[mrarroyo]

The Toucan and Boomslang have 190 hours of burn-in and I have not heard any major differences in the last 100 hours or so thus I will stop the burning in tomorrow at about 205 hours or so. Now I am waiting for an iRiver and a new cable to re-terminate to balance operation for an UE TripleFi 10.
 
Using an Audio Technica ESW9 the sound out of the Toucan is very involving, detailed, clear, but above all very musical. Quite happy with the combo, cheers.

 

[paulybatz]

 
In action at the office...after many days of listening cannot be happier with the set.
It produces sound exactly as I wish for it to, perfectly neutral, clean and clear.
 
The quality of the pots and construction is tremendous and for the price...again, unbeatable.
 
Forget about the other small balanced amps on the market, they are more money and simply cannot compete with the Toucan's versatility
 
For example...Im actually listening single ended right now in the office as you can tell, I leave a pair of Ultrasone 2500s at the office
 
So this is an amp you can grow into, forget about desktop amps too...I like the ability to take these things around with me, not necessarily carry them around as I walk, run, jog and listen but to take them to the office and home and be able to pack them in my briefcase.
 
A little Dave, Under the Table and Dreaming this morning...from my laptop, Boomslang is perfect!
 
I cannot understand the few that are for sale already, if you can save a couple bucks on those, and are on the fence buy them up and start listening!

 

[Young Spade]

Very nice paulybatz, very nice. I had the Toucan a while back and loved it, great sound, very powerful and through SE drove my K702s very well.

 

[paulybatz]

Now Im listening to Pandora, streaming Jerry Garcia Band channel!!!
Fantastic, considering buying the better, higher resolution stream...anyone out there try it yet?

 

[mrarroyo]

I have been using just the Toucan single ended being fed from an iPod and with an ALO line out. The Westone 2 seems to have a better affinity than the UE TripleFi 10, the treble is more detailed the sound is clearer and there is more air between the notes. With the stock cable/tips the Westone 2 is the better match of the two. I am waiting or comply tips and we will see if the sound gets better or not.

 

[AVU]

Quote:

Originally Posted by debitsohn /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
yea if i could keep it and still build my desktop combo i would do that in a heart beat. im considering selling everything else i own and keeping the combo with my desktop combo.  we'll see what happens. all in all though, i need the money for my desktop amp.

 
This is a question I had, and maybe no one here can answer, as you all seem to have either super nice desktop rigs, or all portables, but here goes:
 
Can anyone compare (or guess, but I'd like a real detailed A to B comparison) of the Toucan/Boomslang combo against a home amp + dac unit (either together or separates) of similar price?  Balanced or not?  Just wondering how this would stack up to something like the Audio-Gd Sparrow or Fun, to the Matrix-mini-i (balanced), the Audinst HUD-mx, Yulong D100, NuForce HDP, and so forth, all of which are the same price or cheaper, though obviously not as portable.

 

[mrarroyo]

AVU you pay a premium when you go to a portable, specially if balanced. This due of course to miniaturization, if you do not need portability get a desktop amp/dac. I know I am going to get flamed for this. 

 

[warp08]

 
Quote:

AVU you pay a premium when you go to a portable, specially if balanced. This due of course to miniaturization, if you do not need portability get a desktop amp/dac. I know I am going to get flamed for this. 

I agree.  When you shrink things down, something's going to have to give.  Still, I'm amazed by the apparent value proposition of this particular combo.  The only drawback I found during burn-in is that the amp's wall wart generates a buzzing noise when plugged in when the balanced DAC input is used.  Apparently, it's designed to be used only off-grid.  Interestingly the buzz is not present if the S/E input is used while similarly plugged into AC.  No biggie, just found it interesting.

 

[Xan7hos]

Just recieved my PB1 Toucan. Holy Cow I was expecting this thing to arrive in a couple weeks, but I  guess international shipping has gotten much much better (literally showed up 3 days after order placed).
 
