bdh
500+ Head-Fier
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- Feb 17, 2004
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As being one of the lucky few who has heard the Apex Pinnacle at length, I would first like to thank Todd at TTVJ for loaning me the amp. And I just happen to be a little luckier than most, as after I received the amp, the next person in line to receive it told Todd he couldn’t accept it before Dec 20th, which gives me two and a half weeks with it. Woo Hoo!
Sorry to those who like direct and brief reviews, as I just don’t know how to do those. (Edit: For those who don't care to read everything below, here is a quick summary: The amp sounds very, very good. That's pretty much the final conclusion.)
When you get to the ‘high-end’ level of audio components, without comparisons to other equipment, audio reviews are almost useless to me. After all almost every high-end component will likely sound reasonably great and taken on its own will invariably get a good review. But how good is it in comparison to other components? What if it’s only marginally better than an average component? I want to know that. Especially if it can be described in relation to something I’m familiar with.
For headphones, my primary can is a highly modified (by me) JVC HP-DX1000 re-cabled with APS v3 and Furutech connector, which sound very little like an un-modded DX1000. I also have a Beyerdynamic T1 and a HiFiMan HE-5. The HE-5 is not the .0 version that was extremely bright, which I first received, but when the wood cracked I sent it back for replacement and received the .1 version with the ‘star’ padding which tamed the brightness. It has the real wood housing, so it’s not the .2 version. I also have an un-modded DX1000. I have a Jade HE 1.3, but currently do not have an electrostatic amp for it. And I have a Darth Beyer-770, which I did not bother trying with the Pinnacle. Previously owned headphones are the bass-heavy Sony R-10, AT L3000, Grado RS-1, RS-2, 325i, Denon D5000, and two APS re-cabled Ultrasone Edition 9’s.
I have not purchased an LCD-2 for a couple of reasons. The first is due to the descriptions of its fit and clamping. I apparently have a tall head and have pretty much set every headphone to its maximum size, and would still like a little more room on most, and I do not like tightly clamping headphones. In addition, I wanted to wait and see what the reviews are like for the HE-6, the Edition 10, etc., before even considering a new can, as I felt burned buying the T1 and HE-5 compared to my current headphone. But I would really love to hear the LCD-2.
As far as amps, I have a MapleTree EAR HD-250 tube amp (12ax7->EL84) that I use at work, and a SinglePower Extreme (6sn7->421A) that I use at home. (Yes, that’s a NOS Western Electric 421A. I find it better than any other output tube I’ve tried in the Extreme.) I also have a Xin Mk III portable and the HiFiMan EF-5 at home when I want to listen to the HE-5’s, as the Extreme just won’t power them properly. I’ve owned the MPX3, the SinglePower Concerto dual ES-1 electrostatic and Maestro dynamic amp, the Ray Samuels HR-2 (?), the AT DHA-3000, and the Ray Samuels Tomahawk.
For sources, I have two Empirical Audio modded Benchmark DAC1’s – one for work and one for home. I also have a Mhdt Havana tube DAC that I use in my speaker rig, plus a Stello DAC which I don’t currently use. At work I also use an Empirical Audio Off-Ramp 3 re-clocker.
There have been lots of headphone amps and there seems to be a deluge of new amps coming on the market in the past year. I haven’t been too interested in actually buying most of them, as it seems to me just trying different flavors rather than taking me to the next level (or levels) up in terms of quality and musical pleasure. I’ve been interested in the Balancing Act, the EAR, the Luxman, and a couple of other higher-end amps, but I haven’t been able to hear any of them nor get a good feel reading Head-Fi for what they would sound like to me in order to make a decision on purchasing one of them. I must say I got extremely lucky to be chosen for the Pinnacle loaner ‘program’.
Listening and Comparisons
The Pinnacle came with a Tung Sol JAN 6sn7 driver tube, which is surprisingly a great tube. (Most amps come with some crappy Electro-Harmonix, or similar tubes.) The output tubes are Sophia Electric PX4’s. With the supplied tubes, the first time I heard the amp, I am struck by how natural, open, and three-dimensional the sound and soundstage are. Everything is clearer, richer, more vibrant and realistic than with the Extreme. Nothing seems out of place or strange. Nothing draws untoward attention to itself, except for the music itself drawing you in. Some components immediately draw your attention to the bass, or treble, or the smoothness or harshness, etc. What drew my attention most was how everything just sounded right.
A tube amp is all about the tubes. There are heavenly tubes and there are hellish tubes, and everything in between. Letting me select the tubes lets me choose the character of the sound to a great extent. And to me, there is no ‘best tube’ that works for every system. For my MAD HD-250, the Amperex BugleBoy 12ax7 is the best I’ve heard. Yet in my 12ax7->45 SET speaker amp, a … long plate 12ax7 is the best I’ve tried. In my Concerto, a Tung-Sol Mouse Ear 6sn7 was the best driver with Sylvania Chrome Top 6sn7’s for outputs. Yet with the MPX3, I never heard a 6sn7 driver that sounded good, but the Sylvania Chrome Tops were the best for the output tubes and a 2c51 as a driver. My VAC Ren 30/30 300B speaker amp sounds best with both a Russian 6H8C and Sylvania Chrome Top in each channel. The Extreme has an even different favorite 6sn7.
So I tried about eight different 6sn7 and 7n7 tubes in the Pinnacle over the next few days. The supplied tube ended up being my third favorite. My next favorite is a Tung Sol (RCA) 6sn7GT black base with T-posts, which sounds a lot like the supplied tube, but is just a bit more detailed and open on top, and is more musical and provides more PRAT. But my favorite tube so far is the Russian 6H8C metal base. Normally this tube sounds quite a bit different than other 6sn7’s, in both soundstage, headstage, and the sound itself, but in this amp its differences are minimal compared to the other 6sn7s. What makes this my favorite is not that it’s more detailed, has better bass, treble, or midrange, or is more open, etc., because in fact my second favorite probably is better at those things. What makes it my favorite is it provides a focus and solidity to the music which provides satisfaction to me. I think it’s separate from the imaging though, and probably more related to ‘slam’, but at both the macro and micro levels of the music. The sound with the other tubes can be described as nice, polite, or even maybe ethereal to a degree, and I keep turning the sound up trying to get that satisfying slam or solid feeling to the music – even on Classical or Easy Listening, but of course especially on Rock.
