Sparkos Labs SS3601 Impressions
First of all, I would really like to thank Andrew Sparks, the man behind Sparkos Labs. Mr Sparks is a really nice and helpful guy who didn't seem to be bothered by thousands of my emails and always replied to them as fast and polite as possible which is much appreciated. I'd also like to thank another Head-Fi member
@Jusiz who gave me the idea to try these in the first place.
Disclaimer
I bought these op-amps with my own money and aside from 20$ price drop I did not receive any kind of compensation (even implied) for this review.
Preamble
Operational amplifiers, or op-amps are integrated circuits used in audio amplifiers to perform various functions related to audio amplification process. Unless Your name is NwAvGuy you know that op-amps do not sound all the same and that they can be replaced in order to tweak the sound signature of an amplifier. This is called op-amp rolling and allows the user to customize the sound signature of an amp to their preferences.
Initial Thoughts
As I've recently found out, the above definition doesn't really apply to the SS3601. Installing them is not a "tweak" and a resulting difference is not a matter of preferences. What we're dealing with here is a linear sound quality improvement across the board. All audio frequencies receive the same treatment of increased clarity/transparency alongside an increase in overall power output.
There is this often repeated audiophile cliche that a better piece of equipment can reveal details in the recording that were previously unaudible or that a veil is lifted from a song. Sounds like something straight out of Stuff That Never Happens Land, for me at least. But over the course of my tests I did actually notice details I've never noticed before.
In Leonard Cohen's Slow a stopwatch can be heard in the background throughout the entire song. I heard it for the first time yesterday even though Popular Albums is one of my all-time favorites and I listen to it practically every day. How come I've never noticed that before?
So are all other audio reviewers telling the truth when they say that <whatever> device uncovered a new layer of music for them? Frankly, I have no idea but I can still hear the stopwatch. And I definitely couldn't hear it two days ago.
Treble, Mids and Bass
I'm going to skip the usual description of how different audio frequencies are affected by the SS3601. As I've mentioned, the improvement is linear across the entire spectrum. If You really feel the need to read the usual elongated blabbery, you can generate one by yourself using the Audiophile Cliche Generator available
here.
Gain
[EDIT]: I asked mr Sparks about it and it seems that it's not possible for opamp to output more power. They sound as if they did though.
Sparkos Labs' op-amps have more power than the stock ones. This leads to two things:
- X7 gets noticeably louder regardless of the gain setting. On stock op-amps I usually set the X7 to 26% volume in High Gain mode for comfortable listening volume (with HD598). After replacing the op-amps the X7 is loud enough at 14% volume in High Gain.
- Every now and then I thought that a particular song, or a part, sounded great, but would've been even better if the X7 could output more power. Well, that doesn't happen anymore. While none of the headphones I own are particularly hard to drive, all of them benefit from the replacement.
Few months ago I've noticed that headphones sound different when the X7 is set to High Gain. After some discussion in this thread we came to the conclusion that it's certainly possible for some headphones to change their sound signature in High Gain. Both my HD598 and COP were significantly fuller and more dynamic with the X7 in high gain mode so I started listening to music in high gain exclusively as for 99% of my music it just sounded better. However one album (Lateralus by Tool) was absolutely unlistenable after enabling high gain. The guitars were so bright that they caused actual pain (not an exaggeration) after a longer listening session. Moreover, Lateralus was the
only album that exhibited such excessive brightness. Ultimately problem was solved by switching the X7 to low gain whenever I wanted to listen to Tool. I doubt the issue was exclusive to this one album, however I was unable to reproduce it using any other material.
After switching over to the SS3601 I did some comparison between both modes. Mids are still more pleasant in high gain, however the aforementioned brightness is gone so that's a plus. Overall I recommend keeping the device in High Gain mode permanently unless You're going to use IEMs.
Drinking game idea: Read this post and have a shot every time "high gain" is mentioned.
Conclusion
Sparkos Labs SS3601 are a simple, yet significant upgrade over the stock X7 and I really can't recommend them enough. They require zero technical knowledge and no soldering skills to install but provie a clearly audible and measurable increase in sound quality.
For people who also own the X7 and are kinda on the fence:
Sound Blaster X7 cannot output the SBX encoded signal to the line output, and it's not even true line output in the first place (The RCA on the back are actually preamp-outs despite the label stating otherwise). Attaching an external amplifier to this thing is a pain in the ass. So instead of attaching a second device to the X7 why don't You spend that money on a better internal amp?
For people who have zero impulse control whatsoever:
Sparkos Labs also makes dual-channel op-amps which can be used to replace the stock NJM2114D on the I/V conversion stage. 80$ apiece. If You ever decide to buy them, please post your impressions.
), and I hook up my X7 to my PS4 (optical), PC (USB), and iPhone (Bluetooth and USB Host). It really is perfect there, but my "just enough inputs" situation is not the same as yours.
If it aint broke don't fox it as they say.
