I've always dreamed of a simple life, where one headphone, one amp, one DAC, one cable, will suffice. Alas, it's never meant to be. You see, in the Air Force, they have what is known as Multirole Fighter, much like the F-35 Lightning and its variants. Oh, I'm sure the top brass would love to have it simple as well by creating these multirole fighters. They dreamed of a day where there will be only one type of fighter for all kind of missions: dogfighting, striking, bombing, ground supporting, long range interdicting, intercepting, AWACS killer, and...

I have always loved the Grado RA1 which uses the high output NJM4556 op amp. It was one of my very first introduction to the world of headphone amping, and for years it was the mainstay of my main listening rig, both desktop and portable. The JDS O2 amplifier is using similar op amp(s) for its output stage ( and doubles it!), thus I found this JDS Labs Objective2 amp to be easily lovable right from the first listen. It does bear a resemblance in sound to the RA1, but it has more definition, cleaner sound, and more power as well. I had owned a lot of...