So my demo of the P1 is now over and I'm getting ready to ship it to the next lucky recipient. I'm fairly new to headphones but not high-end audio and went down the headphone path after losing my listening room. So now all my listening is done in my office with headphones. My current amp is the Yammy which is very muciscal but not the last word in detail/resolution or drive. My demo set-up was a Weiss Minerva-> ASI Livelines XLR->P1-> ALO cabled Edition 9s. Lessloss powercords and Isoclean line conditioner & transformer.
My listening impressions seem to reflect the other reviews. The amp is very resolving without being strident, etched or tonally imbalanced. That is, it resolves the inner details of the music without putting those inner details under the microscope. I found the P1 to be eminently musical in this respect. The music also came from a completely silent background. Again, a noticeable improvement over the Yammy. One of the P1's great attributes is that it didn't color my choice of music. I can always tell if a new piece of equipment is flawed because my listening will be biased towards certain genres at the expense of others. This thing sounded great with rock, chill, jazz, vocals and pop. I'm not a huge fan of classical, so I don't know how it fares there.
A few have commented on the speed of this amp maybe not being a strong suit. I din't find that to be the case at all. The dynamics are there in spades but not artificially exaggerated with truncated leading/following transients which is something I find in certain solid state gear. The P1 certainly has more drive than the Yammy. However, I can't say how it would compare to the Rudistor or a B22. Then again, I get the impression that these amps reside in a different sonic camp altogether, whereas the P1 resides within the same soundscape as the Yammy. The P1 takes the Yammy's good attributes and adds resolving power, a darker background, and better micro/macro dynamics.
The great thing abt the P1 is how it combines resolving power with musicality. I listened to it a bunch and never found it fatiguing at all. If you're a tube guy looking to go to a solid state amp, it would be hard to better this amp.
I guess the best thing abt this amp is that I just listened and listened to it. It didn't blow me away initially but I found the sound to be very addictive. The more I listened to it, the longer I wanted to listen.
That's it. Hope this helps.
My listening impressions seem to reflect the other reviews. The amp is very resolving without being strident, etched or tonally imbalanced. That is, it resolves the inner details of the music without putting those inner details under the microscope. I found the P1 to be eminently musical in this respect. The music also came from a completely silent background. Again, a noticeable improvement over the Yammy. One of the P1's great attributes is that it didn't color my choice of music. I can always tell if a new piece of equipment is flawed because my listening will be biased towards certain genres at the expense of others. This thing sounded great with rock, chill, jazz, vocals and pop. I'm not a huge fan of classical, so I don't know how it fares there.
A few have commented on the speed of this amp maybe not being a strong suit. I din't find that to be the case at all. The dynamics are there in spades but not artificially exaggerated with truncated leading/following transients which is something I find in certain solid state gear. The P1 certainly has more drive than the Yammy. However, I can't say how it would compare to the Rudistor or a B22. Then again, I get the impression that these amps reside in a different sonic camp altogether, whereas the P1 resides within the same soundscape as the Yammy. The P1 takes the Yammy's good attributes and adds resolving power, a darker background, and better micro/macro dynamics.
The great thing abt the P1 is how it combines resolving power with musicality. I listened to it a bunch and never found it fatiguing at all. If you're a tube guy looking to go to a solid state amp, it would be hard to better this amp.
I guess the best thing abt this amp is that I just listened and listened to it. It didn't blow me away initially but I found the sound to be very addictive. The more I listened to it, the longer I wanted to listen.
That's it. Hope this helps.
There are none left and the only one available is my loaner. It is now for sale after the last listener gets it. It should free up in 2-3 weeks and be on its way to me (unless YOU decide to buy it and it is shipped to you!).
Gone, just like that... wow.