In fact, I had thought the Tung Sol 6sn7GT was my favorite tube due to its clarity and openness, until I did a comparison with it in the Extreme. The Extreme had that satisfying solidity to the music I desire. Although the Pinnacle had far better ‘sound’, I actually liked listening to music on the Extreme more in this case. Some people may be surprised at this, but from my experience, I can make any amp sound bad to me or potentially great to me depending on the choice of tubes. For example, with a Sylvania Chrome Top as a driver in the Pinnacle, the sound and music is much too soft and mushy to me, and the Extreme is far better (using the Tung Sol … or several others).
In order to see if I could get that solidity in the Pinnacle, I decided to retry some of the other tubes and when I put the 6H8C back in, it was a relief, both sonically and by the fact that I would have a hard time stating that I preferred the Extreme over the Pinnacle. Which by the way could be considered true, but only depending on the tube complement of each amp. J However, with the 6H8C, the Pinnacle produces sound and music significantly better than the Extreme. With some of the other tubes, the Pinnacle produces sounds significantly better than the Extreme, but not necessarily better musical satisfaction -- at least to me. For others, they might not even notice that aspect, or may not even care about it or prefer the tubes. Different people place different importance on different aspects of music playback.
This phenomenon is not limited to tube choices. For example, I would much rather listen to music via my modded JVC on the Extreme than the T1 or HE-5 on the Pinnacle. I would much rather listen to the Extreme using the various plugins (Starplugs Master EQ equalizer, Isone Pro, Effects) for J River Media Center 15, than listen via the Pinnacle without them. Does this mean the Pinnacle is not worth it due to the cost of it versus the cost of these other things? Not at all. But to go to the next step (or two steps) in amplifier performance from where I currently am takes quite a bit of money, be it this amp or a few of the other top tier amplifiers. The only other amp I’ve heard that has come close to the Pinnacle in terms of providing musical pleasure and performance has been the SinglePower Concerto’s dynamic section. With the right combination of driver, output, rectifier, and choke tubes, the Concerto has still provided the most emotional reproduction of music to date. Listening to Ella Fitzgerald would regularly move me to tears. The electrostatic section of the Concerto, again with the right tubes, was also spectacular, but provided a very different experience. However I have not heard some of the other great amplifiers like the EAR, the Balancing Act, the SDS, and several others.
Comparing the Pinnacle, Extreme, and MAD HD-250 is not too difficult. The Pinnacle with the 6H8C is a lot like the Extreme with the Tung Sol in terms of headstage (where the instruments and sounds are located inside the head) -- both locate the images just to the back of the temples, and in terms of general presentation or soundstage, both are a bit forward with the sound coming fully out to the sides of the head and the image being quite large and prominent there; only the Pinnacle has far better three-dimensionality, tone, liveliness, bass texture and definition, mid purity, treble extension, openness, natural sound, live sound, micro-dynamics, macro-dynamics, musicality, PRAT, blackness (lack of noise, space between instruments, space between notes), liquidity (the music just flows from the headphones and it’s hard to turn the music off), detail and clarity at all frequencies, lack of harshness, imaging, instrument separation, size of the soundstage (perception of the musical stage), size of the images (both height, width, and depth inside your head – e.g. does the singers voice sound tiny or large), refinement, richness, transient definition, transparency, immediacy, and on and on. Whereas the HD-250 (of which there are only 10 in existence, plus one tube rectified prototype), has a different presentation, which is where the sound stage is just a bit more distant and although the headstage goes out to the edges of your head, the main focus of the music is more towards the center, where the Pinnacle’s focus is more toward the edges. The HD-250 provides a more forgiving listening experience, but that doesn’t mean it has a soft sound – it’s just somewhat less forward sounding.
In my experience, it’s primarily the different types of driver tubes that most defines the soundstage and headstage differences between amps. 12ax7 vs. 6sn7 vs. 2c51, etc. And that would explain why the Pinnacle and Extreme have a similar presentation as compared to the HD-250 and EF5. The HD-250 has more of a refined sound (which doesn’t translate to higher quality compared to the Pinnacle), while the Pinnacle has more of a live sound. Similar to how my Dali Helicon 400’s have that high-end audio ‘refined’ sound, whereas my Emerald Physics CS2.3’s make the music sound like it is being played live right in my living room. Both are great sounds, but they are definitely different. And while virtually all music sounds incredible in both systems (both speakers systems and both headphone systems), certain songs or albums just sound better on one or the other. I think it is mostly due to differences in the recording technique and resulting soundstaging that makes most of this difference. Regardless, the way I have tweaked all my systems makes virtually everything sound great on all of them, except for maybe a few dozen albums, as opposed to the usual high-end audio complaint of only a handful of albums that sound great and everything else sounds like crap. And it hasn’t been done by creating a diffuse or forgiving or wall-of-sound type of experience. I personally have never heard anything close to sounding as realistic as the J River Media Center -> modded Benchmark -> Apex Pinnacle -> JVC DX1000 headphone system or my J River Media Center -> Havana -> DBX digital crossover and equalizer -> tri-amped (with two 12ax7 -> 45 amps (2.5W output) one for the tweeters and one for the mids, and a solid-state PS Audio 500W amp for the woofers) -> Emerald Physics CS2.3 speaker system.
As far as the HiFiMan EF-5 amp compared with the Pinnacle (with an Amperex BugleBoy in the EF-5), the images are located a bit further back in the head, just above the ears. And the rest of differences can be described as the EF-5 is okay sounding – not bad, but also nothing sticks out as being really good either, and that’s with the best tube I could find for it. It’s just an average sounding amp whose main claim is that it has enough current so that it can drive the HiFiMan HE-5 planar headphones and is fairly cheap.
As far as balanced vs. unbalanced, I tried using a pair of nice Synergistic Research RCA interconnects between the Benchmark and the Pinnacle, a pair of APS XLR interconnects, and a pair of Straight Wire XLR interconnects. All were noticeably different from each other, but how much of the differences between RCA and XLR was due to differences in the cables, differences between XLR and RCA outputs of the DAC, and differences in XLR and RCA inputs of the amp is of course impossible to tell. I prefer the APS XLR cable, then the SR RCA cable, and finally the SW XLR cable. The APS XLR cable is noticeably brighter compared to the Straight Wire, while the Straight Wire XLR cable is noticeably fuller sounding in the bottom half of the spectrum compared to the APS. But the primary reason I preferred the APS is that the music through the Straight Wire was just duller and flat sounding and less musical, at least compared to the APS. I would like to try a couple of more XLR cables to see if I can get the best of both worlds. I do not have any XLR cabled headphones – my amp progression just hasn’t included a balanced output yet.
