Sooooo, how are all of you enjoying your SP200's so far? I've had mine pretty much a month now and I freaking love it! Plus, once I got the new volume knob on there, it got even better. I've watched TV shows, movies, listened to music, played video games, the SP200 makes everything sound awesome, I wouldn't have it any other way honestly.
Zeos said in one of his video's that Grado's are one of those headphones you either love them, or hate them lol. Since I've never heard a pair of Grado's, I can't really give you advice. But the the pairs that he was reviewing were all on ears. I assume Grado has over ears as well, but who knows. I can tell you this much though, the SP200 pairs very well with any headphone that is bass heavy where the highs are a bit recessed. People who try to use the SP200 with headphones that are open backed that produce full level highs, say that the SP200 amplifies the highs too much to ear bleeding levels. Of course, if you had access to EQ, you could easily compensate for that.
I have the Grado sr80 and Shure srh1840 both open back, one 32 one 60 ohm. The volume knob starts at half past on the clock, 32 ohm well loud enough at twenty to, 60 ohm around ten to to five to. Just consider if you are happy with the colour of your source and DAC prior to getting to the cans. The sp200 has noiseless background and lets you hear what comes into it. I have an all digital system and can eq with Fabfilter Pro 3 which is superb.
I have the Grado sr80 and Shure srh1840 both open back, one 32 one 60 ohm. The volume knob starts at half past on the clock, 32 ohm well loud enough at twenty to, 60 ohm around ten to to five to. Just consider if you are happy with the colour of your source and DAC prior to getting to the cans. The sp200 has noiseless background and lets you hear what comes into it. I have an all digital system and can eq with Fabfilter Pro 3 which is superb.
Just got my SP200 last week. Have at least 30-40+hrs runtime on it (including burn-in tracks for ~20+hrs but "real use"). So far I've only used it with my Hifiman Arya. Plenty of power and volume (on high gain i only get to about 9-10 o'clock) even on these pretty power hungry planars. I think as many have mentioned, it's a very neutral/analytical sounding amp, which personally i find still isn't cold/lifeless when paired with the Arya. For context, most of my other amps and headphones tend to be on the warmer side (which is my preference).
One con though is that the soundstage really seems to be noticeably narrower, especially compared with my Schiit Lyr 2 (Amperex Bugle Boy 6DJ8 tubes), Burson Soloist or even Schiit Vali 2 (EH 6922 Gold tube).
Planning to try the SP200 out with my LCD2 rev1 this week. I'm thinking the amp should balance out the much warmer/darker nature of the LCD2 (especially vs something like the Arya).
Yes, it sounds great. The power and zero noise floor in the amplification really let's the design sing. It is of course one up from base in their range but for me the amp brought the level up to my Meze 99 Classic in many respects, some £200 odd difference.
Like I said in my review, the SP200 does straight up amplification, with noise floor reduction, exactly what it was designed to do. Those who have warmer sounding headphones like Denosha, will especially appreciate the SP200, because it will bring those headphones to life. Usually, the people who seem to not like the SP200, are folks who have bright sounding headphones out of the box, the SP200 will naturally increase the highs that you already have to levels you can't stand, unless of course, you had EQ to drop those highs down.
Reporting back in after some playtime with my LCD2s. Just like the Arya, it seems far happier on the High Gain setting even though the volume also stays around 9-10 O'clock. On low gain it's as though the upper-mids and highs are veiled and overall underpowered (even though the volume knob is only at about 11 O'clock). The neutral/analytical nature of the SP200 really does open up the LCD2 quite a bit, which works better for certain genres of music. Bass slam is still there, though to a lesser degree than some of my other amps.
Reporting back in after some playtime with my LCD2s. Just like the Arya, it seems far happier on the High Gain setting even though the volume also stays around 9-10 O'clock. On low gain it's as though the upper-mids and highs are veiled and overall underpowered (even though the volume knob is only at about 11 O'clock). The neutral/analytical nature of the SP200 really does open up the LCD2 quite a bit, which works better for certain genres of music. Bass slam is still there, though to a lesser degree than some of my other amps.
I concur, high gain seems to work best with my V-Moda Crossfade LP2 headphones. Low gain is really for drivers under 50mm that are not hard to drive. Also, use a nice thick cable, to get all that delicious amp power to your cans.
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