Romanee
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- May 20, 2004
- Posts
- 3,278
- Likes
- 12
Quote:
Do you know how many hours of play time each amp had before reaching you?
I can't yet say anything about the Pico, not having one here yet, but besides having a 1000+ hour Predator here now I briefly had a 350+ hour Predator and it was very different and in many ways quite deficient (or rather, undeveloped). The 350+ hr amp was quite upper-mid prominent, somewhat "bright" with "feathered" edges around notes from mids up, a bit edgy and fatiguing all around and lacking in the clean/clear/smooth highs, transparent "window", separation/definition/dimension to instruments, deep/impactful/authoritative bottom end, warmth and more lifelike presentation of the 1000+ hour amp.
"Warmth" is not ipso facto a good thing, depending on your taste and viewpoint, but the younger amp was definitely lacking warmth, as compared to the more mature amp. If you read through jamato's long blog noting the developments as his Predator matured I'm sure you'll get a more complete picture, but these are my brief thoughts comparing the two and why some listeners may have heard a "colder", "brighter", less-than-clean and certainly much less beautiful Predator than one that's been through the (really really) long maturing period.
As a footnote, I received both amps and first started listening to them at the play-hours noted above. I did not hear them previously and had no "psychoacoustic adjustment" period with either. Just plug, play and immediate impressions (with some additional listening begun, of course).
| Originally Posted by micaela /img/forum/go_quote.gif I spent 10 days with both amps thanks to ASR's loaner program. I found the Pico to be the warmer of the two. I did not think the Predator was cold or overly analytical sounding, and if I had not been directly comparing the two I might not have heard this so clearly- but when comparing the two directly I definitely found the Pico to be warmer. |
Do you know how many hours of play time each amp had before reaching you?
I can't yet say anything about the Pico, not having one here yet, but besides having a 1000+ hour Predator here now I briefly had a 350+ hour Predator and it was very different and in many ways quite deficient (or rather, undeveloped). The 350+ hr amp was quite upper-mid prominent, somewhat "bright" with "feathered" edges around notes from mids up, a bit edgy and fatiguing all around and lacking in the clean/clear/smooth highs, transparent "window", separation/definition/dimension to instruments, deep/impactful/authoritative bottom end, warmth and more lifelike presentation of the 1000+ hour amp.
"Warmth" is not ipso facto a good thing, depending on your taste and viewpoint, but the younger amp was definitely lacking warmth, as compared to the more mature amp. If you read through jamato's long blog noting the developments as his Predator matured I'm sure you'll get a more complete picture, but these are my brief thoughts comparing the two and why some listeners may have heard a "colder", "brighter", less-than-clean and certainly much less beautiful Predator than one that's been through the (really really) long maturing period.
As a footnote, I received both amps and first started listening to them at the play-hours noted above. I did not hear them previously and had no "psychoacoustic adjustment" period with either. Just plug, play and immediate impressions (with some additional listening begun, of course).
