First off, I'd like to thank Todd for the opportunity to spend two weeks listening to the APV, and my friend, Achristilaw for suggesting I take a listen. This was an ear-opening experience, and it changed the way I think about the Audeze LCD-2, which is an ideal playmate for the APV. Apologies to Todd for my tardiness in completing and posting this review. Mea culpa. I wish I had more time and resources to try other cans and other options, but two weeks goes by fast when you have a life outside of listening to music on headphones. I have a new appreciation for how much time, attention and effort it takes not only to evaluate an component, but to convey in words what you experience in a way others might connect with and find understandable and compelling. I don't know that I'll be able to do all or any of that, but I'll give it my best shot. Two weeks is really not enough time to get a very thorough sense of any component unless you are able to spend a tremendous amount of that time listening. I did not have that luxury, so again, I think this more of a surface initial evaluation, rather than a more thorough in-depth one. I've compiled all of what is below from scattered listening notes and it comes off, I realize, as a bit disorganized. I thought better to just post and quite tweaking as it is now shamefully late in coming.
I decided early on to limit my listening to the parameters that I'd probably buy the amp and use it for because there were too many variables to check out thoroughly and not enough time to give them all a fair shake. Among those, tube rolling, swapping power supplies (the stock supply was included), as well as using the peak as a preamp. I did try all of these briefly, and will share some comments, but take them very generally with a bag of salt as they are brief impressions. I was most interested in the Peak with the LCD-2 and the Volcano power supply. I know the Black Treasure V181 tube (provided along with others) pretty well from previous use of that tube in a few applications and know it to be a solid performer once burned in, so I stuck with that tube throughout. I did throw in a TungSol roundplate I had on hand (another fine 6SN7 variant) and noted that it certainly did change the presentation - so tube rollers will have potential here. My short time with the provided stock power supply that comes with the base version of the Peak revealed that the Volcano is certainly worth the price of admission. It is a definitive step up from the stock supply in virtually all realms of performance. Without it, the AP is still a competent headphone amp, but I don't think I'd have been as sucked in by it's attributes as I was with the better power supply. The stock, switching power supply occurred to me to render a slightly more grainy presentation for lack of a better term. Swapping in the Volcano I noticed at once the background was blacker and the presentation smoother. Dynamics also seemed to be a bit more punchy and details are rendered more crisply. I would not consider the Peak without the Volcano PS myself for these reasons. It's not that it's a bad amp with the stock supply, but once you hear it with the Volcano you will not want to go back.
The first thing I noted in listening with the LCD-2's having gone from the Woo is the added extension with the APV, especially on top where on the Woo I felt it was lacking with the LCD-2's. Bass is taut and deep, with firm control (APV), and a bit less so with the Woo, especially the really deep stuff where bass became a bit more soft and recessed. Perhaps missing from the APV, I thought, was a certain amount of midrange natural presence in the vocals (I do listen to a lot of vocal material) when compared to the Woo. This is difficult to put a finger on though because the APV mids render a more crystalline look into the intimate nuances of very last breath and intonation, all of which are there on the Woo, but somehow a bit less crisp with more of a roundness. A subjective call to be sure and I will have to go back and forth to see how I feel on this, but initially I was feeling that I was hearing more detail in the vocals while at some sacrifice to a natural, organic presence that I've come to expect from the Woo. I would not really have put the Woo so strongly in the classic "warm" tubey sound camp. It had never really occurred to me as "colored" in that way, but it does really seem to round off those extremes. I would have to say these differences (between APV and Woo) strike me similarly as classic differences of a tube amp vs a SS amp, but I'd also have to add that the APV does NOT otherwise strike me as having certain stridency and aggressive qualities that I object to in some SS. This is a long way around saying that the first impressions were very nice indeed and just made me want to listen more. The APV was lending a clarity and fullness to the music that I had been lacking with the Woo, and this surprised me as I'd been blaming it on the LCD-2's shelved down highs.