The Pinnacle has a selector for which outputs to use: IEM, Single-Ended Medium Impedance, SE High Impedance, Balanced Medium Impedance, Balanced High Impedance, and Preamp. IEM sounded like crap on my non-IEM headphones. I don’t have any IEM’s to actually try with it. (Well, I guess I do have some iPod ear buds, but I didn’t bother. J) On each headphone, SE-High was a bit louder and the soundstage a bit more forward. The T1’s sounded better on SE-High, I think mostly due to the more forward sound and the nature of the drivers being quite a distance from the ears. The JVC’s sounded better with SE-Medium due to the less forward nature and some additional musicality. So I primarily listened via the SE-Medium selection. I did try the Pinnacle as a pre-amp in my Emerald Physics speaker system. Unfortunately I can’t really comment on the performance as a pre-amp, as I don’t use a pre-amp. As good as the Pinnacle is, it is NOT better than nothing. J I connect the Havana DAC directly to the DBX digital crossover and I control the volume from a laptop running J River Media Center 15. Putting the Pinnacle between the Havana and the DBX didn’t add anything good; it just generally degraded the sound somewhat. However, that is what I expected as I didn’t need any additional amplification of the signal and there was no purpose for that additional circuit in the signal path in my system. I do not believe there is any amp or preamp in the world that has ‘no sound of its own’ as I’ve heard in many a review. That’s preposterous, especially for such a complex component as an amp or preamp. If I can easily hear the differences between different interconnects, a preamplifier (or amplifier) is going to make a huge difference in comparison, regardless of how good it is. If your speaker system requires a preamplifier (e.g. using a CD player with no volume control), the Pinnacle is probably a great preamplifier compared to the average competition, but I just don’t know that for sure. And normally digital volume controls sound best at max volume, but not at the expense of adding a really complex circuit in the signal path.
I tried two other power cords than the stock one, which seems to be just a generic thick black power cable, but could be otherwise I guess. I tried using a Synergistic Research PC (their best model and without the ‘active shielding’ turned on), and while the sound sounded more natural and a bit more detailed, it made the music too relaxed for my liking. The best power cord was another generic. It is a touch brighter and more detailed than the stock cord, and the music is just more interesting and exciting than with the other two cords. The power cords were connected to an APC UPS. Connecting amps to filtered or regenerated power conditioners has always sucked the life right out of the sound, so I didn’t bother trying that. The music just becomes way too polite and boring.
One weakness of this amp is that it only has a 23 step volume control. It really bothered me at first, as the volume I wanted was invariably in between two steps. But after a few days I remembered that I’m not using the calibrated (basically line-out) outputs of the Benchmark (as it puts out a very large voltage and almost every amp I connect to it would end up having to be put at its absolute minimum volume setting) and so the DACs volume knob also controls the volume. I played with different volume settings on the DAC, the amp, and the computer and I found the best sound was with the computer at max, the amp volume at the 9:00 position (well just a tiny bit north of 9:00), and the volume controlled by either the DAC (which has a much finer stepper control) and\or the digital (computer) output leveler in the Starplugs Master EQ plugin (which is independent and performs a somewhat different function than the main computer volume control and will be explained below, maybe). Not only was this more convenient, putting the Pinnacle’s volume selector at that particular position just sounded better too. I have no idea why.
Comparing the modded JVC, the T1, and the HE-5 on the Pinnacle, the HE-5 is somewhat more strident in tone, especially in the upper frequencies. It has a bit of a funny headstage – just above and behind the ears and with the placement of the instruments in a slightly different than ‘normal’ position. Not bad – just different. The soundstage is flatter with less dimensionality. And it has quite a forward sound.
On the Pinnacle, I actually don’t mind listening to music with the T1. On the EF-5, I prefer listening with the HE-5 over the T1, and listening to the HE-5 is the only reason I would listen to the EF-5 anyway. On the Extreme, the HE-5 is not listenable due to not enough current, and the T1 has always just been too thick and boring and I prefer the JVC’s over them anyway, so I primarily used the T1 playing video games once in a while (currently Black Ops J), while the rest of the family is asleep. (Since I have to use closed headphones at work, I only listen to my other pair of modded JVC’s on the MAD HD-250 there.) But now on the Pinnacle, with the selector set to SE-High impedance, the T1’s are listenable with music. I still find it quite thick sounding, and it still has a bit of that ‘sound-in-a-box’ effect on me, but I can enjoy music with it. To me, the JVC’s are leaner, somewhat brighter but not necessarily in the top half of the treble range like the HE-5 are or the somewhat tizzy high of the T1, however despite being less thick and heavy sounding the bass instruments are still more prominent. It’s like the JVC’s have quite a bit more macro-definition to the sound of the instruments. You can hear the texture and character of the instruments better, which make the instrument more defined and easier to ‘see’ in your mind. And with the JVC’s it sooo easy to pick out and follow any musical line, switch between lines, or just enjoy the work as a whole.
While the detail is probably close to the same, based on being able to pick out and understand normally difficult to understand vocals, the JVC has more micro-definition to the music also. The music just seems more clear and real on the JVC’s. In addition, the JVC’s have more PRAT, more feeling and emotion to the music. They’re more exciting and fun to listen to and I just want to hear the end of every song… and then listen to just one more song. Despite being closed, the music actually seems to sound more open than the T1’s, I assume due to its better definition of the instruments and more apparent clarity. There are two aspects of the sound I do like better on the T1’s than the JVC’s, and that is the soundstage is just a bit wider, and there is more front to back dimensionality to the soundstage and to the images of the individual instruments themselves.
I tried my backup pair of stock JVC HA-DX1000’s and while I still hear the potential for greatness from them, there is no way I’d want to regularly listen to music through them. They have an even worse sound-in-a-box effect than the T1’s, and there’s just not much life or excitement to them in my opinion. They are quite comfortable though.
