Pico question

[smeggy]

People are saying the Pico, with it's DAC and amp, has sound quality competitive with the Apogee minidac and above. It doesn't sport a dedicated line out but would using it's headphone out to a Power amp be a silly idea or what? Could it be used in this way and expect reasonably good results as it looks such a tempting prospect.

Obviously I wouldn't be expecting miracles but if it worked well it would be a good USB DAC, line in > amp/pre out so it could be used with IEMs and phones and out to a Power amp to run Stax and K1K etc. Both for portable and home use.

I guess I'm looking for the most economically viable portable + home headphone amp + DAC and pre-out in a nice small minimalist package.

Thoughts?

 

[GreatDane]

This has been discussed already and the verdict is that using the DAC in this manner will work, using an external amp.

 

[smeggy]

Thanks GD. I've been reading some Pico threads but I obviously missed the one addressing this issue. I'll go see if I can find what they say and if anyone has actually tried it.

 

[jamato8]

It would seem very doable. I think with the parameters that headphone amps have to hurtle because they are listened to in such a dissecting manner at times, that the upper tier portables could provide for some excellent pre amplification and when combined with a good USB dac being fed by a hard drive, which is better than using a CD directly, a small yet high quality home setup should be the positive consequence.

 

[smeggy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jamato8 /img/forum/go_quote.gif It would seem very doable. I think with the parameters that headphone amps have to hurtle because they are listened to in such a dissecting manner at times, that the upper tier portables could provide for some excellent pre amplification and when combined with a good USB dac being fed by a hard drive, which is better than using a CD directly, a small yet high quality home setup should be the positive consequence.

Kinda what I was hoping for because I have a whole mess of separate boxes doing all this stuff, cables everywhere and general clutter. If I can do away with most of it I'd be very happy. I need a decent portable amp, and as I use a ultra small PC (Sony UX) for mobile music it will always have a live USB port to hand. Ideal for me, especially if it is good enough for home duty too plugged into my power amps to give my SR-X 3s and K1Ks some good luvvins.

I doubt a Pico would sound any worse than my current lower end stuff and may indeed sound better.

 

[PhaedrusX]

I asked the same questions you did in a couple of threads. The pertinent replies were as follows:

one member used a Pico as a lineout to his balanced M^3 and found it comparable to his Apogee. He still preferred the Apogee slightly, but not by a large margin.

Another member who also used a Pico with external amps stated he found no issues with it's functionality.

Lastly, Justin commented that the Pico, when used in this manner, would be very similar to using the variable output on something like the Benchmark Dac1.

Variable output and pre-out would cover the same ground so if all this is true, and I have no reason to believe it isn't, then all your bases could conceivably be covered by this one unit.

 

[melomaniac]

is anyone now actually doing this? impressions?

 

[kugino]

i've been using the pico as my home source while waiting on my opus DAC. i've never heard the apogee DAC so can't comment on it. however, i've been pleasantly surprised by how well the pico functions as a pre-amp. i used it in two scenarios: pico->sig30->k1000 and pico->yamamoto->various headphones.

i'd be happy with the sound of this setup and think that the pico is more than competent to get a solid signal to the amp. the pico suffers, obviously, from its lack of multiple outputs, RCA outputs, multiple inputs, etc., like other pre-amps. but if all we're interested in is sound and competence, the pico does its job better than you might expect from something so small. better than the apogee or DAC1? i don't know and i won't comment on that...but, it's still good.

 

[Icarium]

Yup I do it with my Yamamoto HA-02 and it sounds like a match made in heaven.

 

[tyrion]

I've been doing some limited (due to time constraints at the moment) comparisons to the Apogee Duet. So far the Pico is holding it's own. I've been able to volume match easily using a meter and the volume control on the Pico. I am pretty impressed so far.

 

[Andrew_WOT]

I use it paired with GLite w/DPS in my office setup. From memory serves as a source quite better than previously used Transit+HR-MicroDac with 24/96 SRC upsampling.
I use low gain and around 2-3 o'clock volume position. Wondering what everyone else sets it at for use as a DAC only.

 

[kugino]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andrew_WOT /img/forum/go_quote.gif I use it paired with GLite w/DPS in my office setup. From memory serves as a source quite better than previously used Transit+HR-MicroDac with 24/96 SRC upsampling. I use low gain and around 2-3 o'clock volume position. Wondering what everyone else sets it at for use as a DAC only.

i've been using it on high gain at around 12 o'clock, which corresponds roughly to your low gain 2-3 o'clock, i think.

 

[kamal007]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Icarium /img/forum/go_quote.gif Yup I do it with my Yamamoto HA-02 and it sounds like a match made in heaven.

can you briefly compare the DAC in pico vs the DAC in the emu 0404 usb that you own?

 

[mchang]

x2. Curious what I should looking/hearing for.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kamal007 /img/forum/go_quote.gif can you briefly compare the DAC in pico vs the DAC in the emu 0404 usb that you own?

 

[Drag0n]

Quote:

Originally Posted by smeggy /img/forum/go_quote.gif People are saying the Pico, with it's DAC and amp, has sound quality competitive with the Apogee minidac and above. It doesn't sport a dedicated line out but would using it's headphone out to a Power amp be a silly idea or what? Could it be used in this way and expect reasonably good results as it looks such a tempting prospect. Obviously I wouldn't be expecting miracles but if it worked well it would be a good USB DAC, line in > amp/pre out so it could be used with IEMs and phones and out to a Power amp to run Stax and K1K etc. Both for portable and home use. I guess I'm looking for the most economically viable portable + home headphone amp + DAC and pre-out in a nice small minimalist package. Thoughts?

I havent tried a Pico in that manner..... but i tried bypassing the preamp in my brothers Marantz receiver and running my headphone amps into it,with his Marantz CD Player into it as a source, and NONE of them had enough drive to run the amp properly, although they all sound great as a headphone amp.
The three amps were:

1. Z-Audio Mu
2. Shellbrook Labs Mini-Moy
3. C&C Audio Labs Box+

All three went for about $100-125us approximately.

I just picked up a Portaphile v2^2 Maxxed and i have another Portaphile on the way, so maybe ill try the same test with those, but so far i cant see using a portable headphone amp as a pre-amp....but maybe the Pico is different.

My next useage as a headphone amp as a pre-amp will probably be a Woo Audio 2 .