This was probably the most significant first impression for me in trying out this amp, since my only reference with the LCD-2's was with my WA6SEm. I'd had no other reference point and discovered that, taking for granted that the Woo is an outstanding amp (and it is with many headphones), I was blaming some shortcomings on the LCD-2's that more rightfully were because of the pairing of the LCD-2 with the WA6SEm. Though it presents a siren's call of midrange purity and gorgeous vocals, this combination has some significant (IMO of course) shortcomings in the frequency extremes, especially in the top end. I'd observed in listening to several very familiar cuts of music that there were sounds in the highs that were entirely MIA with the Woo/LCD2 combination. Enter the Apex Peak Volcano to not only rescue the MIA's, but to give the highs an overall boost to bring them back in line with what occurs to me as a far more natural and linear presentation. Also I was surprised to hear a much better control of the low end with the APV, again, revealing a weakness of the WA6SEm in dealing with that extreme.
When I tried the preamp section in my office system going into my Adam A3X powered studio monitors, it definitively fell short of the mark in comparison to the monitors running straight out of my DAC. This was not an entirely fair comparison though because the connection of the speakers direct to the DAC is fully balanced, whereas the APV preamp section is unbalanced. If I had it longer and the luxury of more time to devote to listening, I would have pursued this further. I did not have long enough RCA's to make the run directly to my monitors so a fair comparison was not in the cards here, and I had bigger fish to fry as this feature was only of peripheral interest to me and I really wanted to spend more time with the LCD-2's and the APV.
From some of the listening notes from various cuts I chose to compare the two amps (Woo WA6SEm vs APV), you can start to get a better picture of what I am talking about in previous paragraphs:
Misguided Angel from Cowboy Junkies, "Trinity Revisited" (a duet with Natalie Merchant) - Vocals do shine on the Woo and are more easily accepted as natural. Cymbal brush is nearly lost on Woo, whereas it comes out in vivid detail on APV. Overall the sound sounds more relaxed on the Woo and more taught and full on the APV with more actual content in the extremes. Here was a perfect example of the push-pull ambivalence I felt as the vocals on the Woo are very seductive and sweet, but when I hear the APV render the song in greater detail and fuller extension I really don't miss the formers slightly more natural vocal presentation. It's not like the APV's midrange vocals are not quite wonderful as well, but they occur just a bit more clean with sharper leading edges and a crisper sense of detail overall.
Beethoven 9th choral Ode to Joy (Karajan '63 SACD recording - CD Layer). The choral vocals are more natural and relaxed, a bit more organic on the Woo, but the chorus sounds more distant making me want to raise the volume (until the main vocals are too loud). The chorus kind of washes over you with the Woo. I'm sure I'm hearing more vivid detail with the APV, and it does seem to be rendering the layers of the performers with better separation, which is a big surprise as I would have thought the Woo would excel in that respect. I think this has to do with the extremes being so recessed with the Woo. It's a difficult call here because the sense of depth and atmosphere is actually better with the Woo while the separation is not as cleanly distinguished as the APV. I'm feeling like it is not the way the recording should sound (hence previous comments of part of the music being MIA). The APV occurs to me to bring some sense of linearity back to the LCD-2's. There is greater immediacy with the APV.
Holly Cole's cover of, The Train Song from the wonderful album of Tom Waits covers, Temptation, is a go-to cut for me to test components. Cole's breathy vocals are wonderful on this cut, but I use it mostly as test of staging and spacial cues. Cole takes example from Waits own recordings in this regard, and I often will just use some Waits material instead (though much of the stuff I like of his is wrought with deliberate distortions and effects so becomes far more subjective). This cut is wrapped in a rich tapestry of unique musical sounds at various positions on the stage, some moving from one side to the other. This is a cut I'm very familiar with, and is one that is a good example of where I've been prompted to comment that, with the LCD-2's on the Woo, some of the music seems to go MIA. In this cut this occurs, again, mostly in the highs. The end result is that the 'tapestry' of sounds I spoke of becomes decidedly less rich, and more subdued on top. Shimmering, tinkling sounds are far more polite and just loose their sparkle making it seem rather flat. There is also a steady low stand-up bass line that comes across loud and clear on the LCD2/APV, as well as all of the effects that reside in more in the midrange region - none are lost from what I am used to hearing with speakers, but all are more subtle and some really downplayed with the Woo. On the APV the bass is tight and the upper end extension seems to shimmer more and speak more clearly to the object that originated the sound. On the WA6SEm the extremes are recessed and largely lost. This was quite a revelation for me to hear, and really drove home that the WA6SE, though a great amp with other headphones, really does not seem to suit the LCD-2 as well as I had hoped.
