You know what? Ted from Synergistic Research has always had strange voodoo. Like Holger Stein of Stein Music.
I know Ted has advanced degrees in things like Physics and such, so even though they're not too open with info it's been RARE that I don't hear a difference with his products in a system. I just don't always like the change!
Like his Tranquility Base -
@warrenpchi and I did single blind tests with it, and could hear a distinctive difference - but we didn't always like it.
It was good for some amps and not for others.
I'm finding the same thing to be true w/ the HOT. It reacts differently with every amp: meaning the effect I hear is the same, but the degree of those changes vary with different equipment. On the Liquid Crimson I experienced what I have with other amps and the HOT - the HOT, to me, (and my friend Pete Davey from PFO heard the same thing in my hotel room at RMAF - and I refused to tell him about ANYTHING about what I'd experienced) - the soundstage widens, and deepens a bit as well, and, I know this sounds nuts, but micro and macro-dynamic detail seem slightly enhanced. But when I say slightly, it's misleading, as that change has an overall effect on the details and dimensionality of the sound as a whole.
Now, again, w/ the Liquid Crimson - which has broad soundstaging and fantastic detail retrieval, the effect is not as heavy as it is on this lil' Lambert hybrid headphone amp:
With the Lambert, which also does a good job with soundstaging and detail - but the HOT and the Lambert make for a killer combo because the HOT seems to interface with it on another level somehow.
These are ALL initial impressions too.
As I'm a big skeptic believe it or not, in high-end stereo tweaks - but I've heard a bunch work -
again I just don't like what they do a majority of the time...
But - admittedly - the Liquid Crimson - with the right set of cans, source, and cabling - as I know I got off-topic here -
I'd be working out how to buy my review sample if I didn't own a Cavalli LAu!! It's like it's little brother.
But the LAu still does the frequency extremes better than headphone amp - to me.
Whenever I come back to it - man, it blows me away even more!
Bravo Dr. Cavalli
Bravo