[adydula]

This purchase broke the bank..."3" tubes!

 

[evanescent]

I just had a GE 5670 Five star delivered today that cost $20 and it sounds great.

You can find a lot of great deals on these on eBay. They're counterfeit of course. Recent green stencils on a functioning but low grade 5670.

 

[jonathan c]

This purchase broke the bank..."3" tubes!

Small bank…

 

[ku1185]

Yay got my Piety very late in the day, but it's finally here. Took it out of the box and let it get to room temperature before plugging thing ins.

My DAC (r2r-11mk2) has ~2.5v output, and driving my 660s in low gain I have literally no usable volume range. It's either no volume, or too loud. Luckily the r2r-11mk2 has a decent preamp to compensate.

Will be driving HD660s, LCD-X, and DT770. Have the r2r-11mk2 and El Stack II to compare source gear. Excited to spend some time with it in the coming weeks.

EDIT: I was disappointed to find that my knob needed no yanking. Felt pretty smooth out of the box.

 

[XERO1]

I've been enjoying mine, but not sure if beats the Vali 2+ in my setup. They are both rather open for a Schiit amp.

So even though the Piety is sweet, the Vali 2+ is also sweet...having the luxury of several amps here I am amazed at what ones brain and sensories react when a new or different sound comes into play.

The Piety and the Vali 2++ are two great sounding $150 amps, but they definitely sound different from each other.

I'm not much of a wine guy, but I do enjoy drinking a good one when the occasion arises, so I'll use a wine analogy. The Piety reminds me of a really good but not too expensive red wine, that has a lot of body to it and has it's own unique character. While the Vali 2++ (w/ NOS RCA 5670) reminds me of a really good but not too expensive white wine, that is not as full-bodied as the red, but has a more light and refreshing character.

Both are excellent in their own right, but as with any good wine, it's all about what you pair with it. And I think the same applies with any good headphone amp, which both the Piety and Vali 2++ most certainly are.

 

[AnalogEuphoria]

Yay got my Piety very late in the day, but it's finally here. Took it out of the box and let it get to room temperature before plugging thing ins.

My DAC (r2r-11mk2) has ~2.5v output, and driving my 660s in low gain I have literally no usable volume range. It's either no volume, or too loud. Luckily the r2r-11mk2 has a decent preamp to compensate.

Will be driving HD660s, LCD-X, and DT770. Have the r2r-11mk2 and El Stack II to compare source gear. Excited to spend some time with it in the coming weeks.

EDIT: I was disappointed to find that my knob needed no yanking. Felt pretty smooth out of the box.

A few of us have this problem, very little play on the pot but I’m gonna get a Sys so I can stick this baby in high gain at 12 and control volume on the pre amp.

Ps: yank your knob anyway it’s still beneficial

 

[AnalogEuphoria]

Looking forward to pairing Piety up with the new Modi multibit 2 (fingers crossed it doesn’t get further delays)

 

[Runrunsmithfly]

You can find a lot of great deals on these on eBay. They're counterfeit of course. Recent green stencils on a functioning but low grade 5670.

They're not all counterfeit.

 

[ckhirnigs113]

As a reference, I’m listening to my Meze Elite (32Ohm, 101db@1mw/1kHz) in high gain at about 9:00 on the pot. My source is an OG Bifrost 2. This is a comfortable listening level for me, and I’ll probably never need to go past 11:00 for anything I listen to. No issues with channel imbalance either, so I’ll probably stick with high gain. I could easily get to 11-12:00 in low gain when I tried it briefly.

 

[artur9]

It everywhere in the US. There’s many articles on dirty electricity. Stick a meter in the ground and you’ll find 50/60 Hz. I know someone does ‘Earthing.’ They have pads with wire that runs outside into the ground.

I read somewhere that, in the U.S., the grid used to be a rock solid 60Hz because so many devices used it as a clock driver of some sort.
As more and more devices had their own clocks, the grid got less better.

That and all the devices dumping their electrical garbage back onto the mains with nary a care for other devices concerns me.

 

[ku1185]

A few of us have this problem, very little play on the pot but I’m gonna get a Sys so I can stick this baby in high gain at 12 and control volume on the pre amp.

Ps: yank your knob anyway it’s still beneficial

Will give it regular yankings, for maintenance.