As far as neutrality, I have no idea what neutrality is or means. I’ve seen neutral referred to with warm vs. cool, full vs. lean, bright vs. dark, perceived frequency humps and dips both large and small, personal belief and preferences regarding the ‘correct’ amount of bass and treble, etc. There are hundreds of variables effecting the sound in all directions related to those aspect just mentioned, and who’s to say which one of those variables should not belong in the system. It’s up to the listener. All I know is I generally like it best when I perceive the sound to be the most accurate and life like TO ME, including the emotional, musical, and dare I say it here on Head-Fi, the fun aspects of listening to music. If I don’t enjoy listening to music, I have plenty of other things I can be doing that are enjoyable. If you’ve ever seen a performer totally lost in the music they’re playing – that is the way I want to feel too, not detachedly sitting halfway back in a symphony auditorium. And I can get that listening through the Pinnacle. Or if the music is made to be danced to, I usually can’t help but feel like dancing myself listening to this system. Or head-banging, or whatever emotion the musician intended.
Regarding the source, I prefer the modded Benchmark DAC1 to the Havana in my headphone systems and prefer the Havana in my speaker system. In the headphone systems, the Havana is more organic and relaxed sounding, and the Benchmark is more exciting, fun, detailed, and accurate to me. In my speaker system the Havana sounds much more realistic, and the Benchmark sounds weird. I use a Western Electric JW 2c51 tube in the Havana.
But beyond the DAC, the computer application feeding the DAC (assuming you’re using a computer of course), is equally important. I used to use Foobar2000 until this past spring when I tried J River Media Center 15 based on reports from the Isone Pro thread here on Head-Fi. I liked the sound of MC 15 better than Foobar, and luckily it has even more options and settings to tailor the sound to my liking. To me, I can hear noticeable sound differences in settings like Output mode, Device, Channels, Buffering, PreBuffering, Output Format, and Headphone Crossover. In addition, I bought and use the Isone Pro and Starplugs Master EQ plugins, which have dozens of their own settings. In addition, I use ASIO4ALL, which has seven additional settings that all subtly, yet significantly affect the sound. There are way too many settings to describe each of them here and for some reason, it would likely be too controversial to bother. It has taken me two years of playing (not necessarily randomly either) with and carefully balancing all these different settings to understand what are usually (with potentially some variations) the best settings for me. And they have been remarkably consistent now in both my headphone systems and speaker systems to give me incredible sound beyond anything I’ve ever gotten from a CD player. Let me just say that when you tailor dozens of small change to your liking, they all add up to a huge change. It’s sort of like the difference between a cheap camera lens and the best expensive camera lens. There is no one thing that makes the difference between the two; it is dozens of small differences and improvements that all add up to make a big difference between the two and their resulting images. Or similar to the differences between the Pinnacle and the Extreme.
I do have a record player, a Rega Planar 3 and Sumiko Blue Point Special, but I unfortunately do not have a phono stage right now.
I haven’t listed any music here. I could, but no one ever seems to care. Nor do I have the time to write detailed descriptions of differences I hear when listening to different songs on different amps and different headphones. But I have and regularly do listen to a very wide variety of styles and genres, new and old. I have over 19,000 tracks. Yes, I could buy a much cheaper amp and buy a lot more music, but when would I have the time to actually listen to several thousand additional tracks? While I do regularly buy new albums, I would rather focus on getting more enjoyment out of the ton of albums I already own than buy a lot more new music. One thing I will say is that I far more enjoy listening to classical and opera with the Pinnacle than I do with any other headphone amp I’ve heard. Whether it’s the additional detail, the increased and better spatial cues and imaging, increased realism, or other, I don’t know. But I sure do like it.
Some additional idle thoughts: I would love to hear the Pinnacle with 12ax7s as drivers. I would love to hear the Pinnacle with tube rectification, as tailoring the sound on my old Concerto or my current 45-based speaker amps is quite critical in getting the sound I prefer and makes a big difference. I would love to listen to the Pinnacle with NOS PX4 tubes. I much prefer my speaker amps with NOS globe 45’s compared to the Sophia Mesh 45’s that it came with. I would love to hear the Pinnacle with 300B’s or 45’s (don’t know if this is possible as I’ve never seen a headphone amp using 45’s yet.) I would love to hear the Pinnacle without the input selector relay in the signal path, as I don’t plan to use it as a pre-amp.
Other than my own speaker systems (B&W 801 S3 & CJ Premier 11 which I no longer own, and my current Dali Helicon 400 and Emerald Physics CS2.3 (open baffle speakers), which I have been meticulously setting up and tweaking), there has only been one other time I have loved listening to a speaker system (it was a B&W 801 at a dealer). I’ve heard dozens of other high-end speaker systems of a wide variety, with many costing many tens of thousands of dollars. 99% of them have sucked in my opinion. Almost all of them have been lifeless and boring, and many of them actually horrible sounding too. My headphone systems have sounded much better than any of them, even before hearing the Pinnacle. I got back into speakers this past spring and I have been tweaking my Emerald Physics system since then (it hasn’t always been easy and there are dozens if not hundreds of potential options due to the nature of the digital crossover and its numerous settings, computer driven source, amps, and room interactions.) It is now at an astonishing level of realism and enjoyment, and I would prefer listening to it even compared to listening to the Pinnacle system for most, but not all music. However, due to the volume levels I like to listen at and our small house, I am only able to listen about an average of four or five hours per week. I listen to my home headphone system about 10-12 hours per week, and my headphone system at work as much as I want. J So where do I put my purchasing priorities? It’s a tough choice.
As to price and value, that’s a difficult subject. It can also be touchy, as you’ll know if you’ve read the DavidMahler Pinnacle review thread. I have no problem with a $10,000 headphone amplifier. This amplifier is obviously worth far more than the Extreme or the MAD HD-250 based on the improvement in sound quality I hear. The question of value comes down more to comparisons which I am unable to make and to decisions which I do have to make. E.g. is it worth the price differential vs. a Balancing Act? I’ve never heard a B.A. so I can’t say. I’m considering purchasing a Prism Orpheus 8-channel DAC (and ADC and phono pre-amp and even more features) to replace the DBX crossover and Havana DAC in my speaker system. I could buy the Prism and an EAR amp for around the same price as the Pinnacle. I could get a B.A. plus a Woo WES for my Jade’s for around the same price as just the Pinnacle. When I start saying things like that, value, or at least other options if not value, becomes a more difficult question. Or maybe I could buy the Prism and save up for the Pinnacle or vice versa, and accept no compromises. J Am I considering purchasing the Pinnacle? Yes, but I’ll have to give it some long thought. However there is no question that the Apex Pinnacle is an incredible amp.
Sorry if this is a confusing mess, but with so much to write about, I just don’t have the time to rewrite things so that they are clearer, or to reorganize it so that it flows better. It is what it is.
