[anadin]

jamato8 reality has hit home where this amp is concerned.

It really does need some serious hours of burning in before its going to sound good.

90 hours done on the grill only another 410 until it sounds ok.

 

[Rico67]

anadin, welcome, i'm happy.
i'm not alone waiting for a good sound with my predator ( compar to my Hornet).
I'm nearly 460 hours of burning session on it ..
and hope it'll improve.
50 hours before having a satble sound.
200 hours to burn the dac.
Now sound ok with the dac, but not with the Imod.
So i'll continue until 1000 hours.
I thing it's a great amp, but need a long time before having great sound (due to the caps and batterie burning).
I heard the pulse during the charge and that is unpleasant.

 

[anadin]

The Predator im happy to say is sounding much better today.

Im between 100-105 hours burn in, everything is a lot less harsh and the frequencies seem to be settling down.

 

[Rico67]

If you use it with the inside dac, wait until 200 hours, you'll be happy.
Sound get better and better with time.

 

[alitomr]

After reading the review, I decided to put the Predator on the wish list, probably for Christmass!

Did i say I h9 you, Jamato?

.

Excellent post!

 

[Mat Bon 0013]

Does anybody ever experience distortion from iMod>Super cotton dock>predator?

 

[Rico67]

What do you mean with distortion ?
saturation ?

 

[Mat Bon 0013]

With the iMod+SCD the sound just breaks up after a certain volume level. At volume levels below that, it sounds fine. The iPod 4G+Cyro works fine with the predator. iMod+SCD also works without a problem with the hornet. Strange that!

 

[Rico67]

Yes, it's very strange !
i own an hornet and a predator too.
i use an imod 5G + pvcaps or femal imod dock and haven't this trouble.

I prefer the sound of the predator with the dac than with the imod.
For the imod and for the instance (Predator on burning process) i prefer usee my old hornet.

 

[Podster]

I have not broke down for the Predator yet but if they are anything like my Toma you need to run signal to a decent load for 500hrs to really here Ray's amps open up completely Of course if you ask Ray he will say plug it in and just listen to the music! LOL

When I got my Toma I had already read up on all the experiences out here and just ran a mini from ipod out to amp in and let it run steady until the batteries died somewhere between 438 and 456 hours as I looked at it at 456 hours and the Toma was dead but that next set of batteries was a totally different sound than out of the box day 1!

Whatever you do don't give up on that Samuel's product as it will be worth every penny when it reaches it's full potential

 

[nickyboyo]

I had the privilege of listening to a fully burnt in (1200 hours) Predator this weekend. The amp section is amazing, i have never heard such control on bass, mids and trebles from a device so small. Not only control, but the purity of the combined sound was so very very good. The only other time i have been impressed as much on a first listen was my first listen to Xin's supermicro.

The Predator is definitely on my wish list.

 

[Rico67]

thank you nickyboyo for the information.
I'm sure it' ll sound great when it ll be full burn.

 

[tha_dude]

Did you try the DAC section? If so, what did you think of it?

Quote:

Originally Posted by nickyboyo /img/forum/go_quote.gif I had the privilege of listening to a fully burnt in (1200 hours) Predator this weekend. The amp section is amazing, i have never heard such control on bass, mids and trebles from a device so small. Not only control, but the purity of the combined sound was so very very good. The only other time i have been impressed as much on a first listen was my first listen to Xin's supermicro. The Predator is definitely on my wish list.

 

[nickyboyo]

Sorry dude, i only listened to the amp section. I am sure reviews of the dac section will follow soon, along with more indepth amp section reviews.

 

[webbie64]

I listened to the DAC (burned in for at least 400 hours) as well as the Amp section (burned in for at least 1200 hours) and I think the DAC holds the amp section back.

Oh, it's definitely quite listenable and, sure, it's (way) better than the TBAAM and even, from memory, betters the Total Bithead (which also suffered from a slight bit of hiss as a DAC, but put out a better signal level than the Predator DAC does). But, compared to the Predator Amp being fed from the ibasso D1 DAC with LT6241 opamp in it, the Predator DAC is a disappointment for me

.

It's not that it is in any way bad. In fact I see it as a quite functional USB DAC, with good sound...but exactly that - good. For me the D1 is very very good - I could listen to it feeding the Predator feeding the Livewires for many many hours: with the Predator DAC it's like listening to something that's fine for background but lacks some of the punch, dynamics and detail that I want when listening to music for pleasure/enjoyment. (Which means that although it has those features, they are a little less present than when I'm running the D1 through the Predator - and I am simply a PITB when I know I can choose a better, even if it's only slightly better, sound

).

I find the Predator DAC to provide a sound that is a bit veiled, a bit abrasive and actually draws back from the delightful sound the amp alone can produce. It's just not as rounded as the D1. Less atmospherics, a little bit tinnier with the top end. It's like the converse of the D1, where it's the amp that draws back the excellent resolution of the DAC. Predator DAC vocals are pleasant, bass is a bit muddier/less defined (which reduces the effect of ultra-resolution and detail that the amp section by itself produces so, for some, this may be considered a good thing, slightly more 'integrated' sound, more musical?, than the amp section by itself). But the high end is definitely not as tonally accurate as the amp alone is (even though the amp alone has this as a slightly weaker area to begin with - but in the DAC it's, for me, patently obvious

). The Predator DAC also slightly lacks the bass amount and resolution of the D1 and Pico DACs.

The Predator DAC also puts out a smaller signal than the external line-in levels normally are, meaning that when running the DAC/Amp combo you are pushing the volume control and/or the Gain level more than with the Predator amp being fed from an external DAC.