Anyway, initial impressions? Pretty nice. Stage doesn't sound "flat" that I typically associate with most budget amps I've tried.

Low gain sounds quite soft. More mid forward. High gain seems to add some punch and impact, while giving some background stuff a sense of clarity (maybe more treble energy in high gain?)

Even on high gain, feels a little soft and dull with the HD660s (at least, compared to the r2r-11mk2 I was using).

LCD-X sounds great though (FWIW, never sounded too great off the r2r-11mk2). At the risk of overstating it, it reminds me a bit of my old Soloist 3xp in terms of presentation (more open, spacious, and deep stage; a nice pleasant decay; less etched/sharp attack but decent sense of weight), less a sense of unbridled power. Not as full sounding, dynamic, or holographic, and a slightly smaller stage perhaps (no surprise there).

Well that's my impressions from like, an hour of listening. Might have to keep this around for the LCD-X. Will eventually get around to other headphones and DAC (only El Dac II and Apple dongle at hand atm) but going to spend the evening enjoying this. =)

 

[XERO1]

Well that's my impressions from like, an hour of listening.

Give it some time.

IMO, the Piety needs around 100 hours of playing music (not just left on) before it really starts to sing.

 

[ckhirnigs113]

I bought the Piety for the occasional times when I didn’t feel like firing up the tube amps, but I have to say this thing has a very engaging sound with great bass impact/punchiness. It’s also not fatiguing at all with my Elite, even when cranking up the volume. It really is an impressive little amp.

The limited release aspect of this amp worked 100% on me because I truly didn’t need another headphone amp. That being said, I don’t regret my purchase at all. I deem it’s worth more than the asking price, but the $150 price tag is probably what caused this thing to sell out so quickly. I know I personally wouldn’t have bought it for $300. It was perfectly priced in my opinion.

 

[ku1185]

Give it some time.

IMO, the Piety needs around 100 hours of playing music (not just left on) before it really starts to sing.

Will do. I always give stuff at least a few weeks if not months.

I bought the Piety for the occasional times when I didn’t feel like firing up the tube amps, but I have to say this thing has a very engaging sound with great bass impact/punchiness. It’s also not fatiguing at all with my Elite, even when cranking up the volume. It really is an impressive little amp.

The limited release aspect of this amp worked 100% on me because I truly didn’t need it another amp at all. That being said, I don’t regret my purchase at all. I deem it’s worth more than the asking price, but the $150 price tag is probably what caused this thing to sell out so quickly. I know I personally wouldn’t have bought it for $300. It was perfectly priced.

Lol same! I had no idea this amp was a thing until I happened to see a video review the day it went on sale. Definitely an impulse buy but not regretting it... yet.

 

[JerrinSt]

Ok, I've had my Piety for close to a week now and I'm wondering if someone can help provide some perspective with this. My chain is: tablet streaming (Quboz) to Bluesound Node 2i connected by USB to Gungnir A1. Gungnir connected to Piety. Piety powering a ZMF Auteur classic (blackwood). I set the piety to play continuously for 3 days before sitting to listen (on high gain initially and then low gain). After writing down impressions switched back to usual amp. and listened again.

I listened for 2 hours to music (pop, folk, yacht rock, R&B) on the Piety. I noticed it did sound slightly more open and seemed to place a little more emphasis on background details than my normal amp (SW51+) does. However, I noticed that my ears felt uncomfortable after 30 minutes or so and I could not figure out why (speculation is that I may have been listening to music slightly louder trying get the impact from the vocals). I was listening at around 9:00 on the amp and my tablet volume was around 40-50%. To me, it sounded better than my usual amp on a couple of songs (more energetic and open, bass perhaps somewhat better), but on most, I did not like the sound. Two impressions stuck with me.

One was that the edges of the songs sounded rougher (more jagged?) and two, many songs that I am very familiar with sounded like I would expect to hear them on my radio as opposed to my system (sound was more like listening to a reproduction of the song rather than the song). I also tried the low gain option and it did not fatigue my ears as quickly (but still did), but it sounded somewhat less open and more closed in.

Given the reviews (and how my impressions are in the minority), is it possible I did something not optimal? Could my piety be defective? Any suggestions?