Thanks again to Todd for letting me listen, and I hope this is a successful product for him and Pete.
(Everything written in this review is totally my own subjective and biased opinion and belief, and no one else is required to like it, believe it, or not be offended by it. J)
Sorry to those who like direct and brief reviews, as I just don’t know how to do those. (Edit: For those who don't care to read everything below, here is a quick summary: The amp sounds very, very good. That's pretty much the final conclusion.)
When you get to the ‘high-end’ level of audio components, without comparisons to other equipment, audio reviews are almost useless to me. After all almost every high-end component will likely sound reasonably great and taken on its own will invariably get a good review. But how good is it in comparison to other components? What if it’s only marginally better than an average component? I want to know that. Especially if it can be described in relation to something I’m familiar with.
For headphones, my primary can is a highly modified (by me) JVC HP-DX1000 re-cabled with APS v3 and Furutech connector, which sound very little like an un-modded DX1000. I also have a Beyerdynamic T1 and a HiFiMan HE-5. The HE-5 is not the .0 version that was extremely bright, which I first received, but when the wood cracked I sent it back for replacement and received the .1 version with the ‘star’ padding which tamed the brightness. It has the real wood housing, so it’s not the .2 version. I also have an un-modded DX1000. I have a Jade HE 1.3, but currently do not have an electrostatic amp for it. And I have a Darth Beyer-770, which I did not bother trying with the Pinnacle. Previously owned headphones are the bass-heavy Sony R-10, AT L3000, Grado RS-1, RS-2, 325i, Denon D5000, and two APS re-cabled Ultrasone Edition 9’s.
I have not purchased an LCD-2 for a couple of reasons. The first is due to the descriptions of its fit and clamping. I apparently have a tall head and have pretty much set every headphone to its maximum size, and would still like a little more room on most, and I do not like tightly clamping headphones. In addition, I wanted to wait and see what the reviews are like for the HE-6, the Edition 10, etc., before even considering a new can, as I felt burned buying the T1 and HE-5 compared to my current headphone. But I would really love to hear the LCD-2.
As far as amps, I have a MapleTree EAR HD-250 tube amp (12ax7->EL84) that I use at work, and a SinglePower Extreme (6sn7->421A) that I use at home. (Yes, that’s a NOS Western Electric 421A. I find it better than any other output tube I’ve tried in the Extreme.) I also have a Xin Mk III portable and the HiFiMan EF-5 at home when I want to listen to the HE-5’s, as the Extreme just won’t power them properly. I’ve owned the MPX3, the SinglePower Concerto dual ES-1 electrostatic and Maestro dynamic amp, the Ray Samuels HR-2 (?), the AT DHA-3000, and the Ray Samuels Tomahawk.
For sources, I have two Empirical Audio modded Benchmark DAC1’s – one for work and one for home. I also have a Mhdt Havana tube DAC that I use in my speaker rig, plus a Stello DAC which I don’t currently use. At work I also use an Empirical Audio Off-Ramp 3 re-clocker.
There have been lots of headphone amps and there seems to be a deluge of new amps coming on the market in the past year. I haven’t been too interested in actually buying most of them, as it seems to me just trying different flavors rather than taking me to the next level (or levels) up in terms of quality and musical pleasure. I’ve been interested in the Balancing Act, the EAR, the Luxman, and a couple of other higher-end amps, but I haven’t been able to hear any of them nor get a good feel reading Head-Fi for what they would sound like to me in order to make a decision on purchasing one of them. I must say I got extremely lucky to be chosen for the Pinnacle loaner ‘program’.
Listening and Comparisons
The Pinnacle came with a Tung Sol JAN 6sn7 driver tube, which is surprisingly a great tube. (Most amps come with some crappy Electro-Harmonix, or similar tubes.) The output tubes are Sophia Electric PX4’s. With the supplied tubes, the first time I heard the amp, I am struck by how natural, open, and three-dimensional the sound and soundstage are. Everything is clearer, richer, more vibrant and realistic than with the Extreme. Nothing seems out of place or strange. Nothing draws untoward attention to itself, except for the music itself drawing you in. Some components immediately draw your attention to the bass, or treble, or the smoothness or harshness, etc. What drew my attention most was how everything just sounded right.
A tube amp is all about the tubes. There are heavenly tubes and there are hellish tubes, and everything in between. Letting me select the tubes lets me choose the character of the sound to a great extent. And to me, there is no ‘best tube’ that works for every system. For my MAD HD-250, the Amperex BugleBoy 12ax7 is the best I’ve heard. Yet in my 12ax7->45 SET speaker amp, a … long plate 12ax7 is the best I’ve tried. In my Concerto, a Tung-Sol Mouse Ear 6sn7 was the best driver with Sylvania Chrome Top 6sn7’s for outputs. Yet with the MPX3, I never heard a 6sn7 driver that sounded good, but the Sylvania Chrome Tops were the best for the output tubes and a 2c51 as a driver. My VAC Ren 30/30 300B speaker amp sounds best with both a Russian 6H8C and Sylvania Chrome Top in each channel. The Extreme has an even different favorite 6sn7.
So I tried about eight different 6sn7 and 7n7 tubes in the Pinnacle over the next few days. The supplied tube ended up being my third favorite. My next favorite is a Tung Sol (RCA) 6sn7GT black base with T-posts, which sounds a lot like the supplied tube, but is just a bit more detailed and open on top, and is more musical and provides more PRAT. But my favorite tube so far is the Russian 6H8C metal base. Normally this tube sounds quite a bit different than other 6sn7’s, in both soundstage, headstage, and the sound itself, but in this amp its differences are minimal compared to the other 6sn7s. What makes this my favorite is not that it’s more detailed, has better bass, treble, or midrange, or is more open, etc., because in fact my second favorite probably is better at those things. What makes it my favorite is it provides a focus and solidity to the music which provides satisfaction to me. I think it’s separate from the imaging though, and probably more related to ‘slam’, but at both the macro and micro levels of the music. The sound with the other tubes can be described as nice, polite, or even maybe ethereal to a degree, and I keep turning the sound up trying to get that satisfying slam or solid feeling to the music – even on Classical or Easy Listening, but of course especially on Rock.
