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The Headcase pico Lovefest: Post your impressions here


thrice

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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. :P
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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. :P

-Ed

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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.

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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?

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