Just a nitpicky note, my PB1 arrived buried under a slew of accessories, and while the new anodization process adobted by iBasso is top notch, I just don't like the idea of the items potentially harming the surface of the amp. Definitely would've been nice if the amp wasn't exposed (maybe an electrostatic bag?). That being said, while there was some residue, none of these things produced any scratches
 
 
Overall build quality is top notch, very solid, aesthetically/design wise everything just makes sense. I'm really impressed with the quality of the Alps pot
 
 I plugged it in to my HD-5 and Valab NOS dac. Headphones were RE0 single ended. Right away I noticed that it was very laid back, it took away some of the treble energy of the RE0. However, bass extension and quantity has increased, making the pairing with the RE0 a very laid back combination. I can't comment much on imaging and soundstage at this moment. Right now I'm diggin the sound, and I can't wait to reterminate my HE-5 and see how it sounds. Just to note these are impressions with very little burn in <10hrs.
 

 

[warp08]

Same here, it got here in 3 days from China via EMS.  My issue was that I had ordered the silver version and ended up with the black one. Apparently their webstore doesn't quite support Safari, because I specifically remember specifying silver and they said their ordering system showed black.  They offered to exchange them, but I would have had to pay return shipping.  Communication was responsive with them.  This is my first iBasso purchase and so far, so good.
 
The extra set of screws in a small plastic bag plus shipping 5 sticky silicone feet instead of 4 in case you lose one are nice touches as well.

 

[muddyglass]

am i going insane, or does the pb1's battery recharge in just 2 hours? the ibasso manual says it should take 4 hours to charge. i've completely emptied and charged the battery a few times already and it's been 2 hours or so each time.

 

[Noir7]

make the RE0 more laid back sounding, than this amp have a good synergy with treble centric headphone/iem?
 
Quote:

Just recieved my PB1 Toucan. Holy Cow I was expecting this thing to arrive in a couple weeks, but I  guess international shipping has gotten much much better (literally showed up 3 days after order placed).
 
Just a nitpicky note, my PB1 arrived buried under a slew of accessories, and while the new anodization process adobted by iBasso is top notch, I just don't like the idea of the items potentially harming the surface of the amp. Definitely would've been nice if the amp wasn't exposed (maybe an electrostatic bag?). That being said, while there was some residue, none of these things produced any scratches
 
 
Overall build quality is top notch, very solid, aesthetically/design wise everything just makes sense. I'm really impressed with the quality of the Alps pot
 
 I plugged it in to my HD-5 and Valab NOS dac. Headphones were RE0 single ended. Right away I noticed that it was very laid back, it took away some of the treble energy of the RE0. However, bass extension and quantity has increased, making the pairing with the RE0 a very laid back combination. I can't comment much on imaging and soundstage at this moment. Right now I'm diggin the sound, and I can't wait to reterminate my HE-5 and see how it sounds. Just to note these are impressions with very little burn in <10hrs.
 

 

[Young Spade]

Quote:

am i going insane, or does the pb1's battery recharge in just 2 hours? the ibasso manual says it should take 4 hours to charge. i've completely emptied and charged the battery a few times already and it's been 2 hours or so each time.

haha I don't see the problem then
Well it might be the difference in voltage between the chargers? Of the wall I mean, but since that's going to the adapter halfway though I don't see why it would matter.... oh well. When I had mine it charged pretty fast too; never died on me though; really great amp.

 

[Xan7hos]

Quote:

make the RE0 more laid back sounding, than this amp have a good synergy with treble centric headphone/iem?
 

 
Bare in mind those are initial impressions on an amp with little burn in (if it matters to you). I'm listening to the toucan with a Grado SR-125, which has your typical grado signature (i.e. energetic treble), via single ended output. So far I'm diggin its ability to bring out the bass, but its tight and not muddy whatsoever; it does not interfere with the signature Grado mids. I do not feel like it "tamed" or smoothed out the treble much for this headphone, but at the same time it's less fatiguing to listen to (as opposed to ampless), and it definitely helps balance out the lower end of the spectrum

 

[novacav]

i definitely agree it's less fatiguing, the bass from this amp is gorgeous. i've been using the pb1 in SE with a pico dac and it sounds excellent.... very detailed without sacrificing serious bass power. i haven't heard it with the boomslang but i'm certainly content for now, the sound from the pico/pb1 is fabulous. (if i go balanced however i will pickup a boomslang )