Apex Glacier amp/dac review and appreciation thread

[vkalia]

You won't regret it if you do, it's a beautiful-sounding amp.

 
Well, I did it.   Y'all can apologise to my wallet later  

 

[singleended58]

Not sure about shadow, p51..but between 71a and intruder and glacier...both 71a and intruder is warmer...but glacier is clearer.detail is good on all. But if clarity was 1st priority..glacier is the better one to go. And what i like about glacier..the mids is also warm. Not a kind of sharp or zizzling like that. Still have that mellow sounding eventhough the highs is extending better than RSA.

Yes, I agreed and won't regret after swapping the Glacier with my RSA 71b.)

 

[BucketInABucket]

Well, I did it.   Y'all can apologise to my wallet later  

I think this is an apt avatar for most of head-fi

 

[daniel_hokkaido]

I was chatting with Todd about alternatives to the glacier which he sells..both the hifim8 and the theorem. Despite me saying im considering buying, Todd was open in not rating the other amps to be much better than the glacier. Now maybe he is trying to keep me on the apex house sound but i reckon not, as I don't think Todd is worthy of such cynicism. 
 
Interesting that he feels an amp (theorem) nearly twice the cost of the glacier isn't much better. Just shows you want a great product the glacier is! 

 

[AbsoluteZero]

Well, bias surely plays a part in that opinion by Todd. Like it or not, he is attached to the amp he has made.
But, I still believe that the Glacier is one of the best for value (and underrated) in its price range. It has excellent sound, good build quality with a sleek design, what more could you want?

 

[fuzzy1969]

I think the glacier a excellent amp, but being a retailer he probably doesn't like to recommend stuff, Pete millet is the designer of the glacier and he designs some rather nice tube stuff as well.

 

[muzic4life]

Pairing IPC with Theroem as dac + Glacier is VERY VERY wonderful to drive cans like HD800/HD650/or even the T1. The combo can drive either one with FULL authority and beautiful sound. Especially with HD650 i always feel it has a very good synergy with Glacier amp (based on my taste).

 

[AnakChan]

  Well, bias surely plays a part in that opinion by Todd. Like it or not, he is attached to the amp he has made.
But, I still believe that the Glacier is one of the best for value (and underrated) in its price range. It has excellent sound, good build quality with a sleek design, what more could you want?

+1 to this actually. I personally do like the Apex Glacier quite a bit (as an amp, source is the VentureCraft Go-DAP). As you've said, it's a pity it gets very little recognition here and really does deserve a little more attention.

 

[BucketInABucket]

  Well, bias surely plays a part in that opinion by Todd. Like it or not, he is attached to the amp he has made.
But, I still believe that the Glacier is one of the best for value (and underrated) in its price range. It has excellent sound, good build quality with a sleek design, what more could you want?

+2, excellent sound using it both as an amp with the DX50 WM8740 and it's own inbuilt dac with my laptop as the source, and it's such a slim package too!

 

[vkalia]

So I got the amp yesterday and connected it to my iPod Touch 64GB via the Lightning CCK. Had to press GAIN / RESET together to switch off USB charging on the data port. With that, the combo works.
 
I had also gotten a new pair of headphones - Audio Technica ATH-ESW9As. I plugged them in and had a go. Was quite disappointed initially as there was a fair bit of electrical interference, in the form of crackling noises, and I put the rig away till the evening.   
 
Later, I sat down and a good listening session - NWA "Straight Outta Compton", Charles Munch's epic performance of Saint Saens Symphony No 3 and some Count Basie.    
 
This is meant to be my casual listening rig and more than audiophile perfection, I am looking for PRaT - and this combo certainly has it in spades with rap & orchestral music  (I'll listen to some metal later).   The headphones certainly contribute it to it - they have a lot of slam and impact for on-ear cans, although at the expense of true accuracy, but that's ok by me (given my intended use of this rig).   Also, by moving the cable around, I avoided a repeat of the electrical interference as well, so that was a big win.
 
I need to spend more time with the amp testing it with my other rigs, to get a sense of what it can do, but so far, I am quite pleased with it.
 
The only issue I have with this is - with the CCK and the USB cable, it isnt a very tidy rig.   Given how thin both the Glacier and iPod Touch are, I'd like to find a neater cable solution.   If anyone has any ideas, please let me know.

 

[BucketInABucket]

 
 
The only issue I have with this is - with the CCK and the USB cable, it isnt a very tidy rig.   Given how thin both the Glacier and iPod Touch are, I'd like to find a neater cable solution.   If anyone has any ideas, please let me know.

I think that certain cable manufacturers may do you an iPod touch connector (lightning or 30-pin) to microUSB cable if you ask them. I'm not sure which ones will though, sorry.

 

[barbes]

  I think that certain cable manufacturers may do you an iPod touch connector (lightning or 30-pin) to microUSB cable if you ask them. I'm not sure which ones will though, sorry.

The CCK needs to be in the chain for the Glacier to work with iOS7 - the Lightning cable alone won't work.  And it's turning out to be very difficult to redo the Apple CCK cable into something low-profile; it's got chips in it that Apple has made it very hard to work with.  It seems like it should be easy to rebuild the "long" CCK cable into something short and reterminated, but it looks like it's not.  This is very frustrating: the operational capacity to have as really compact and high-quality rig is there - a Touch/Glacier stack would be terrific - but right now there's no way to get the overall form factor right.

 

[BucketInABucket]

  The CCK needs to be in the chain for the Glacier to work with iOS7 - the Lightning cable alone won't work.  And it's turning out to be very difficult to redo the Apple CCK cable into something low-profile; it's got chips in it that Apple has made it very hard to work with.  It seems like it should be easy to rebuild the "long" CCK cable into something short and reterminated, but it looks like it's not.  This is very frustrating: the operational capacity to have as really compact and high-quality rig is there - a Touch/Glacier stack would be terrific - but right now there's no way to get the overall form factor right.

I have seen a Lightning to MicroUSB cable with a bulge for the CCK in the middle, it tends to be smaller than Lighting to CCK then USB to MicroUSB in any case. Not that much smaller but small enough for it to make a difference.

 

[zenki14]

If I were in the same position to use the Touch/iOS7 I would modify the CCK, make it short and use right angle plugs. However so far I haven't seen modified CCK cables (DIY'd by head-fiers) so I suppose it may not be easy as just cut and re-solder.

I actually really thought about that route. It was a decision between the Touch and GS3, but I got a better price for the GS3 so I just went that way. And making an OTG cable (simple microUSB to microUSB) is much easier.

 

[vkalia]

Well, I have an S3 so i may end up switching over to that if I cannot find a neat and tidy solution, I guess.   Damn shame about the form-factor of the CCK cable, though.  Even if it was a plug-plug style (like the Lighting to 30-pin adapters), that'd work as well.