputs, then there are better choices reviewed here that will give you great sound in a smaller and more convenient package. If you need the crossfeed on a computer-only rig, get the 2MOVE - although it's affect was more subtle than Headroom or Headfive, it did not seem to affect the sound signature much, or cause a roll-off in the highs.

(2) Some notes about the Lyrix Pro USB Total, Lyrix Pro (and it's little brother the Caffeine Pro):

I've had several inquiries about the Lyrix, whether it is the DAC or the Amp that holds it back. I believe it is the DAC that holds it back, even though the DAC sounds better than headphone out of a 5.5G iPod or Macbook (which not surprisingly sound similar to each other and could use improving). It also confirmed for me how important burn-in is with these small amps, as I got to compare a new vs 500 hours side-by-side.

Let me preface by saying the Lyrix Total Pro needed about 70 hours burn-in to open up and smooth out, then about 200 hours burn-in to get to 95% of it's potential, and after 300 hours there were few if any changes to the refined smooth accurate sound they produce. Interestingly, I couldn't hear much change when flipping on the crossfeed when new out of the box, or even in the first 70 hours. By the time I had 200 hours on it, the effect was more audible. Other people have reported the same findings with the Lyrix crossfeed vs burn-in.

When I got an extra Lyrix Pro for my son a couple of weeks ago, my Caffeine Pro (basically the same amp) and Lyrix Pro USB Total had over 500 hours each. In comparing the new one I could hear the constriction in soundstage, less warmth in the lower mids, and a slight coarseness in the highs. Now, at 150+ hours it is pretty hard to tell the differences between Lyrix Pro and the Caffeine Pro, while there is still a slightly more refined quality to the sound of the Lyrix Total. The warmth in the lower mids doesn't seem to develop in the Lyrix till after 150+ hours of burn-in, and while it is still a little behind that of the Predator, Pico, 2MOVE or Headroom, the amp section by itself is close to the HeadSix and still ahead of the stock iBasso D1 or D2.

(3) Because of all the questions about whether the main differences in my review are from the DAC or the Amp section, after I got my D1 back from iBasso I briefly listened to most of them with analog input from an iMod, instead of via USB DAC. (except the 2MOVE which I don't have)

People keep forgetting how close they are already, as I've said many times, and I love them all. There isn't a big difference between an amp rated 9.4/10 and a 10/10 (which is where most of them sit). So, as expected the sound quality of most of the amps via analog input is just as close as when using their internal DAC (the exception is the Lyrix amp-only is now better than a stock D1 or D2).

Although their basic sound signatures remain mostly unchanged, using the same source (the iMod's DAC) slightly lessens the differences into just their own essence or flavor, what we call sound signature. The differences in sound quality would still be in the single digit percentage points, and subject to personal preferences (except the stock D1 with analog input is not terribly impressive - it really needs the DAC or new opamps to wow you).

[HeadphoneAddict]

(4) Newest Ranking 05/06/08: COPY OF THE LATEST ADDITIONS HAS BEEN ADDED TO POST #2.

1. RSA Predator (good bass and soundstage, more body, organic, full)
2. D2 with rolled opamps (LM6172/THS4032 - balanced, not too forward, sweet/magical Saxophone, almost mesmerizing like Predator)
3. 2MOVE (sweet mids and saxophone, midbass hmmm, failed the bad mastering diana krall test, great detail and air, too large and heavy)
3. PICO (smooth and transparent without coloration, Great DAC, won the bad mastering Diana Krall test, but nothing special with piano and sax like the others, too neutral as an amp - how is that possible, maybe not because there is something around 2Khz that is not right with RS-1)
3. Headroom 2006 Micro Stack Portable (a twin to the Pico's sound but better with piano, too BIG and out of production, with crossfeed mids are richer/warmer but highs rolled off)
4. D1 with rolled opamps (AD743 main/LMH6643 buffer/LTC6241HV DAC - powerful, punchy, energetic, alive)
4. D2 stock (thin in the middle, neutral with good bass,)
5. Lyrix (good frequency balance, lacking details and air vs the others)
6. D1 stock opamps (put AD823/NE5532/AD8616 back in right before I shipped it back for the 2-3db channel imbalance, too edgy and bright and distant)

[HeadphoneAddict]

Just a guess, from eyeballing them and based on their cubic centimeter volume size, I could fit 12 Picos (the smallest amp) inside the HR Micro Stack.

Pics to come later...

[2162]

Great post.
Which would be better for a DT 990?

[busanblues]

hi, I am new at opamp thing....and i sure wanna try it...
But I have no idea where to get those...
How do I get those opamps....??

[Drag0n]

""""Right now I am preferring the RS-1 and Edition 9 vs my 780's with 666 hours on them (don't laugh, that's how many hours they have ).

All Amps were reviewed as before, using only their USB DAC as source, via Macbook. The D2 was also tested with new opamps, with a LM6172 replacing the LT1364, and a THS4032 replacing the NE5532.

I used the same music as in the first test, but had to add a few more items: "Handel Messiah" conductor Christopher Hogwood, William Orbit "The Best of Strange Cargo", James Asher "Shaman Drums", Guinea Pig "Cool Cats", Jack Johnson. I also threw in various pop artists from my kid's music in 128kbps to test with poor sources.""""


You listened to "Handel's Messiah" when the amp was burned in at 666 hours???!!! :O


The amp didnt go on fire? lol :P

[daco63]

Originally Posted by busanblues

hi, I am new at opamp thing....and i sure wanna try it...
But I have no idea where to get those...
How do I get those opamps....??

HiFlight was selling a set of opamps for the D2. Contact him if you want to pick up a few to try. You just open up the D2 and plug the new opamps into the sockets. More info on opamp options for the D2 over at this other thread.

Originally Posted by Drag0n

You listened to "Handel's Messiah" when the amp was burned in at 666 hours???!!! :O


The amp didnt go on fire? lol :P

lol Nice one.

[2162]

predator or pico for dt 990?