Pico Slim first impressions and reviews thread. See p31 onwards for a couple of solid reviews +... - Page 13

I had the Arrow for around a week but don't know when will I receive the Pico Slim.

Tough to do an A/B comparison from memory (but if it 's a lot like the original Pico then I'm happy with the Arrow). I'm sure it will be a great amp.

My Pico Slim just arrived today, after a short trip to the Post Office to pay the taxes. A few initial, subjective impressions, out of my iPhone 3GS/Oyaide LOD (thanks Currawong), driving SE530s:

Volume Control:
The volume control is excellent. The volume pot goes from a 7h30 position to a 16h30 position. I can just barely hear music at the 8h30 position, and the lowest I'd ever actually see myself listening is at the 9h00 position. The loudest I would go to is about 14h00 on the Slim dial, anything else is really too loud for my tastes. I find it very easy to find the level I want, and I do not hear any "clicking" when turning the dial, except possibly at the very lowest end of the dial, below 8h30 where I can't hear the tunes.

For those who have the iPhone and know that the lowest volume setting there is not really that low, I'll give some perspective by saying that's at about 12h00 on the Pico Slim dial.

A side note: driving PortaPros
I can first hear music at 10h00, consider 12h00 to be a "low" volume, and near 16h00 a "high" volume.

Turn-on/turn-off noises:
Yes, I can also confirm the "thump" when turning on the Slim with IEMs plugged in. I'd describe it as a muted pop. Turning the Slim off gives a very short sound that starts high in frequency then goes down. I'm no engineer, but I want to say it's the sound of a capacitor discharging (those in the know, please feel free to correct me on that). Plugging/unplugging my IEMs into an already powered up Slim gives no pop or thump that I can hear.

Hiss:
My experience tells me the SE530s are very sensitive to hiss, moreso than the TF10's I used to own. I can hear a very faint hiss at the 13h00 position on the Slim, which is roughly my normal listening volume. Turning the pot up to 14h00 (the upper limit of what I'll listen to) gives a hiss roughly equal to my 3GS. 15h00 or higher seems to give a rather high amount of hiss, but I don't care about that since music at that level would deafen me. All of these observations are identical if the Slim is connected to the iPhone on pause, or with nothing plugged into its input.

To compare to the Pico, I distinctly recall NOT hearing any hiss on the low gain setting at either low or high listening volumes.

EDIT (Apr 23, 01h28): To clarify, the above observations are when no music is playing, and I am actively listening for hiss. After having listened to the Slim with music playing for a few more hours, I feel ready to add the following: At lower volumes, there's NO hiss. At medium volumes, I don't notice any hiss during music playback. At high volumes, the recorded hiss in most of my music (which no amp is going to get rid of) is much louder than the hiss inherent in the Slim, so I think it's fair to say that I don't notice any added hiss during music playback. (Low, medium, and high are my subjective definitions, of course).

A side note: driving PortaPros
No hiss here!

Preliminary Musical Thoughts:
I can only make the broadest of comments based on an hour of listening, so I'm only going to share the first thing that hit me with the Slim: the bass is greatly improved over the iPhone's HP out. It's better defined (i.e. not boomy) and has more slam. There are other sonic differences that I'm still trying to put into words, but I am reminded of the fullsize Pico in that I don't hear any coloration and the music just sounds "damn good".

PS: I did try the Parasound 1500 as the DAC, which I think makes for the largest DAC-to-amp size ratio evar...

Good to hear...

Hey, good to hear yours arrived....maybe we can get together for an A/B sometime

Yeah, a bit of overkill there.

The hiss on SE530s has me a bit concerned as that was what I was planning on using with this. I don't recall it hissing on the Pico either.

My iBasso T3D also hisses, but it is insignificant to some portable players which people seem to like. If the Pico Slim hisses even less and does a good job with sound - good on it!

new portable family member...

It'll be at the next local meetup for sure!

itsborken: I wouldn't be at all concerned. I really did mean "faint" when I typed it. At lower volumes, where hiss has the potential to be the most annoying, there's NONE. At medium volumes, it's so faint that you only hear it when there's no music playing and you're trying to hear the hiss. At high volumes, the recorded hiss in most of my music (which no amp is going to get rid of) is much louder than the hiss inherent in the Slim. (Low, medium, and high are my subjective definitions, of course).

Justin is right, the digital volume control is well worth the advantages. It gives perfect control over the volume of my IEMs. I can listen more quietly than ever before, I can listen so loud that my ears bleed before the amp distorts*, and I can always find the perfect volume I want in between. The channel balancing is ALWAYS PERFECT - every other amp I've tried has failed to balance L/R at low volumes with the SE530s. I want this level of volume control on all my gear!

*Note: distortion levels not actually tested due to risk of blood destroying my IEMs

Uh oh, I'm worried now. I am extremely susceptible to hiss in amps. I can hear hiss in almost all amps, sometimes quite loudly too. The saving grace might be the hiss on this amp seems to be related to volume level. Since I listen quite low, the hiss on other amps would drive me crazy. Hopefully this amp is completely silent at my listening volume otherwise it would make low volume listening pointless.

well there seems to be a different level of pop reported here (perhaps it was picked up and 'edited' by Justin?? and its much more like what I would expect. that sort of pop is unavoidable pretty much unless you have an actively driven ground channel.

still no update on shipping. I would hope some amps shipped this week. 30 shipped on the first day and I havent received a shipping notification at ..84?? I cant remember something around that; a week later

that means at no. 300-400 we can pretty much forget about receiving this amp by september? XD i just hope no new competing models from other manufacturers come out in the meantime. models able to compete with the slim, i mean. probably at a lower price point but a better sound quality? doubtful. (from what i've read thus far)

maybe tomorrow. I am hoping to see a shipping notification for me too. its painful.

Another 50 are shipping real soon now per the other thread. Keep in mind the 30 that shipped 'first day' did have a few days of assembly, (charge?), test, and packaging work before they did ship.

Cool, thanks for the clarification, that put my mind at ease.