[DavidMahler]

After heavy emailing between Duncan of ipod studio and myself, as well as the previous thread on head-fi which I discussed the matter, my Larocco amp arrived on my doorstep. It was shipped Monday, which means that I believe my angry emails and maybe even the thread I posted a few days ago served their purpose.

I will be posting my impressions of this amp, but I want to preface my impressions by saying..........If you're willing to wait an unreasonable amount of time, and feel concerned that you were ripped off, and have to write literally 30 emails to two or three different people in order to attain this amp, aside from the 500 bucks which it costs, then by all means, feel free to purchase this amp........it truly is special. Aside from the Lisa III, I believe it is the second largest battery operated headphone amp. That being said, it was smaller than I imagined it would be. It is overall, about 20 % bigger than the Corda Move.

I have only listened to it for a few hours and am hesitant to make any massive judgments about the sound. Those of you who keep up with my threads know that I purchased a Ray Samuels HR-2 literally a week ago. The HR-2 I can honestly say is better in every way, but I do appreciate some things about this amp. It is supremely beautiful, made of metal with a silver shine. I'm sorry I don't have a camera.

My experience with portable amps:
RSA: Tomahawk
RSA: Hornet
Headroom: Bithead
Meier: Corda Move

The Hornet and Corda Move have always stood out for me as the best portables available, which I have tried. Without much time spent with it, the Larocco PRII easily joins the them at the top of the list. I imagine the Lisa III bests it in some areas, but I do appreciate its size, I wouldn't want a bigger portable amp.......any bigger and I may have well invested my money in a desktop amp. That is my opinion.

The first thing I notice about this amp is the warmth, even without the bass tone control added. It has a tube-like feel! I'm serious. My experience with tube amps are more limited to microphone preamps, but I can still recognize the difference between the definitive solid state sound and the definitive tube sound........this definitely has a feeling closer to solid state but more tube like than any of the other portable amps.

I've tested them with my UE10s (of course) and the HD600s, and the D5000s.

I will post my real impressions, some time this week after I've listened for at least 10 hours and have done some A / B testing between other portable amps.

 

[jimmy8269]

Congratulations.
Finally, the amp has arrived.

For the record, how many months/days are your waiting time?

 

[DavidMahler]

I ordered it July 25th, was told it would be in my hands no later than August 5th............it didn't ship out until October 22nd, and it took much bombardment to get that to happen......I truly believe its possible it could have taken a good year if I didn't keep up with Duncan. To this day I've still had no contact with Larry.

 

[spunkmeyer]

Glad you finally got it. Hope it turns out to be worth all the hassle for you. I was interested in ordering one, but was leery about the non-responsiveness. This only confirms it. Looks like I'll be looking for one used. Look forward to your review.

 

[greydragon]

I can totally sense the bitterness in your original post David. It sucks to wait tortuously for all those months and get something that's not up to par or to your expectations. Hopefully, burning it in may improve the sound.

Happy listening and can't wait for your review.

 

[krmathis]

Congratulations!

 

[oicdn]

This PRII is by far, the best sounding amp I've ever heard. Huge soundstage, impactful bass, goes as low as your cans can, and as high as your etys can go, transparent as hell....it's just rediculous.

Too bad they're impossible to find used. And when they do pop up used, they cost you just as much as a LisaIII. And for good reason, it's IMO, the best portable you can buy (haven't heard the Lisa III).

Congrats on finally getting that awesome amp. If I had one, I'de be recharging batteries like nobodies business, cause it'd never get shut off, lol.

 

[HK_M3]

Updates?

 

[dr.morton]

Quote:

Too bad they're impossible to find used. And when they do pop up used, they cost you just as much as a LisaIII.

There are PRII's in the for sale thread on a reglar basis. They are not as common as a Tomahawk or Hornet but if you can wait a bit they show up eventually.

 

[oicdn]

I don't see them pop up that often. I think I"ve seen 3 go up for sale. Mr Arroyos sold pretty quick, and it was still pricey. I remember seeing two others cause at the time, I was in the market for an amp, but wasn't in that price range, lol.

 

[sghound]

this thread is useless without pictures...