Holy moley...lol.
I literally plugged her in, using the ALO Cricket LOD, not even fully burned in...and WOW. Instantly my fave portable amp for the T1's, no question about it. In-fact it's such a good match I'm not nearly as interested in buying the LCD-2's (for now lol). Thinking I might just re-cable the T1's with silver instead. Firstly, volume around half way to get the same volume or louder than what I had on my SR-71A at 80% of the knob. But the sound....the synergy with the T1, it's...it's just gorgeous!
That harsh sparkle and ever so slight thinness from before is replaced with smoother highs, slightly more full vocals. The bass....that's where the bulk of the improvement is. A warmer and boomier lower end, more bass presence and quantity, but is it sloppier? No. I can actually hear all the texture in the bass, but just less synthetic and snappy than before, it's highly addictive. Listening to Phantogram - Running From the Cops, the background b-line, the sort of weird reverbial bass like sound, so poignant but still un-obtrusive allowing for everything else to flow in. Then there's the medley of drums early on in an overly busy beginning section of Watch the Throne - Murder to Excellence, it's a lot easier to make out each of the drum taps (they're thicker too) than with the SR-71A which had a slight bit of overt brightness to it.
They do give the sound on the T1's a warmer sort of thicker, imo less clinical sound than the SR-71A. It's not as clean, but imo it's more engaging and fun. I always said before that I thought the slight lack of bass quantity and rare sibilance were really my only negatives of the T1, and the great news is the Continental does a good job of correcting most of that (though I need more listening and further burn in to confirm).
I won't comment on sound stage yet, all I know is that it's sounds nice and three dimensional on the Continental, allowing a good amount of instrumental separation.
In any case, thus far very pleased with both the Continental and the Cricket LOD. Will do a proper thorough and full review later. All I'll say is it's a shame these are out of stock because it is truly a beautiful portable amp. Different sort of warmer thicker, more bass heavy sound to other portable amps I've tried. Tonnes of power as well. I'm literally hitting max 6/10 on the volume knob with the T1's.
Looks gorgeous too. Glossy finish with metallic shiny silver fancy typography, looks really plush. Amp is lighter than I expected it to be too. Top marks Ken. So far, so great.