On Melody Gardot's, My One and Only Thrill, her breathy vocals are crystal clear and very intimate and immidiate. Sibilance in this recording is downplayed. Beautifully rendered through the LCD-2 APV combo. This particular recording can be really grating when sibilance is emphasized so it was a delight to enjoy through a combination that actually went the opposite direction. The Woo is more neutral in this regard - it did not occur to me to emphasize sibilance in any way that made me want to jump to the next cut, but I was much more aware of it with that the Woo.
On Cakewalk Into Town, off Taj Mahal's "Recycling the Blues & Other Related Stuff," clapping hands do not sound like hands clapping with the APV...almost more like two wood blocks slapped together (this always seems to challenge systems, both speakers and headphones...clapping hands, snapping fingers...not sure why). They occur to me as a bit more natural with the WA6SE, but neither really brings to mind human hands clapping as they are rendered on my speakers. Nice (emphasized) soundstage on this cut with both amps - there is a stark spacial emphasis on the various sounds here, much like Train Song, but more stark. More intimate on the intonations on the voice with the APV - there seemed to be subtleties to his vocal intonations that I had not heard this before on this recording, on speakers or headphones. This caused me to jump to another favorite vocal recording...
Antony & The Johnsons - Antony is one of my favorite vocalists. His compositions are often haunting and melancholic (qualities I seem to favor in general). My favorite recordings of his are all quite stark and often close-miked so every breathy intonation can be heard, right down to very subtle guteral utterances. Many of my favorites are simple vocal + piano compositions. One I find particularly challenging on a system in terms of layering and density is, "Hope There's Someone", from the Mercury Prize winning album, "I Am Bird Now". This song starts out simple and stark - just Antony's lovely voice and his piano. About half way through the song he begins pounding on the lower octave keys, gradually accompanied by a plaintive wailing that in turn is layered in a chorus of layered cries. When this is poorly rendered it's just a wall of noise that makes me want to turn and run, but on a good system it is all separated out into various layers and serves to elevate the emotions of the song. The APV/LCD-2 did not disappoint here. All the subtle utterances, tremolo, and vocal gymnastics were rendered natural and effortlessly...like the Melody Gardot cut, as if the singer were metaphorically whispering it into your ear (this is an aspect of headphone listening I really enjoy in cases like this ). When the music became dense and layered the APV/LCD-2 managed to give a sense of layering and not create a porridge of noise - though not the kind of soundstaging speakers might render it gave a real sense of the separate sounds and origins. The Woo does this too, but because of the lack of support in the extremes, in comparison the APV brought tonal richness to the table, where the Woo sounded far more polite and lightweight. This seems to be a recurring theme here, in case you had not noticed.