In fact, I had thought the Tung Sol 6sn7GT was my favorite tube due to its clarity and openness, until I did a comparison with it in the Extreme. The Extreme had that satisfying solidity to the music I desire. Although the Pinnacle had far better ‘sound’, I actually liked listening to music on the Extreme more in this case. Some people may be surprised at this, but from my experience, I can make any amp sound bad to me or potentially great to me depending on the choice of tubes. For example, with a Sylvania Chrome Top as a driver in the Pinnacle, the sound and music is much too soft and mushy to me, and the Extreme is far better (using the Tung Sol … or several others).
In order to see if I could get that solidity in the Pinnacle, I decided to retry some of the other tubes and when I put the 6H8C back in, it was a relief, both sonically and by the fact that I would have a hard time stating that I preferred the Extreme over the Pinnacle. Which by the way could be considered true, but only depending on the tube complement of each amp. J However, with the 6H8C, the Pinnacle produces sound and music significantly better than the Extreme. With some of the other tubes, the Pinnacle produces sounds significantly better than the Extreme, but not necessarily better musical satisfaction -- at least to me. For others, they might not even notice that aspect, or may not even care about it or prefer the tubes. Different people place different importance on different aspects of music playback.
This phenomenon is not limited to tube choices. For example, I would much rather listen to music via my modded JVC on the Extreme than the T1 or HE-5 on the Pinnacle. I would much rather listen to the Extreme using the various plugins (Starplugs Master EQ equalizer, Isone Pro, Effects) for J River Media Center 15, than listen via the Pinnacle without them. Does this mean the Pinnacle is not worth it due to the cost of it versus the cost of these other things? Not at all. But to go to the next step (or two steps) in amplifier performance from where I currently am takes quite a bit of money, be it this amp or a few of the other top tier amplifiers. The only other amp I’ve heard that has come close to the Pinnacle in terms of providing musical pleasure and performance has been the SinglePower Concerto’s dynamic section. With the right combination of driver, output, rectifier, and choke tubes, the Concerto has still provided the most emotional reproduction of music to date. Listening to Ella Fitzgerald would regularly move me to tears. The electrostatic section of the Concerto, again with the right tubes, was also spectacular, but provided a very different experience. However I have not heard some of the other great amplifiers like the EAR, the Balancing Act, the SDS, and several others.
Comparing the Pinnacle, Extreme, and MAD HD-250 is not too difficult. The Pinnacle with the 6H8C is a lot like the Extreme with the Tung Sol in terms of headstage (where the instruments and sounds are located inside the head) -- both locate the images just to the back of the temples, and in terms of general presentation or soundstage, both are a bit forward with the sound coming fully out to the sides of the head and the image being quite large and prominent there; only the Pinnacle has far better three-dimensionality, tone, liveliness, bass texture and definition, mid purity, treble extension, openness, natural sound, live sound, micro-dynamics, macro-dynamics, musicality, PRAT, blackness (lack of noise, space between instruments, space between notes), liquidity (the music just flows from the headphones and it’s hard to turn the music off), detail and clarity at all frequencies, lack of harshness, imaging, instrument separation, size of the soundstage (perception of the musical stage), size of the images (both height, width, and depth inside your head – e.g. does the singers voice sound tiny or large), refinement, richness, transient definition, transparency, immediacy, and on and on. Whereas the HD-250 (of which there are only 10 in existence, plus one tube rectified prototype), has a different presentation, which is where the sound stage is just a bit more distant and although the headstage goes out to the edges of your head, the main focus of the music is more towards the center, where the Pinnacle’s focus is more toward the edges. The HD-250 provides a more forgiving listening experience, but that doesn’t mean it has a soft sound – it’s just somewhat less forward sounding.
In my experience, it’s primarily the different types of driver tubes that most defines the soundstage and headstage differences between amps. 12ax7 vs. 6sn7 vs. 2c51, etc. And that would explain why the Pinnacle and Extreme have a similar presentation as compared to the HD-250 and EF5. The HD-250 has more of a refined sound (which doesn’t translate to higher quality compared to the Pinnacle), while the Pinnacle has more of a live sound. Similar to how my Dali Helicon 400’s have that high-end audio ‘refined’ sound, whereas my Emerald Physics CS2.3’s make the music sound like it is being played live right in my living room. Both are great sounds, but they are definitely different. And while virtually all music sounds incredible in both systems (both speakers systems and both headphone systems), certain songs or albums just sound better on one or the other. I think it is mostly due to differences in the recording technique and resulting soundstaging that makes most of this difference. Regardless, the way I have tweaked all my systems makes virtually everything sound great on all of them, except for maybe a few dozen albums, as opposed to the usual high-end audio complaint of only a handful of albums that sound great and everything else sounds like crap. And it hasn’t been done by creating a diffuse or forgiving or wall-of-sound type of experience. I personally have never heard anything close to sounding as realistic as the J River Media Center -> modded Benchmark -> Apex Pinnacle -> JVC DX1000 headphone system or my J River Media Center -> Havana -> DBX digital crossover and equalizer -> tri-amped (with two 12ax7 -> 45 amps (2.5W output) one for the tweeters and one for the mids, and a solid-state PS Audio 500W amp for the woofers) -> Emerald Physics CS2.3 speaker system.
As far as the HiFiMan EF-5 amp compared with the Pinnacle (with an Amperex BugleBoy in the EF-5), the images are located a bit further back in the head, just above the ears. And the rest of differences can be described as the EF-5 is okay sounding – not bad, but also nothing sticks out as being really good either, and that’s with the best tube I could find for it. It’s just an average sounding amp whose main claim is that it has enough current so that it can drive the HiFiMan HE-5 planar headphones and is fairly cheap.
As far as balanced vs. unbalanced, I tried using a pair of nice Synergistic Research RCA interconnects between the Benchmark and the Pinnacle, a pair of APS XLR interconnects, and a pair of Straight Wire XLR interconnects. All were noticeably different from each other, but how much of the differences between RCA and XLR was due to differences in the cables, differences between XLR and RCA outputs of the DAC, and differences in XLR and RCA inputs of the amp is of course impossible to tell. I prefer the APS XLR cable, then the SR RCA cable, and finally the SW XLR cable. The APS XLR cable is noticeably brighter compared to the Straight Wire, while the Straight Wire XLR cable is noticeably fuller sounding in the bottom half of the spectrum compared to the APS. But the primary reason I preferred the APS is that the music through the Straight Wire was just duller and flat sounding and less musical, at least compared to the APS. I would like to try a couple of more XLR cables to see if I can get the best of both worlds. I do not have any XLR cabled headphones – my amp progression just hasn’t included a balanced output yet.
