So, I spent almost the whole weekend listening to the Roc. Probably I'll be around 40 hours, so I guess is now fully burnt-in.
I'm still in the honeymoon period, so please take my opinions with a grain of salt.
I'm using a squeezebox duet as transport, connected to the LD DAC_I through the optical output. The Roc is connected to dac through the balanced output, using some BlueJeans XLR interconnects. The headphone is a DT880, 250 ohm, recabled and terminated with a 4 pin connector. Power cables are ClearerAudio.
I don't have much experience with head-fi, so I can't compare against many amps (I used to have a LD MKV, and I own a LD MKVII).
I listen mainly to acoustic jazz and chamber music, no rock, pop, no vocals.
Honestly my recordings are good, except for some old Blue Note cds.
I haven't done any critical listening, just enjoyed the music, and I haven't done any direct comparison against the LD MKVII, but I took some notes while listening to the music.
The first thing I've noticed is the sound quality at low volume level: probably because of the stepped pot there's no imbalance between channels, and I haven't noticed any major change in the tone or timbre increasing the volume. With chamber music the pot was around 10 o'clock, with piano trios around 9, a bit less with jazz quartets. My ears say thanks!
This amp has no wow effect, no coloured midrange, no insanely wide soundstage, no artificial bass impact. It simply sounds NATURAL.
Every detail recorded is there, clearly there, offered to the listener without making a special effort, naturally.
The Roc is smooooth: I was under the impression the sound was a bit harsh, fatiguing. Not at all. I could (actually I do) listen to hours, without headache!
I heard many complex passages in some recordings in a way completely new to me: dynamic is absolutely top notch, you can easily follow the double bass lines even during a 'noisy' sax solo.
There are some recordings I never heard with my speaker system (which I sold before getting into headphones), but only through my headphones. Let's put in this way: these are completely new cds now!!
An example: "My foolish heart", Keith Jarrett, recorded live at Montreaux Jazz Fstival. I've always thought this cd was recorded in a small, smoky jazz club, or even in studio, because the sound was claustrophobic. Well, yesterday I've found out how big and DEEP the stage was. You can clearly people clapping, cheering. Keith Jarrett's voicing has never been so natural, I heard Peacock and DeJohnette chatting at the end of the songs. Actually Peacock's bass has never sounded so real.
The soundstage is impressive: not wider but deeper, with instruments focused miles better. The stage is so deep that the midrange seems to be a bit recessed, especially the piano (but this could be an issue with the DT880). Definitely it's not a 'in your face' sound, but it isn't artificial.
Some notes:
- the bass of my cans has never been so fast (and beyers are know to be slooooow!) and deep.
- I can hear differences playing with the filters of the DAC: this didn't happen with the MKVII.
- I could also hear differences using an after-market power cable, compared to the cheapest stock one.
Probably next week I'll do a proper comparison with the MKVII, but what I heard so far is enough for me
