Apex Glacier amp/dac review and appreciation thread

[ThePrince425]

Would the Glacier pair well with IE8? Hoping to get clearer, brighter mids and highs. 

 

[muzic4life]

Clearer is for sure. Glacier is very good in detailing, accuracy and clarity achievement (is my top choice among my other amps). However...the mids somewhat just a tad smoothened at the edges and it won't help you to make the mids "brigther" but it does increase the image precision of the sound (more realistic). I never tried with ie8. But I did try with ie800 (owned it before). Seems they worked fine together, except those sparkling treble and punching bass still could not be tamed as I wanted. That said...ie800 is not really my type unfortunately.

 

[zenki14]

  Would the Glacier pair well with IE8? Hoping to get clearer, brighter mids and highs.

 
If you want a slim amp, I recommend an Arrow over the Glacier for that preference.  You will get more treble focus and sharpness.  If you don't mind amp size, and want to go even further for extreme quality treble, I suggest an iQube.
 
For analytical IEMs like JH13, I prefer the Glacier though.  It has great bass for better synergy - the Glacier's bass is about the same amount as Arrow with Bass boost 1, but a little more deep.  So far I like how the Glacier pairs with JH13.

 

[BucketInABucket]

How is the build quality? I've heard stories of the blue text rubbing off.

 

[midnightwalker]

  How is the build quality? I've heard stories of the blue text rubbing off.

 
The build quality is very good. I used it for couple months and the printing was fine.

 

[muzic4life]

The build quality is very good and robust feel. About the rub off blue print..i believe last time Todd from TTVJ already clarified that only happened to certain quantity of units (i think already taken care of), mine is fine so far..no fade problem what so ever.

 

[ThePrince425]

Well guys, pulled the trigger and got myself the Glacier it looks, feels and sounds awesome. Somehow it pairs really well with my ie8 and Chris himself hybrid cables. Mids are much smoother, and highs are noticeably distinct and clearer, not exactly brighter as muzic4life had mentioned. Speaks much about the increase in transparency and imaging. Was listening to a few live orchestral pieces, heard someone in the audience cough and could almost pinpoint his position. All in all, pretty stoked with the new setup

 

[iamdacow]

Well guys, pulled the trigger and got myself the Glacier it looks, feels and sounds awesome. Somehow it pairs really well with my ie8 and Chris himself hybrid cables. Mids are much smoother, and highs are noticeably distinct and clearer, not exactly brighter as muzic4life had mentioned. Speaks much about the increase in transparency and imaging. Was listening to a few live orchestral pieces, heard someone in the audience cough and could almost pinpoint his position. All in all, pretty stoked with the new setup

Enjoy ) the dac is also pretty good as well

 

[ThePrince425]

Enjoy ) the dac is also pretty good as well

Ridiculous tendency to get excited seeing a fellow SG headfi-er, so hello! Yup, used it as a dac from the laptop. Saw that you've paired this with a CLAS; a combo i see pretty often. Any particular reason for this?

 

[iamdacow]

Ridiculous tendency to get excited seeing a fellow SG headfi-er, so hello! Yup, used it as a dac from the laptop. Saw that you've paired this with a CLAS; a combo i see pretty often. Any particular reason for this?

Haha i wld use the dac if i cld but well the usb is kinda erm not so sturdy so the usb for the dac came off, have yet to send it back haha. Nice seeing another SG headfi-er. Just be careful with the usb socket haha XD. I feel IMHO the dac of the CLAS is more detailed (not by leaps and bounds) than the dac of the glacier and the soundstage tends to be more 3d, but one of the biggest differences is that the dac of the CLAS is colder than that of the glacier however, Source -> Dac of glacier -> Glacier amp -> mid centric headphone/ iem, some good vocal music and you be in cloud 9 haha XD. I see u may soon get the IE8, haha very good pair, my first pair of "audiophile" earphones

  oh ya, sorry for your wallet XD

 

[BucketInABucket]

Glacier at $430 VS Quickstep at $325. Decisions!
Edit: after thinking for a while, I'm pulling the trigger on the glacier. I don't really need the power of the quickstep yet and it's also better for my wallet because the glacier has an integrated dac so I don't have to buy one

 

[BucketInABucket]

Since noone has updated this thread in a bit, double-posting my completed portable rig:

 

[midnightwalker]

Since noone has updated this thread in a bit, double-posting my completed portable rig:


 

Looks great bro. Enjoy the combo.

 

[BucketInABucket]

Looks great bro. Enjoy the combo.

Thanks, enjoying it right now with the HD25 Aluminium, pretty good synergy between the four components

 

[JeffA]

Has anyone directly compared the Glacier to the Alo Rx MK3? If so, thoughts?