L-Amp is flat out better. It’s alos better than Mojo 2 imo, and I am not alone in that judgement. It’s just full-on OTL tube sound while its closest competitors sort of hold back on that tube goodness in favour of minimizing tube ringing and lowering noise floor.
Those are the two only downsides of L-Amp, some tube ringing if you hit the device and an omnipresent faint background noise that’s akin to a distant waterfall, you can’t even localize it because it’s “everywhere”. These are consciously made compromises by the engineers at Earmen in order to maximize the sound quality and what makes the sound extra-delicious.
With headphones the hiss is completely negligible but with sensitive IEMs it is noticeable when not playing music. The L-Amp does come with IEM-match built in though which heavily mitigates it. With IEMs of normal sensitivity, it is not an issue.
The sheer sound quality easily makes up for both these cons.
This one would be worth the $150 premium for me over the Earman just because it can be used as a pure amp , and with spdif input rather than only USB. I’m weird though, I like that pure amp option (like on my Topping G5). I like that feature with the KAEI TAP2 also (line in, not just USB), and it’s like 1/2 the price of the Earman.
Glad you’re liking it though @Lexington99 ! The extra tubey signature sounds fun.
Again, according to the lead engineer guy at Earmen, it was a conscious decision to leave the amount of ringing where it is because it would allow them to achieve better sound quality. You can lower the ringing by applying feedback to the signal, which reduces the tube sound.
Just a disclaimer - do not take (only) my word for it, there are more impressions and reviews out there to base your purchase decision on.
When I used it for the first time I was like - what the heck is this mudslide? I had read a few bad audio-show impressions of the L-Amp and those impressions immediately came to mind.
Then I began problemsolving/tinkering.
Turns out I had IEM-match on (which adjusts an audio device’s output to better suit the low impedance and high sensitivity of in-ear monitors, reducing noise but may dampen dynamics and clarity in certain cases), Bass+ on which is a shelf from about 300Hz down and lowest 44.1 Hz 16bit sample rate.
So I turned IEMatch off, Bass+ off and upsampled the bitch to 384kHz 32bit and WOW what a huge difference it made.
So much so that I could only come to the conclusion that those previous impressions must have been with the wrong settings on.
New tubes, including new old stock tubes, need some number of hours of at least powered on but ideally amplifying a signal/playing music to reach there stable point before they start their slow decline into old age…best to never judge a tube unless you’ve put ~50 hours or more on it. Rule of thumb I’ve read and experienced over the decades is a low level signal tube of good build quality will be good for ~10,000 hours. Power tubes way less depending on how hard they are pushed.
Dude never reached out to give well wishes for my Wife.
He don’t give a fuck about me.
That’s why Timmy is the only dude in my space who’s hand I’d shake.
Nobody else.
He sent my Son a gift when born. Well wishes for my Wife.
That’s not special…it’s normal.
You read that as a person glazing me and not Glazing a chinese company?
Guess i gotta type more words.
Timmy from Gizaudio? I have only talked to him a few times and got to meet him last year, he met me as if I am an old friend of his!! A great person I would say.
Timmy is the only influencer that acts like a normal human being.
Probably why Crin became fast friends with him.
If everyone in the “community” acted normal, it would be a better place for consumers to gather valuable info.
My Wife likes Timmy a lot too because the social courtesy is basic level stuff to her too.
I often wonder how much the definition of basic courtesy changes based on culture and upbringing.
In Belgium we’re a pretty closed people. I say hi to my neighbours etc, but if a stranger comes up to me, I automatically assume its to scam something out of me. You just don’t walk up/talk to strangers here without some very specific purpose.
That said, I have been raised to act like a mirror. If you treat me with kindness and respect, I will treat you the same way. But if you manage to truly break the ice, you get to see who I truly am. That also comes with the unquestionable friendship package. This is how much of the populace operates here. If you ever visit Belgium, don’t get put off by getting the cold shoulder. Get to know people and you’re in for a very good time.
It’s also something I really struggled with the first time I visited the US. People often showed kindness and openness, but after only a few exchanges it was painfully obvious that it was a very superficial kindness. That confused me and creeped me out a bit.
Being (North) European with ADHD has worked out great around the world for me, I learned to not be in peoples face but I can go middle eastern bazaar mode in a split second
Being your northern neighbour so to speak, I can relate to that. Although to be fair, the likelihood of it actually being scammers has increased these days (unfortunately). I still remember that people had strings hanging out of their mailbox so that you could let yourself in be pulling it (I feel old now…)
The extra tubey signature sounds fun.