The Pinnacle has a selector for which outputs to use: IEM, Single-Ended Medium Impedance, SE High Impedance, Balanced Medium Impedance, Balanced High Impedance, and Preamp. IEM sounded like crap on my non-IEM headphones. I don’t have any IEM’s to actually try with it. (Well, I guess I do have some iPod ear buds, but I didn’t bother. J) On each headphone, SE-High was a bit louder and the soundstage a bit more forward. The T1’s sounded better on SE-High, I think mostly due to the more forward sound and the nature of the drivers being quite a distance from the ears. The JVC’s sounded better with SE-Medium due to the less forward nature and some additional musicality. So I primarily listened via the SE-Medium selection. I did try the Pinnacle as a pre-amp in my Emerald Physics speaker system. Unfortunately I can’t really comment on the performance as a pre-amp, as I don’t use a pre-amp. As good as the Pinnacle is, it is NOT better than nothing. J I connect the Havana DAC directly to the DBX digital crossover and I control the volume from a laptop running J River Media Center 15. Putting the Pinnacle between the Havana and the DBX didn’t add anything good; it just generally degraded the sound somewhat. However, that is what I expected as I didn’t need any additional amplification of the signal and there was no purpose for that additional circuit in the signal path in my system. I do not believe there is any amp or preamp in the world that has ‘no sound of its own’ as I’ve heard in many a review. That’s preposterous, especially for such a complex component as an amp or preamp. If I can easily hear the differences between different interconnects, a preamplifier (or amplifier) is going to make a huge difference in comparison, regardless of how good it is. If your speaker system requires a preamplifier (e.g. using a CD player with no volume control), the Pinnacle is probably a great preamplifier compared to the average competition, but I just don’t know that for sure. And normally digital volume controls sound best at max volume, but not at the expense of adding a really complex circuit in the signal path.
I tried two other power cords than the stock one, which seems to be just a generic thick black power cable, but could be otherwise I guess. I tried using a Synergistic Research PC (their best model and without the ‘active shielding’ turned on), and while the sound sounded more natural and a bit more detailed, it made the music too relaxed for my liking. The best power cord was another generic. It is a touch brighter and more detailed than the stock cord, and the music is just more interesting and exciting than with the other two cords. The power cords were connected to an APC UPS. Connecting amps to filtered or regenerated power conditioners has always sucked the life right out of the sound, so I didn’t bother trying that. The music just becomes way too polite and boring.
One weakness of this amp is that it only has a 23 step volume control. It really bothered me at first, as the volume I wanted was invariably in between two steps. But after a few days I remembered that I’m not using the calibrated (basically line-out) outputs of the Benchmark (as it puts out a very large voltage and almost every amp I connect to it would end up having to be put at its absolute minimum volume setting) and so the DACs volume knob also controls the volume. I played with different volume settings on the DAC, the amp, and the computer and I found the best sound was with the computer at max, the amp volume at the 9:00 position (well just a tiny bit north of 9:00), and the volume controlled by either the DAC (which has a much finer stepper control) and\or the digital (computer) output leveler in the Starplugs Master EQ plugin (which is independent and performs a somewhat different function than the main computer volume control and will be explained below, maybe). Not only was this more convenient, putting the Pinnacle’s volume selector at that particular position just sounded better too. I have no idea why.
Comparing the modded JVC, the T1, and the HE-5 on the Pinnacle, the HE-5 is somewhat more strident in tone, especially in the upper frequencies. It has a bit of a funny headstage – just above and behind the ears and with the placement of the instruments in a slightly different than ‘normal’ position. Not bad – just different. The soundstage is flatter with less dimensionality. And it has quite a forward sound.
On the Pinnacle, I actually don’t mind listening to music with the T1. On the EF-5, I prefer listening with the HE-5 over the T1, and listening to the HE-5 is the only reason I would listen to the EF-5 anyway. On the Extreme, the HE-5 is not listenable due to not enough current, and the T1 has always just been too thick and boring and I prefer the JVC’s over them anyway, so I primarily used the T1 playing video games once in a while (currently Black Ops J), while the rest of the family is asleep. (Since I have to use closed headphones at work, I only listen to my other pair of modded JVC’s on the MAD HD-250 there.) But now on the Pinnacle, with the selector set to SE-High impedance, the T1’s are listenable with music. I still find it quite thick sounding, and it still has a bit of that ‘sound-in-a-box’ effect on me, but I can enjoy music with it. To me, the JVC’s are leaner, somewhat brighter but not necessarily in the top half of the treble range like the HE-5 are or the somewhat tizzy high of the T1, however despite being less thick and heavy sounding the bass instruments are still more prominent. It’s like the JVC’s have quite a bit more macro-definition to the sound of the instruments. You can hear the texture and character of the instruments better, which make the instrument more defined and easier to ‘see’ in your mind. And with the JVC’s it sooo easy to pick out and follow any musical line, switch between lines, or just enjoy the work as a whole.
While the detail is probably close to the same, based on being able to pick out and understand normally difficult to understand vocals, the JVC has more micro-definition to the music also. The music just seems more clear and real on the JVC’s. In addition, the JVC’s have more PRAT, more feeling and emotion to the music. They’re more exciting and fun to listen to and I just want to hear the end of every song… and then listen to just one more song. Despite being closed, the music actually seems to sound more open than the T1’s, I assume due to its better definition of the instruments and more apparent clarity. There are two aspects of the sound I do like better on the T1’s than the JVC’s, and that is the soundstage is just a bit wider, and there is more front to back dimensionality to the soundstage and to the images of the individual instruments themselves.
I tried my backup pair of stock JVC HA-DX1000’s and while I still hear the potential for greatness from them, there is no way I’d want to regularly listen to music through them. They have an even worse sound-in-a-box effect than the T1’s, and there’s just not much life or excitement to them in my opinion. They are quite comfortable though.
As far as neutrality, I have no idea what neutrality is or means. I’ve seen neutral referred to with warm vs. cool, full vs. lean, bright vs. dark, perceived frequency humps and dips both large and small, personal belief and preferences regarding the ‘correct’ amount of bass and treble, etc. There are hundreds of variables effecting the sound in all directions related to those aspect just mentioned, and who’s to say which one of those variables should not belong in the system. It’s up to the listener. All I know is I generally like it best when I perceive the sound to be the most accurate and life like TO ME, including the emotional, musical, and dare I say it here on Head-Fi, the fun aspects of listening to music. If I don’t enjoy listening to music, I have plenty of other things I can be doing that are enjoyable. If you’ve ever seen a performer totally lost in the music they’re playing – that is the way I want to feel too, not detachedly sitting halfway back in a symphony auditorium. And I can get that listening through the Pinnacle. Or if the music is made to be danced to, I usually can’t help but feel like dancing myself listening to this system. Or head-banging, or whatever emotion the musician intended.
