[Tamz]

Hi all,

have anyone order something from penguinamp.com in past month?

I wanna know are they still in business or not cuz i send the an e-mail asking something week ago and there're no reply yet 'n thier web site seem to be no update at all so anyone got an idea?

and last thing anyone hav an idea what the diff between their penguinamp royal amp and Headstage Lyrix Pro?

Cheers!

 

[JamesL]

I've ordered a royal before, and it took over a month to arrive.
The amp isn't bad, but it's not something I'd wholeheartedly recommend to a friend. I'd call it somewhat of a boutique cmoy.
Even though it sounds nice, the mint can just feels.. cheap, and the knob is dead in the center, of the two jacks, making it hard to access. There is also a lot of noise/crackle when turning the knob...
I haven't owned the lyrix but I've heard good things about it.
I'd also recommend a mini3 - I built one for myself some time ago, and its a very solid piece of work. You can build one for about $75 with everything, or you can buy it pre-built for about $105.

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tamz /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hi all, have anyone order something from penguinamp.com in past month? I wanna know are they still in business or not cuz i send the an e-mail asking something week ago and there're no reply yet 'n thier web site seem to be no update at all so anyone got an idea? and last thing anyone hav an idea what the diff between their penguinamp royal amp and Headstage Lyrix Pro? Cheers!

1st Post! Welcome to head-fi - and sorry about your wallet...

So, my most recent order with them was 4/10/08 (Lyrix Pro $89 for my son). They emailed a "shipped notice" on 4/13/08, and I got the item before the end of that month. Out of my four orders with them since August 07, the longest to arrive after it shipped was 17 days, and the fastest was about 8 days.

The problem with the Royal and Caffeine is the cheap tin case. But they are NOT really a cmoy. As far as sound quality, there is very little difference between the sound of the Royal, Caffeine and Lyrix Pro (having bought all of them). Here is a review I did that included the Caffeine Pro and Royal, where you can see what the differences if any were: REVIEW: PenguinAmp Caffeine portable headphone amp w/BASS BOOST - Aka HEADSTAGE LYRIX - Head-Fi: Covering Headphones, Earphones and Portable Audio

The Lyrix Total Pro does sound slightly more refined and slightly more spacious, but only by a small margin, so if you don't have the extra money for the "Total" version don't sweat it - but if you do you will appreciate the improvements. The Total adds 4 channel technology (opamp in the ground channel) and socketed opamps so you can try different ones to tune the sound to your tastes, and bigger higher quality finegold capacitors.

Because the Royal didn't do anything more special than the others, I opted to keep the ones with gain switches and bass boost switches, and gave the Royal to my Brother-in-law. My JSEABER cmoy in the review was given to his son. I kept both of the Lyrix Pro (one is a Total) and the Caffeine Pro, and still enjoy them.