January 22, 200818 yr Now we need to get Justin to get busy on the stat amps. The least he can do is send me front and rear panels for the amp, and maybe a cardboard box for the power supply...
February 5, 200818 yr Got my Pico today in the mail. I am too tired to even listen to it right now. pictures or it didn't happen
February 5, 200818 yr Got my Pico today in the mail. I am too tired to even listen to it right now. Nice, Albert, now what do you think? You should have had time for a nap and some listening by now...
February 5, 200818 yr hahaha sorry guys. USPS woke me up today at 9AM with delivery and stole over an hour of my sleep. Then I was in college from noon to 9PM so I am very beat. I dont want to use Pico until I can take sweet pics of it showing off the amazing packaging Justin uses. Im gonna crash now so I can do it tomorrow.
February 5, 200818 yr I'm deciding colours before i order.. what u guys think.. Black plate, silver body, silver volume knob?
February 5, 200818 yr Author orange. QFT My impressions: Overall i like the Pico...the big advantage is the killer DAC. I've got a Twisted Pear Opus DAC at home that uses the same DAC chip and I've been really happy with it. So when use the Pico with the DAC, I'm quite pleased. The amp section while good, is a portable amp. It's a great sounding amp using the AD8397 and while I was not found of that chip early on, it's starting to grow on me. The Pico's amp section is a little more refined sounding than the Mini^3. Overall I find the amp has good detail and separation with good tonal balance throughout the spectrum. When used with the DAC the sound is even better. My one complaint and this goes for most portable amps, is the size/shape. I can't understand why portable amp designers come up with cases that are not flatter and wider/longer. Strap this puppy to an iPod and it's awkward, same with the Tomahawk/Hornet/Headroom Micro....etc. I think that there's a desire to make something really small, while that all well and good, there are a lot of DAPs out there and many of them are similar in size. The iPod nano does share similar dimensions as the Pico and would mate well with it, but a lot of us have higher capacity units, like the iPod Classic or the Touch or iPhone. I do realize that this unit is also meant for use with a laptop or a home computer but it's also a portable that can be used with a DAP. I wish more people would design their chassis with that in mind. Granted this is just a very small complaint of mine, hardly something that would make me sell the amp or not buy it.
February 7, 200818 yr A co-worker let me try out his pico at work today. I was impressed by the quality of the build and the sound. I tried it with my sr-60's and what I heard was an wide open sound stage with nice clarity. The pico is able to drive the grados with ease. This wasn't the thin diffuse sound I'm used to hearing from portable rigs. Biggie.
February 7, 200818 yr A co-worker let me try out his pico at work today. I was impressed by the quality of the build and the sound. I tried it with my sr-60's and what I heard was an wide open sound stage with nice clarity. The pico is able to drive the grados with ease. This wasn't the thin diffuse sound I'm used to hearing from portable rigs. Biggie. Heh, from your lack of reaction I thought you didn't really like it.
February 7, 200818 yr Heh, from your lack of reaction I thought you didn't really like it. Hehe this is me not liking something: [img width=150 height=114 alt=notorious]http://www.head-case.org/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=1351&g2_serialNumber=2&g2_GALLERYSID=6e44523c792e2aa2fc388ba80fb3b931 Biggie.
February 7, 200818 yr LOL, great pic. I remember that meet well. [The disgust was for the HD650's if that wasn't clear btw]
February 7, 200818 yr Hehe this is me not liking something: [img width=150 height=114 alt=notorious]http://www.head-case.org/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=1351&g2_serialNumber=2&g2_GALLERYSID=6e44523c792e2aa2fc388ba80fb3b931 Biggie. LOL!
February 9, 200818 yr QFT My impressions: Overall i like the Pico...the big advantage is the killer DAC. I've got a Twisted Pear Opus DAC at home that uses the same DAC chip and I've been really happy with it. So when use the Pico with the DAC, I'm quite pleased. The amp section while good, is a portable amp. It's a great sounding amp using the AD8397 and while I was not found of that chip early on, it's starting to grow on me. The Pico's amp section is a little more refined sounding than the Mini^3. Overall I find the amp has good detail and separation with good tonal balance throughout the spectrum. When used with the DAC the sound is even better. My one complaint and this goes for most portable amps, is the size/shape. I can't understand why portable amp designers come up with cases that are not flatter and wider/longer. Strap this puppy to an iPod and it's awkward, same with the Tomahawk/Hornet/Headroom Micro....etc. I think that there's a desire to make something really small, while that all well and good, there are a lot of DAPs out there and many of them are similar in size. The iPod nano does share similar dimensions as the Pico and would mate well with it, but a lot of us have higher capacity units, like the iPod Classic or the Touch or iPhone. I do realize that this unit is also meant for use with a laptop or a home computer but it's also a portable that can be used with a DAP. I wish more people would design their chassis with that in mind. Granted this is just a very small complaint of mine, hardly something that would make me sell the amp or not buy it. Get's kind of difficult to fit 3.5mm jacks properly. Or you can just take the Apple approach and make 99% of headphones not be able to plug into it without an adapter. I think the overall small brick form factor can change. Most portable amps are just miniature desktop amps, styling and form factor wise. I have some ideas, but someone needs to commission me to do the design work. -Ed
February 11, 200818 yr So there is a thread over at HF bugging Justin for a desktop amp/dac combo, like the pico but with more stuff. I'd like to bug him here as well!
February 11, 200818 yr picoなんだけど左に比べて右がちょっと遅くない? それが微妙なサラウンド感生んでるんだけど 何か聴いてて微妙に違和感があるというか Zarottaさんのレビューで立体感があるっていうのはコレのことを 指してるんじゃないかと思うんだがpico持ってる人如何? なんかXM5の方が自然に聞こえるんだ picoは情報量多いけど上記のような違和感が This is what one person wrote in the 2ch portable amps thread, and basically this person is wondering if anyone else hears a slight delay on the right channel that creates a "surround" effect that doesn't feel quite right. To him, the XM5 sounds more natural in this respect (but just this, he also states that the Pico has more detail). A lot of crap goes down in that thread, but this post seemed genuine enough to bring up over here.
February 11, 200818 yr This is what one person wrote in the 2ch portable amps thread, and basically this person is wondering if anyone else hears a slight delay on the right channel that creates a "surround" effect that doesn't feel quite right. To him, the XM5 sounds more natural in this respect (but just this, he also states that the Pico has more detail). A lot of crap goes down in that thread, but this post seemed genuine enough to bring up over here. what thread?
February 11, 200818 yr what thread? ポータブルアンプ持ち歩いてるやつ集合 12台目 http://bubble6.2ch.net/test/read.cgi/wm/1201680968/ Sorry Justin if I came off as trying to knock the Pico, because that's the last thing I'd want to do.
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