Regarding the source, I prefer the modded Benchmark DAC1 to the Havana in my headphone systems and prefer the Havana in my speaker system. In the headphone systems, the Havana is more organic and relaxed sounding, and the Benchmark is more exciting, fun, detailed, and accurate to me. In my speaker system the Havana sounds much more realistic, and the Benchmark sounds weird. I use a Western Electric JW 2c51 tube in the Havana.
But beyond the DAC, the computer application feeding the DAC (assuming you’re using a computer of course), is equally important. I used to use Foobar2000 until this past spring when I tried J River Media Center 15 based on reports from the Isone Pro thread here on Head-Fi. I liked the sound of MC 15 better than Foobar, and luckily it has even more options and settings to tailor the sound to my liking. To me, I can hear noticeable sound differences in settings like Output mode, Device, Channels, Buffering, PreBuffering, Output Format, and Headphone Crossover. In addition, I bought and use the Isone Pro and Starplugs Master EQ plugins, which have dozens of their own settings. In addition, I use ASIO4ALL, which has seven additional settings that all subtly, yet significantly affect the sound. There are way too many settings to describe each of them here and for some reason, it would likely be too controversial to bother. It has taken me two years of playing (not necessarily randomly either) with and carefully balancing all these different settings to understand what are usually (with potentially some variations) the best settings for me. And they have been remarkably consistent now in both my headphone systems and speaker systems to give me incredible sound beyond anything I’ve ever gotten from a CD player. Let me just say that when you tailor dozens of small change to your liking, they all add up to a huge change. It’s sort of like the difference between a cheap camera lens and the best expensive camera lens. There is no one thing that makes the difference between the two; it is dozens of small differences and improvements that all add up to make a big difference between the two and their resulting images. Or similar to the differences between the Pinnacle and the Extreme.
I do have a record player, a Rega Planar 3 and Sumiko Blue Point Special, but I unfortunately do not have a phono stage right now.
I haven’t listed any music here. I could, but no one ever seems to care. Nor do I have the time to write detailed descriptions of differences I hear when listening to different songs on different amps and different headphones. But I have and regularly do listen to a very wide variety of styles and genres, new and old. I have over 19,000 tracks. Yes, I could buy a much cheaper amp and buy a lot more music, but when would I have the time to actually listen to several thousand additional tracks? While I do regularly buy new albums, I would rather focus on getting more enjoyment out of the ton of albums I already own than buy a lot more new music. One thing I will say is that I far more enjoy listening to classical and opera with the Pinnacle than I do with any other headphone amp I’ve heard. Whether it’s the additional detail, the increased and better spatial cues and imaging, increased realism, or other, I don’t know. But I sure do like it.
Some additional idle thoughts: I would love to hear the Pinnacle with 12ax7s as drivers. I would love to hear the Pinnacle with tube rectification, as tailoring the sound on my old Concerto or my current 45-based speaker amps is quite critical in getting the sound I prefer and makes a big difference. I would love to listen to the Pinnacle with NOS PX4 tubes. I much prefer my speaker amps with NOS globe 45’s compared to the Sophia Mesh 45’s that it came with. I would love to hear the Pinnacle with 300B’s or 45’s (don’t know if this is possible as I’ve never seen a headphone amp using 45’s yet.) I would love to hear the Pinnacle without the input selector relay in the signal path, as I don’t plan to use it as a pre-amp.
Other than my own speaker systems (B&W 801 S3 & CJ Premier 11 which I no longer own, and my current Dali Helicon 400 and Emerald Physics CS2.3 (open baffle speakers), which I have been meticulously setting up and tweaking), there has only been one other time I have loved listening to a speaker system (it was a B&W 801 at a dealer). I’ve heard dozens of other high-end speaker systems of a wide variety, with many costing many tens of thousands of dollars. 99% of them have sucked in my opinion. Almost all of them have been lifeless and boring, and many of them actually horrible sounding too. My headphone systems have sounded much better than any of them, even before hearing the Pinnacle. I got back into speakers this past spring and I have been tweaking my Emerald Physics system since then (it hasn’t always been easy and there are dozens if not hundreds of potential options due to the nature of the digital crossover and its numerous settings, computer driven source, amps, and room interactions.) It is now at an astonishing level of realism and enjoyment, and I would prefer listening to it even compared to listening to the Pinnacle system for most, but not all music. However, due to the volume levels I like to listen at and our small house, I am only able to listen about an average of four or five hours per week. I listen to my home headphone system about 10-12 hours per week, and my headphone system at work as much as I want. J So where do I put my purchasing priorities? It’s a tough choice.
As to price and value, that’s a difficult subject. It can also be touchy, as you’ll know if you’ve read the DavidMahler Pinnacle review thread. I have no problem with a $10,000 headphone amplifier. This amplifier is obviously worth far more than the Extreme or the MAD HD-250 based on the improvement in sound quality I hear. The question of value comes down more to comparisons which I am unable to make and to decisions which I do have to make. E.g. is it worth the price differential vs. a Balancing Act? I’ve never heard a B.A. so I can’t say. I’m considering purchasing a Prism Orpheus 8-channel DAC (and ADC and phono pre-amp and even more features) to replace the DBX crossover and Havana DAC in my speaker system. I could buy the Prism and an EAR amp for around the same price as the Pinnacle. I could get a B.A. plus a Woo WES for my Jade’s for around the same price as just the Pinnacle. When I start saying things like that, value, or at least other options if not value, becomes a more difficult question. Or maybe I could buy the Prism and save up for the Pinnacle or vice versa, and accept no compromises. J Am I considering purchasing the Pinnacle? Yes, but I’ll have to give it some long thought. However there is no question that the Apex Pinnacle is an incredible amp.
Sorry if this is a confusing mess, but with so much to write about, I just don’t have the time to rewrite things so that they are clearer, or to reorganize it so that it flows better. It is what it is.
Thanks again to Todd for letting me listen, and I hope this is a successful product for him and Pete.
(Everything written in this review is totally my own subjective and biased opinion and belief, and no one else is required to like it, believe it, or not be offended by it. J)
