Hey guys so I finally the 901 today at my local Shanghai store. Unfortunately they had only the standard amp. I listen to wavs that I usually use on my Tera with my Se5. I just had something like 30mn.
First of all on the ergonomics. It is not as large as I imagined, so quite portable, but heavy, which gives a feel of quality to me. On the other hand the wheel was broken and badly fixed which kinda messed up the experience for me. It also means the wheel is not necessarily solid. Otherwise the UI is quite simple and functional, but I experienced a bit of lag when pressing a button.
The sound...I would say comparable to AK120 in terms of quality, slightly better on some songs, because the low end has more authority at times and the mids are slightly smoother. Overall, I really liked the sound...the right mix of performance and pleasure. I would say that with standard amp, the difference in SQ vs. the ak120 really does not justify the inconveniences you have such as size, battery, etc. But if the sound with balanced amp is at least 10% better, than it is very debatable.
Oh not to forget, it is indeed ugly IRL but in an endearing way. My wife says it looks like a flash for a 70s camera.
Overall I am a bit tempted. I really do noy want to change iem cables though in any case, so I have a question. Does any other card sound as good or better than the balanced amp card with iems IN SE MODE?
