Hey you guys, I didn't get a chance to talk to many of you about this... but did y'all get a chance to hear the super secret headphone amp that was at my table? Any additional thoughts about that rig, good or bad?
BTW, I thought it was pretty awesome that we had some girls at our meet. Not just girls that were dragged there kicking and screaming by their boyfriends, but girls that dig personal audio.
Hey Warren! First of all, thank you so much for all your hard work putting together the meet (you too Ethan!) and manning it on your birthday. This goes for all the guys that helped out/volunteered at the meet. Secondly, your birthday was a blast. Getting destroyed at billiards by all the mods was surprisingly fun (the cheeseburger/beers didn't hurt either!) I also think it's hilarious that the gentleman manning the super-secret headphone amp at your table was also celebrating his birthday!
You asked about the amp, and you're in luck, because I actually spent quite a while with your LCD rig and the new amp and gave my impressions at the table, but I'll go a little more in depth here:
Apparently the enclosure will be completely different from what we saw, so I won't comment on the looks/size/shape of the amp in question. As far as sound goes, it was the perfect time and place to try out the amp, since there were so many other LCD setups at the meet to compare with, albeit not immediate or directly so I was really going off memory so this is all IMO.
It definitely seemed very capable, good/great dynamics and allowed the LCD to really sing. It sounded at least as good as the Schiit Mjolnir to me, which is very good company to be in. Dead silent background with the LCDs, didn't try it with anything more sensitive though. I was concerned with the gain though - it got really loud, really quickly, so unless it was packing a ton of power, this thing needs a more usable volume control. It would be tough to use this with sensitive headphones in the current setup, and darn near impossible with IEMs. Also, with it being balanced output only, it definitely limits the amount of headphones you can use with it, and I'm always an advocate for versatility in my amps, if you can do it without harming the signal.
So all in all a definite challenger to the Mjolnir and the rest of the <$1000 amps I heard LCDs on at the meet and have heard in the past. They really sang, and I don't think I heard a better Audeze setup all day. If those small issues like smoother volume control and SE output are fixed with a price tag in the $600-$800 range I think this could be one heck of a good deal and easily compete with stuff in the >$1000 market sound quality-wise.
