Just wanted to report that after about a week of listening i'm thoroughly enjoying my Milo! It's probably got about 60 hours on it between overnight burn-in and my listening. Random note... in talking to Jeff apparently it's pronounced "my-low" vs "me-low" as i had been pronouncing it for some reason. This has probably been mentioned, but he named it after his nephew, which I think is cool. Gotta love family! Jeff seems like a legit dude and i'm happy guys like him are taking such good care when building gear for us.
The Milo is just effortlessly squeezing every ounce of quality out of my HE1000 v2. Their is no harshness whatsoever to the sound. The highs get sparkly and i hear the details, while going nowhere near bright (and i'm sensitive to that). Mids are full but not over pronounced, they provide energy in certain songs that is very welcomed (mids are very important to me and i'm completely content here). The lows go very deep when called upon, but have such a sense of control that i'm not really used to. Rather than just hearing a common deep bass hit/thump, it's so cool to be able to distinguish where the deep note begins and ends. It's given me more of an appreciation for carefully crafted bass lines that used to just play a supporting role in many songs to me. Also, dare I say it the Milo is almost tube-like. Not that it's overly warm or syrupy, in fact i think it's fairly neutral, but it sounds very organic and real vs sterile and digital sound quality that i've heard through some solid state amps.
For inquiring minds i've been mainly listening with the volume pot between 10 o'clock and 1 o'clock (rarely past 12 though). 11 o'clock seems to be my sweet spot with most music. I can turn louder than 1 with some songs without making my ears bleed, but don't really need to.
I'm loving the look and build quality. Upright may not be for everyone, but with a few additions to it's stock form at Jeff's recommendation, this was a lot of money for me to pay for an amp so i appreciate that it has a unique quality and is an attention grabber when friends are over.
In the end, the only drawback in my eyes is that there are no tubes to play with (not Milo's fault of course!). If i didn't enjoy my brief time tube rolling with the Schiit Lyr 2 (sold it because I didn't like it with the HE1000) so much this would be the only amp i would ever need. I may get a Woo WA6 or something in that price range for every once in a while when i wanna mix things up and get some warm syrupy distortion! But this thing is a keeper for sure and I'm thoroughly content with the sound of my HEKs now.
