iQube better than ALO Rx?

alo rx is way more powerful than iQube.. but I think its better than alo rx in sound quality, the iQube is more neutral, better imaging, deeper bass.

But I do think iQube can't drive K701 better than alo rx, the iQube just not up to the task in term of power.

if you are ok with desktop, why dont you build a 2 boards beta22, ... its prolly cost just a bit more compare to a new iQube.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Young Spade 

I was thinking about selling my Rx (pm me if interested lol) and spending a little bit of money to get the iQube. The main reason is it being more powerful and more neutral to use with my K702s. The ALO Rx drives them nicely from what I can hear (haven't used any other amp with them but I know there are a lot better amps for this (mainly desktop)) but I want to know how the iQube would stand up.

 

Thanks in advance. 

I had the K701's and never used them with the iQube. The combination of iQube+K701 was in my ears a boring and sterile sound - with listening fatigue after less than 10 minutes. The K701/2 needs way more driving force to be mastered proporly than the iQube could supply. For me that was just not the right combination. 

I heard and compared iQube and ALO RX at a meet a few months back and I was highly impressed with the RX. The iQube still is my favourite though - by a very small margin. One area I thought the RX was better was in soundstaging and it put a bit more air in between the instruments. But it was at a meet and just a short A/B comparison in 20 minutes using the Grado SR325. Hope my impressions was somehow usefull to you 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Young Spade 

Very useful, thanks. FYI I LOVE my ALO Rx and I think it does quite a good job for the size that it is. I was just wondering if the iQube could give me something more; but I'm alright with keeping it. 

I could EASILY live with the RX as my only portable. I do not know about battery life in the RX, but the good thing about the iQube is that you can always buy new AAA-batteries when traveling.

I'd love to know how you came to this conclusion, as ALO doesn't state the output power of this amp. They say it has a minimum of 5.25v and over 200mA of output power,and  peak of 7.45v,  but that's just a phrase. They don't post any proper measurements of output power like this: 

Maximum output power per channel from 20-20,000Hz:
160 mW_16 ohm
80 mW_32 ohm
12 mW_200 ohm
 (this was taken from the iqube website)

so please share with the rest of us how you can affirm that the ALO Rx has more power...

Also, IMO, none of these amps are suposed to be driving full sized headphones. They are portable amps designed to be used with portable headphones or IEMs, and although they might sound "good", they cannot match the proper power and voltage swing of a desktop amplifier.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Questa 

alo rx is way more powerful than iQube.. but I think its better than alo rx in sound quality, the iQube is more neutral, better imaging, deeper bass.

But I do think iQube can't drive K701 better than alo rx, the iQube just not up to the task in term of power.

 

if you are ok with desktop, why dont you build a 2 boards beta22, ... its prolly cost just a bit more compare to a new iQube.

easy... I tried alo rx with fullsize headphones, and it drive them louder.... I'm not the one who just read from website, I'm testing it.

I agree with those who say the iQube is more neutral. The RX has a slightly more forward treble, which can lead to some violin sounds to be off to my ears.

There is nothing like my iQube when I want good clean sound that extends oh so far into both its lows and highs. Very non-fatiguing sound.

Never heard the RX, but I have the TTVJ MHP (warmer, more personal) and Protector (soundstage amazing). The iQube is like my daily bread and butter, while the other two are more mood dependent. I guess that comes from it being so neutral.