I got to try Spkrs01's DX100 with my Ety ER4S through the DX100's internal amp and with his Mystery Amp 2.
DX100 Internal Amp: I only tried it with one Muddy Waters track, "Long Distance Call" (24bit/192khz). I found the soundstage to be massive and the SQ was excellent overall. There were, however, parts where the brightness of the guitar got a little excessive (particularly when played hard). The ER4S's trebly sound signature probably didn't help either.
Bmiamihk, before you tear me a new one for not trying to use the EQ, let me say that I am not a "purist" and I have nothing against EQing in principle. For what it is worth, I do use the EQ on my Android phone (Poweramp) and on MusicBee. But as you already know from the W4/SE535Ltd cable swapping thread about EQing versus using custom cables, Spkrs01 is not a big fan of EQing and I had no intention of testing his generosity by insisting on messing with the EQ settings on his DX100. The topic seems to be a volatile one around here, and I don't think there is anything to be gained by being adversarial about it.
DX100 line-out -> Mystery Amp 2: We tried a whole bunch of songs through this combo. I was indeed absolutely floored by how fantastic Muddy Waters sounded and found myself grinning and tapping my foot in public like an idiot. The bottom end and the treble extension were just perfect. Jazz sounded lush and the vocals were so
real!
Instrumental separation was also top notch. The harpsichord in baroque music is generally quite hard to pick out from the mix, yet I could hear it jangling away clearly in the background of one of Bach's violin concertos (can't recall which one).
Even records made in the Loudness War school of music production sounded acceptable through this set up. I heard sufficient layering in the music to allow me to overlook the sensation of being bombarded with a solid blob of sound.
General observations about DX100: I thought the interface was a tad clunky, even by Gingerbread standards. There were also a few skips in the audio initially when listening to the 24bit 192khz files. Other than that, everything else worked fine from what I could see - tagging, album art, etc. The build quality seemed superb too.
Thanks again for lunch and the opportunity to play with your gear
.
