Hey guys, my name is Nick,
I've been lurking around for quite a while...finally decided to register (sure will make performing searches easier...)
My bank account may not appreciate my membership here, but my ears sure do.
In possibly one of my more impulsive purchases, this forum convinced me to seek out a set of Grado RS-1's which I received a couple weeks ago. Not long after you guys had me looking at amps.
Much of my music is on my computer which is where the bulk of my listening occurs. The RS-1's being driven through my sound card just wasn't cutting it. Sure, it sounded ok...I'm no audiophile by any means (I am very new to all of this) but I do have sensitive ears which can appreciate and distinguish good sound from poor.
I read up a little in regards to tube amps, and I also read up a little in regards to DAC's. I eventually stumbled upon the Glow Amp One. I thought it was pretty cool, and it seemed to suit my needs/wants perfectly. It has tubes, it has a DAC, and it has a pretty cool style in my opinion.
I did more research on it (as much as I could being that there is still very little info on this amp so far save for a couple reviews...) and I watched this thread evolve a bit more. Last week I decided to bite the bullet and order one up. Black on black.
It was hooked up to my computer in a matter of seconds after ripping the packaging off for what seemed like hours. It seamlessly integrated with my computer; pouring sound into my ears as soon as I plugged in my headphones.
Improvements in sound clarity were immediately noticed (compared to being driven by my sound card.) It has been quite interesting hearing the sound evolve as the burn in process has taken place. At first the sound was somewhat light and airy; lacking substance. The lows, the bass, the filling sound just wasn't there. My sound card produced much better lows by comparison. As it has burned in though, I have definitely noticed a significant change in the sound output. The lows are better. The bass is better and the sound emanating from the phones is much more substantial.
I've put a good amount of hours on this amp so far, and I'd like to say the burn-in process is nearing its end. I am still not fully satisfied with the lows, but upon reading the more recent posts, I am beginning to wonder if it is due to the type of tubes used (or maybe even the DAC...being new to this, I'm not so sure how much of an effect it has on the values of sound that it reproduces.) So, to temporarily resolve this issue until more information comes to fruition I have been messing around with EQ settings to improve the low end.
I have still yet to run the amp on anything besides my computer. I am interested to hear how it reproduces sound through the receiver hooked up to our entertainment center (with both speakers and headphones) in terms of listening to music, movies, and video games (which I also use my headphones for in conjunction with my PS3.)
In the meantime, I'm enjoying my music more than ever....Especially my FLAC files being played through Foobar/ASIO; another thing my ears greatly appreciate after spending some time setting it up after reading up on it from this forum.
