- Joined
- Aug 18, 2007
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I bought one of these to play with, and got it yesterday.
The sound is quite fun, adding punch to the ipod's output. It plays more than loud enough, without clipping. Bass boost is very smooth, withOUT unsightly coloration in the mid-bass. It is also very quiet, without background noise. Too quiet as a matter of fact for some (or many) audiophiles.
When listening to "Jazz at the pawnshop" at 192kbps on an 8gb Nano with my Ultrasone HFI 700 headphones, it sounds just like the recording was made in a studio. The problem is that it is a live recording made in a small club. With the Tomahawk Amp and the same source and headphones it sounds like a live recording.
With the cMoy the ambience/reverberation between notes or after the strike of the drums, etc... seems to be missing. Almost like the threshhold for letting quiet sounds and secondary harmonics pass through is set too high, i.e echo and resonance from the environment.
I will let this burn-in once I am done burning-in my D1, and report back in a few weeks with changes and improvements that I hear with this issue. I may also try it using my H120 optical+D1 as the Transport/DAC, instead of with an ipod's built-in DAC.
However, for casual listening with a nice set of headphones it will definitely rock out. It is a $39 amp that sounds like a $100 amp, and I have no regrets buying it as a spare. It should get better with time.
The seller is also very good at communicating about your needs and accomodating those needs, or customizing as needed. I got a gain switch hidden internally, and the LED brightness custom tailored. All I need now is a AC-to-DC power supply and rechargable 9v and I'm all set to not have to buy 9v batteries.
The sound is quite fun, adding punch to the ipod's output. It plays more than loud enough, without clipping. Bass boost is very smooth, withOUT unsightly coloration in the mid-bass. It is also very quiet, without background noise. Too quiet as a matter of fact for some (or many) audiophiles.
When listening to "Jazz at the pawnshop" at 192kbps on an 8gb Nano with my Ultrasone HFI 700 headphones, it sounds just like the recording was made in a studio. The problem is that it is a live recording made in a small club. With the Tomahawk Amp and the same source and headphones it sounds like a live recording.
With the cMoy the ambience/reverberation between notes or after the strike of the drums, etc... seems to be missing. Almost like the threshhold for letting quiet sounds and secondary harmonics pass through is set too high, i.e echo and resonance from the environment.
I will let this burn-in once I am done burning-in my D1, and report back in a few weeks with changes and improvements that I hear with this issue. I may also try it using my H120 optical+D1 as the Transport/DAC, instead of with an ipod's built-in DAC.
However, for casual listening with a nice set of headphones it will definitely rock out. It is a $39 amp that sounds like a $100 amp, and I have no regrets buying it as a spare. It should get better with time.
The seller is also very good at communicating about your needs and accomodating those needs, or customizing as needed. I got a gain switch hidden internally, and the LED brightness custom tailored. All I need now is a AC-to-DC power supply and rechargable 9v and I'm all set to not have to buy 9v batteries.