Well, about 6 months ago I took a punt on LH labs coming good on their kickstarter project for a DAC/headphone amp. Well, it arrived here on wednesday!!
Its very neat, runs pretty hot - the output stage is meant to be class A - and it does run to about 45 degC or so. It works, but I haven't had time to do any much testing. I can say that its clean, haven't noticed fatigue, and it can manage the k701. I'll be interested to see how it stands up when I use it as a source from the zuma. It uses an xmos chip and proprietary drivers based on the thesycon ones I think. They claim it will do DSD etc - I have some of that somewhere, so I must check it out.
It has a EQ thing as well which they claim gives a 3D effect - and yes, it is pleasant enough - it does spread the sound and gives a boost in the mids it seems.
Initial impression show this to be very capable. It can certainly drive my k701s no problem - somthing it has always taken desktop amps to drive adequately before (bear in mind I bought the 1W version, the geekout 1000). So it works very well with headphones. I've tested on both windows systems, and linux. It worked A1 on both systems, and I couldn't complain about either.
I've also tested it with a range of sample rates and it worked flawlessly with all I tried. Jplay ran out of steam before the player did, but reverting back to another player allowed it to play OK. I do think the 3D thing is a decent addition, especially for headphones, and has its place. I don't see myself using it too much, but hey, its free, included and works well. Whats to complain about.
So how does it stack up. I gave it an unfair test - direct comparison via my main system to John's jkdac32. It actually performed pretty well - now, the jkdac was better, and no doubt about it. But given that the geek was running off USB power and so on, I was impressed enough. I think giving the geek a clean power supply would improve it more. At the end of the day, that kinda goes against having something thats plug and play, so I probably won't bother doing that -but it could be done easily enough. The geek pulls just under half and amp steady so it would be hard on batteries. a shunt supply, or linear with a battery would probably be better. I don't know how audible the things that I'm aiming for would be with headphones anyway - soundstage cues etc. Cleaner bass and treble definitely.
So I need to do more listening and give a bit more run in time before coming back to this. I'll probably rig up and external PSU to try as well just to see.
Good report, Fran.
Must be pushing out some current to power those AKGs - very good performance for USB powered device.
Has anybody tried the Focal Spirit Pros yet - reports are that they are very good headphones?
I had a report from a professional producer running them directly from a Ciunas & he raved about the sound.
Great to hear it doesn't beat the JKDAC32 - phew :)
www.Ciunas.biz
For Digital Audio playback that delivers WHERE the performers are on stage but more importantly WHY they are there.
No, not yet - I haven't had time to go build the power supply yet. Have it planned, have the stuff in to do it, but no time just at them moment. I'm still impressed by it though, and think a new PS will elevate it. Sounds very good on headphones.......
IMAG0823 by francis morrin, on Flickr