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HeadAmp Pico Portable Amp (w/ optional upsampling 24/96 USB DAC) Pre-Order Thread
Jan 6, 2009 at 10:50 PM Post #3,031 of 3,724
Sweet amps you have there lisnalee. The mini and the mighty. Woo-Hoo!
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Jan 7, 2009 at 1:48 AM Post #3,033 of 3,724
Quote:

Originally Posted by lisnalee /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Thanks kai, it really is a tiny little powerhouse, its hard to believe theres a dac and headphone amp crammed into the tiny chassis.



Just found a mini to rca cable and hooked it up to the woo, it sounds amazing, every bit as good as if not better than the apogee duet. Ive set it on low gain with max volume and the volume dial on the woo is at its usual 10 o'clock position. Its really hard to take in that they are being fed by something not much bigger than a matchbox.

kudos to you Justin, its a superb piece of engineering
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He should market it as the worlds smallest upsampling DAC/Pre-amp that can also drive headphones too.
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Jan 7, 2009 at 3:12 AM Post #3,034 of 3,724
Quote:

Originally Posted by HeadphoneAddict /img/forum/go_quote.gif
He should market it as the worlds smallest * & best upsampling DAC/Pre-amp that can also drive headphones too.
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*Dare I go there.
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I'm afraid to show my Pico to anyone who's not into this hobby...because when they ask how much it costs...
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They'd probably think I'm lying or just plain crazy.
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Jan 7, 2009 at 3:23 AM Post #3,035 of 3,724
Quote:

Originally Posted by GreatDane /img/forum/go_quote.gif
*Dare I go there.
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I'm afraid to show my Pico to anyone who's not into this hobby...because when they ask how much it costs...
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They'd probably think I'm lying or just plain crazy.
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Haha yeah today I let my Mom try my RS-1s and she started dancing around the house and singing like crazy.

When she asked me how much they were I lied and told her $200.
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Jan 7, 2009 at 3:39 AM Post #3,036 of 3,724
Quote:

Originally Posted by Brighten /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Haha yeah today I let my Mom try my RS-1s and she started dancing around the house and singing like crazy.

When she asked me how much they were I lied and told her $200.
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Isn't that standard course of action. lol

I think I might have fudged the price of gear to my wife before.
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...of course that's only if she notices something new...which is rare. She has no interest in my obsession, or addiction (whichever sounds better).
 
Jan 7, 2009 at 4:07 AM Post #3,037 of 3,724
Quote:

Originally Posted by Brighten /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Haha yeah today I let my Mom try my RS-1s and she started dancing around the house and singing like crazy.

When she asked me how much they were I lied and told her $200.
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You are bad and need to be punished. Send me your RS-1 and all will be forgiven.
 
Jan 7, 2009 at 4:31 AM Post #3,038 of 3,724
Since the pico is nearly in production can we rename this thread to the wine and cheese pico thread for all of us who are waiting on their shipping notices?
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Jan 8, 2009 at 2:31 AM Post #3,041 of 3,724
Quote:

Originally Posted by screwglue /img/forum/go_quote.gif
does the dac work with mac os?


Justin uses his Macbook at meets, so I am pretty sure it works just fine with mac os.
 
Jan 9, 2009 at 4:03 AM Post #3,044 of 3,724
Another new proud owner here. It's pretty damn impressive how something so small can provide so much as a dac/amp. I'm going to stray a bit, but since I can confirm a few things now that I have the pico, I may as well. These are thoughts from using the Pico alone to drive headphones. Spent about 4 hours total listening.

I heard a slight improvement with the Westone 3, but I still think they are veiled and on the bassy side. They not only require a good fit, but EQ'ing as well to sound their best. Less bass, and add in some BBE (for those with Cowon players).

The ESW10JPN would compete at the $300 range if they were to go against full size phones. They sound clear, detailed, articulate, but bass is its weak point. Well, I'm not getting the same full bodied sound compared to many full sized phones.

The RS1 with the pico is god-like. Seriously, these must be the best sub $1k headphones when you consider the fact that you don't need a super amp to drive them to this level or a lot of tweaking.

The GS1000 sounds weird (smile frequency) and they require a lot of setup tweaking to sound good. These are some very unnatural sounding headphones. I definitely prefer the RS1 in these cases.

Using the Pico as a dac/preamp to my EF1 provides results nearly as good as my Stello DA100 Sig + EF1. It's just hard to believe when you look at the size difference. I feel that the Stello is has a fuller sound and more resolution, but the pico is no slouch. Chances are, you could fool me in a blind a/b test. I have to spend more time listening to them both because I really don't believe it.

The pico alone provides a clean/neutral sound. It seems like you go straight to your headphone's signature sound. I found the ESW10 a bit light sounding, but with the EF1 tube magic (or distortion) into play, I got some good results. Similar to my Stello + EF1, which is why I'm impressed.

Now I just have to wait for the Pandora handhelds to ship. Then I'll have a high quality portable rig.
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