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Should I just get a Pico???


runnin17

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Thank you for all the suggestions and the info about the Sextett's paired with a Pico. I will just have to try out the KSC75's, KSC35's, PX100's and maybe even the ESW9's to see what fits my taste the best.

I have a pair of shure E210's that I like, but I honestly haven't listened to them enough to fall in love with them. So there is more listening to be done and who know, maybe my E210's will fund part of my Pico budget for later in the year.

Actually, I forgot about the KSC35 and mine are better than my KSC75 as stated above. I gave the KSC75 to my wife for her iPod Nano, but still use the 35 in the car.

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I was pretty gobsmacked with how powerful the mini 3 is. The Gamma 1 DAC just arrived today from MisterX and listening through them via my mini PC feeding orthos is pretty phenomenal. It has enough juice to run all my orthos, very strongly with ease. I can't imagine the sextetts can be too much harder to drive. I mean, this is seriously loud and thunderous in ways my bigger amps never quite managed.

They're fairly low impedance though and the mini3 does seem to do exceptionally well at high current output.

.....Dang!! :o

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Hey Smeggy - how does the gamma1 sound compared to that Spitfire you're selling?

It's hard to do a real comparison as the Spitty is coax/ spdif and being fed optically from a crappy Soundblaster PCMCIA card which apparently isn't bit perfect and I only listened to it via the Big Joe power amp so I can't really say how it differs from the Gamma.

The reason I got the Gamma was to use USB as a mobile setup. However, the Gamma/mini3 sounds better with my particular headphone type (ortho) I don't think they (with crappy soundcard) were showing their real potential.

I would be keeping them bot but I need to get some cash. :(

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  • 2 weeks later...
It's hard to do a real comparison as the Spitty is coax/ spdif and being fed optically from a crappy Soundblaster PCMCIA card which apparently isn't bit perfect and I only listened to it via the Big Joe power amp so I can't really say how it differs from the Gamma.

The reason I got the Gamma was to use USB as a mobile setup. However, the Gamma/mini3 sounds better with my particular headphone type (ortho) I don't think they (with crappy soundcard) were showing their real potential.

I would be keeping them bot but I need to get some cash. :(

shameless thread bump - any further impressions of the gamma-1? I am expecting a package from Mister-X within the next week or so, and drooling with anticipation.

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About a year and a half ago, I tried to power the 600ohm K240 with a Corda Move. :palm: It sounded really weak and badly amplified, I was reasonably embarrassed. LISA III did worlds better next time I tried, but do yourself a favor and don't go portable with 600ohm full sized headphones.

On a side note, have noticed several movies and shows on TV that show these headphones whenever someone is in the recording studio. I know they have been professional monitoring headphones for decades, but I would not be surprised to see a spike in popularity currently.

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It's funny, MisterX was saying the mini3 is great with low imp cans and the Gamma is great for high imp cans. I tested it and it's true. The Gamma is weak with low imp cans but great with high.

The Gamma is actually a nice little amp by itself if you don't mind using your PC to control volume.

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We listened to 6 DAC's at the CO head-fi meet this weekend. The full Gamma 1 that wiatrob built can easily hang with $400-1000 desktop DAC's when used with coax S/PDIF input. And, he uses it with his modded HP-3 at work as a headphone amp as well. It's 1/8" output was about as good as the mini-DAC 1/8" line out which can drive headphones too, but we never got to try comparing the Apogee XLR out vs the Gamma 1. The Stello DA100 was slightly more spacious and detailed, as was the Electrocompaniet ECD-1 which sounded identical to the Stello.

We really needed more time switching back and forth between the Gamma 1, Apogee and DACMagic so with the limited time we had left at the end of the meet we could only divide them into two groups with all 5 being very good, but with the Stello DA100 and ECD-1 being slightly above the other 3.

We also threw the iBasso D10 into the mix with the big boys, via coax input and using the 1/8" line-out, and it was less spacious, less detailed and less dynamic (same problem with iBasso D3 line out). But the D10 output through the headphone amp section sounds much better than it's output via the line out (same issue with the D3), but I wasn't thinking about that when we were setting up the SPDIF distribution center and the preamp with all 6 DACs feeding into it. So, using it as an optical DAC preamp to feed the Woo GES earlier in our meet proved it to be on par with the Pico as a DAC/Preamp. Sherwood listened with me and agreed with that. Too bad it is 1.5" longer than the Pico, with worse RFI from the iPhone than the Pico. I think the fact that the Pico DAC will eliminate the unneeded amp circuitry, and wont need any power or batteries to run, and will have 1/8" out and RCA out will still make it an excellent choice for a high quality USB DAC (not everyone has optical, and the D10 USB is slightly below the Pico via USB, just like the D3).

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I'm getting the Pico DAC so I think I'll be very happy.

I've compared the Pico amp with DAC to the Apogee mini-DAC via USB previously, and I think the Pico holds up well. As a matter of fact, with my Stax O2 Mk2 the Woo GES sounds better being fed by the Pico than Apogee which is fine with everything else. They both have great detail and space, but the Apogee is more tubey sounding when combined with the GES and O2 Mk2. I should wait till I hear the Pico DAC only before buying anything else.

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