Overall the Apex Peak Volcano remains for me a wonderful amp to combine with the LCD-2's providing taut extension at both ends, along with a rich, palpable, crystal clear midrange that serves much of the vocal-centric music that I enjoy most (a surprise as I would have thought I might prefer the more tube-like renderings of the Woo mids). To give a bit of musical reference to qualify my review perspective; I definitively do NOT favor rock, electronic, symphonic, opera or music that is more dense, complex and demanding in that regard, nor to I particularly like amplified instruments in general (though not as a rule). I value a natural quality to vocals, piano and stringed instruments as those seem to populate the core of much of my musical tastes (though they are certainly not limited only to those elements). I tend to favor more sparse. acoustic arrangements over more densely layered music and amplified music. The APV delivers big time for me and were it not for spacial issues where my headphone rig is set up in my office I would buy one. At the outset my time with the APV I sold my Woo amp (which was a decision that was made before getting the Peak), simply to try to pair down and economize on space in my small office space. The Peak's two chassis's (with the Volcano PS) along with the headroom for the protruding tube put it out of the running for me. At the end of my time with the Peak, I took delivery on a new Violectric V181, which I now used in fully balanced mode with my LCD-2's. I was only able to make initial comparisons between those two amps with the V181 in single ended mode and with only a few hours of break-in. What I heard there was revealed in a few notes where I was listening to another favorite; a piece of choral early music on Jordi Savall's label, Alia Vox, featuring his wife, Montserrat Figueras, El Cant de la Sibil-la (a remarkable recording done in a stone church - absolutely wonderful sense of space):
Initial comparison to the V181 unbalanced and right out of the box was a victory for the APV for my ears. It produced a richer, tonally somewhat thicker sound overall. The sound of a bell not only was true to "bell", as with the V181, but with the APV the sound of the bell spoke to the shape and size of the bell, the thickness of the metal, the space it rang in, the distance from the other sounds (in this case a chorus). The same bell gives tremendous clarity on the V181, but the overall impression is a bit flatter and with less of the details, textural cues and impressions I get from the APV. The prowess fo the APV in this instance was somewhat contradictory of what I'd commented on in a previous cut with clapping hands not sounding quite real. I cannot articulate that into actual details about leading transients, etc., to tell you exactly what it's doing to accomplish this, but that's what I hear. It makes the difference to me between a sound which occurs "present" and one which occurs "amplified". The APV occured to me as more immediate, more forward, while the V181 is slightly laid back, and, at least in this compromised state seems to be like there is some metaphorical sheet of glass that I am listening through (just a hint of something muted that is enough to be one step detached from what I am hearing). The background seems blacker on the APV also and this lends to all of that as well. The V181 seemed to be rendering perhaps a slightly more detailed, and if anything lent a bit of added drive to the music. The APV was just more engaging to me overall though. Again, my criteria being a more rich and natural sound.
After many months with the V181, and going balanced I can say with much confidence that a current comparison would be a whole different ball game and, I'm confident would reveal very different outcome in terms of actual details of comparison (though I don't know for certain which I might prefer). The V181 has opened up and occurs to me as having changed to the side of a richer self, especially in going balanced. Listening to the same cut I used early on to compare the two reveals a different, more competent amp than it had started out as. Comparisons at this point would be purely guessing on my part. I can say that I'm very happy with the V181 and was relieved that it did change in the ways it has from the early days I wrote those notes, where I only had a few hours on it. OTOH, there were two others who heard the V181/ APV comparo at that early point, Equus, and my friend Peter (longtime audiophile/music lover). Peter actually preferred the V181 to the APV after listening to a few cuts (where I found the APV more natural sounding he found it colored and, just the opposite that the V181 occurred to him as more natural). Equus had very different observations than I did playing his music (just a single cut) through the V181 and APV - his music was quite different from my own tastes, whereas what Peter listened to was closer to what I listen to. Since he's a member here I'd defer to him to comment if he wishes (and or recalls).
In summary; If you are an LCD-2 owner, or plan to be, I'd most certainly put the APV on the short list of great amps to combine those headphones with. I cannot find anyplace in my listening experience where I'd really find fault with how it rendered the music I favor (see above) to my ears. It occurs to me to combine richness and fullness with clarity and detail without straying from the natural ease that I value as a quality of the LCD-2's I used to listen with. It powers those cans effortlessly and without strain pushing them to volumes I would not be comfortable listening at without breaking a sweat. Based on what I heard, I would not consider it with the stock switching power supply, and the $2k pricepoint with the Volcano certainly does give it some pretty stiff competition (the V181 is about half the price, wheras the Woo I spent most of the review comparing it to is right around the same price point). If you are in the market for an amp at this pricepoint, especially to use with the LCD-2's, I would recommend it for an audition without any hesitation. Thank you again, Todd, for the opportunity to participate in this program.
