HeadAmp Pico Portable Amp (w/ optional upsampling 24/96 USB DAC) Pre-Order Thread - Page 31

Digital? No.

Analog? Yes. There is a single input on the front.

Yeah, pretty much the absolute bare minimum to drive K1000's without clipping (and I'm not even talking about sounding great) is 12V. That's just too much to ask out of a tiny amp.

Hi Justin,

I'd like to be placed on the pre-order list for an all black pico w/ DAC and 3 foot USB cable. I emailed you as well.

Thanks,
Rob

oh man... looking forward to people's impressions (SKYLAB :-P) on the pico before i jump in. looks very promising. wondering how it compares to other portable amps...

tennisplyr3, look in the meet impressions threads. Quite a few members have heard it, albeit in meet conditions, but have offered impressions. Justin put some quotes in the first post.

can't seem to locate the member's impressions at meets using the search feature ("pico" and "meet"). can you please link me? i did read the quotes from the first post. they all seem to be positive. of course he's going to post nothing but positive comments to promote his product (maybe there's no negative impressions), but i'm more interested in more critical reviews, such as direct comparisons with other portable amps that currently available.

I have yet to read a non-positive review (and I've heard it myself and can understand that).

Try these threads:
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f45/it...w-down-265555/
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f45/no...ssions-254734/
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f45/of...2007-a-268014/

Hi Justin,
Please add me to the Pico preorder list.
Black Pico with DAC and a 1 foot USB cable.

I asked on a (now inactive) Pico thread if this amp would be my best bet for someone needing only USB for around the same price. I find it difficult to feel its suited for me when I'll never use it portably. Nevertheless I had one member respond with a enthusiastic yes.

I realize now that I never mentioned what I'll be using with it, which is pair of HD580's. They have the same impedance as the HD650's mentioned above. The comment has left me feeling that I really need to be looking for something outside of a portable. Despite the recommendation, I have looked around and generally any amp with a USB DAC has been designed to run off battery.

I hope you guys can straighten me out.

thanks for the links blessingx. i'm very tempted to jump on the bandwagon. i apologize in advance if this does not belong here, but does anyone know how the pico sounds with hd650's?

Pico Pre-Order

Hi Justin.

I would like to pre-order a HeadAmp Pico all black, with the USB-DAC option, 1 feet cable.

Best, Magne

when would my Pico with DAC ship when I order now ?

I assume I was the one to respond with an enthusiastic yes, and in the context of what and how you asked the question plus your stated budget I'd still stand by my reply albeit a bit less so given this new info.

Let me qualify that for you. I've used HD580's out of a cmoy and was not particularly happy with them in that context but the Pico is a different beast so I can't really say without hearing the combo myself how well the Pico's amp will do with harder to drive phones like the H580/600/650's. From experience I would say you should get better overall performance from a beefier home amp but given a $500 budget for a USB DAC and amp I'm not sure what other options would give you the quality of source the Pico's DAC should be.

I assume from your posts that you are looking for a one box solution but you could always look at a two box solution. Used Headroom Micro DAC's go for fairly reasonable prices which would probably leave you somewhere in the region of $300 for an amplifier. The Micro DAC is a decent little DAC but I suspect given my understanding of the design and what Justin is trying to achieve that the Pico's DAC should be a step up though. Now given I lean towards the source first side of things I'd personally go with the better source and sacrifice a bit on the amp side of things for now at least. It's been stated by some members that the Pico can also be used as a standalone USB DAC using the headphone output as a variable output to another amp. I don't know all the technical details but apparently it's not that far off what most other DAC's do anyway, you'd just have a variable output. So with that in mind you could always add on a beefier home amp down the road.

I'll just throw my two cents on the Senn comments, but I've heard the Pico with both K701 and HD650 and it was great. "Best option" or "ideal" is often based on compromises (otherwise while settle for less than WA5/Zana Deux/Maestro/etc. with those cans for all uses?). From my brief time with the Pico, I wouldn't call it limited by it's portable construction for its price range. I suppose that question though is how much of it's $500 price you allocate for the DAC v. amp portion. Certainly some will recommend you go tubes with the Senns no matter what and in that case you have a few options in the price range (if you split the DAC/amp ration done the center and allocate $250 for each). Certainly on the DAC side you're options aren't great for that price.