Ok, my Black LDM+ (Low Gain) has finally passed the 60hours burn in. I am writing down my take on this atomic little wonder.......
Equipment used:
Cans - Alessandro Music Series 1 & KOSS PortaPro
Canalphones - JDM Panasonic RP-HJE50 32Ohm (heavily modded)
Interconnect - Custom Canare StarQuad
DAP - Creative Labs ZEN Neeon 5GB (firmware 1.011)
Source - Near Lossless LAME VBR-New V0 Q0
Comparison: CMOY OPA2134PA
* FLAT Equalizers *
At this stage my LDM+ has been running non-stop for over 60hours. I would not expect it to perform well before running in for at least 50 hours but certainly my CMOY is getting quite a beating almost in all area. It did sound a bit edgy in the first 8 hours - but then again this is expected. And it haven't died yet from the moment I turned them on! I didn't even charge it yet - purely running on whatever supply of power in the new battery
Highs/Treble/Decays:
This is where LDM+ reigned supreme. Despite the size the LDM+ high frequency output is simply mind boggling. Treble is fluidly presented with very little hint of sibilance. I would expect after over 50 hours the sibilance will be totally gone. Highs are deeply extended and this resulted in sweet decays in cymbals, bells and most percussion instruments, previously only 70% of these are audible with the CMOY. Overall presentation can be defined as cold, but not on the negative side. Guitars "twang" and Synthesizers roll off is faithfully reproduced and did not sound artificial at all. The major improvement is highs control that prevented any sound from going over the board
BASS/SLAM
Some LDM+ users complained that bass seemed to be "reduced". I did not find this to be the case. LDM+ introduced a very tight controll over bass in all frequencies. There's no chance for bass to get boomy of flabby. On tracks that have continous bass attack and sweep, bass remained strong and punchy, while on tracks that does not emphasize bass, it remained reserved as it should be. Grado signature slam and punches remained solid. And yes my ears tell me they extend rather deep. But in this aspect CMOY OP2134PA boast wider bass presence
Articulation/Resolution/Imaging:
LDM+ is a master of articulation, MS-1 is already an articulate headphone among most Grados (within the same league of SR225 but slightly tamed). Combined with LDM+, it's a few step up which resulted in sterile and non glaring resolution. So much so that if a bad source like an MP3 that contained some minor clipping, the artifacts will be heard audibly. But for as long as a clean source is fed through it, LDM+ will spill it out clean. LDM+ complement very well to Grado strong imaging - close your eyes and let the music blow you away
. I am using my LDM+ now for monitoring of badly ripped WAV files from scratchy CDs.
Separation/Spatial/Soundstage:
Another major improvement from CMOY is instrument separation. LDM+ exhibit superb control over each instruments and no matter how peaky the songs get, it will not sound congested at all. This is even more evident with percussions and strings (guitars). However LDM+ does little to improve Soundstage and Spatialization, MS-1 being a Grado will always suffer from limited sized Soundstage just hovering around the shoulder. But this is compensated by Grado's dynamic airyness and in fact with LDM+ it's trully a 3D experience. I can clearly discern drums behind my shoulders, cymbals somewhere at top corners, guitars rotating seamlessly according to songs, bass rumbling where it should be. Most importantly vocals remained centered and focused - not overly, slightly laid back by Grado & KOSS standard
Midrange:
If you are heavily focused on vocals and mids, you will be slightly dissapointed with the laid back presentation. But some may find this appealing because rather than having the singer singing in your face it will be like listening to them 5 feet away. Drum thumps sounded just right - not emphasized nor reduced.
Speed:
Excellent speed! even a 9V CMOY sounded slow compared to this 3.7V LDM+. Speed played vital roles in getting the whole spectrum to move in liquid motion
Tone/Timbre:
Overall tonality is cold. This is not a warm amp at all unlike those tubes and OPA2134/2132/2227 OpAmps. But tone/timbre remained whole bodied and not tubby sounding at all
I could write more on this wonder, but I would not want to waste your time going through all of them. Listening is believing and I am glad that I made the choice to get this LDM+.
If I have to pick flawed points in LDM+, it has to be the relatively strong input required from the source. Compared to CMOY, I only have to put up 31/40 of volume on the headphone out. The LDM+ require 36/40 to scale up to the CMOY. But then quantity does not constitute quality - I can live with that.
And the SIZE! this has to be one of the thinnest and smallest amp available today beside XIN's SuperMicro & SuperMini. It's actually smaller than a credit card
Pics:
*EDIT* Due to the very addictive drug called MS-1, I have almost entirely based my review on MS-1 and almost none on PortaPro. But the short period that I plugged my PortaPro did ended in a very desirable result. Helps to remove the heavy veil from PortaPro by some margin but of course PortaPro still remained warm/dark by most standards
