Nice, im saving this read for tomorrow as i am waiting in monitoring after my second jab.
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I was too sleepy last night and did the same thing. Just went through the review. First good job @WaveTheory because you did something there that put everything in context. You explained your hearing. So I understand your POV (or POH?) in context. One of the reasons I shy from metal is that I’m treble sensitive and too much going on makes it painful, becoming a high frequency unintelligible white noise. So when I listen to metal, it’s stuff like Ace of Spades where there’s no evidence of that high frequency white noise.
One of the things I try to look for in reviewers is if their tastes and way of hearing lines up with mine so I can feel more confident about their recommendations or feedback.
There are two things that are important synnergy and compliment. I think based on how you descrived it you’re describing synnergy more like compliment.
The way I see it, synnergy is a physical match that achieves a greter effect, and both pieces of hardware (synnergy is hardware related) sound BETTER, in a way that’s hard to describe. Like the BHC/SB with the HD600. That’s all synnergy, the slam and the energy and the immidiacy of that pairing. When you’re talking about the:
This to me is an example of two pieces that when paired, simply stack capabilities and that staking can be something people like or in your case detracts from the experience because things are pushed too much into a direction. Be it sibilant or shout or whatever the dislike or sensitivity is. Personally it’s weird for since since I’m treble sensitive but not bothered by sibilance as much as I am with shouty vocals. So the reason I say complimentary versus synergistic is because compliments is like EQ’ing where if the sonic signatures match, the can compliment and move what was a perfect level into an unpleasant level because of that compliment effect.
I just picked up my Conductor 3X Ref and I’m getting my first tasted a high end amp. And yeah, the Liquid Platinum is left behind quickly.
Anyway, good write up, I’m glad I waited till this morning to read when I had my cup of coffee in hand and paid attention enough to be able to respond. Good work man, especially on framing your POV… erm, POH, that goes a long way. I know now, the mini would not be the amp for me.
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Thanks for the kind words. You are probably right that synergy is a term reserved for a special and positive type of complementing. I’ll try to do be more careful in that description going forward.
The Know Your Reviewer part appears to be gaining positive feedback. I started my reviews with it in there, didn’t hear anything, took it out to save space, but put it back in with this high end stuff because in my listening it came back again. I either have a true physiological sensitivity or just really low tolerance for shenaniganery around 1KHz. I’m leaning toward physiological because I experience a pain reflex in that range much sooner than even very high frequencies. Either way, there have been numerous examples where I ask a fellow audiophile “does LCD-24 sound shouty to you?” and get bewilderment from them. So yes, that colors my opinion, and I should declare that up front, especially with high priced gear.
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Wow!!! Did not know that as a word !! hahaha
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It’s not. Lol. Nor is holographicity, as I used in the review. Artistic license! Lol.
Actually looked it up…slang but it is a word… Hmmmm does this mean it is Wave’s theory of Audio terminology?
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Yikes. I need to be careful or I’ll have to write my own glossary of weirdness 
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Nonsense. Words are words when enough people agree that they are. Shenaniganery is a great word 
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So, has anyone here had time with both the Mini and SingXer so they can either validate or dispute Zeos’ thoughts on how similar the two amps sound?
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@Robert_N
And he said the Singxer had good price/ performance but I guarantee they did not sound the same lol.
He also has the Burson Soloist 3xp which is another class A amp that sits at a price point in between.
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They don’t sound similar in signature (singxer is warmer smoother overall and the gsx is more neutral bright to me) and they aren’t close from a technicality perspective either (gsx is a solid few steps ahead in almost everything except stage width)
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It’s seemingly par for the course things “sounding the same” in the Ztore of late.
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Z talking about class A heat expansion really gets me paranoid and scared. I guess I’ll just leave my Asgard 3 on forever lol 
Never gonna turn you off… Never gonna shut you down…
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He really needs to lay off attempting to explain technical things. Pretty much everything he said is wrong 
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Man I kept my coffee pot on my Musical Fidelity A100…great coffee great sound 
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I thought that was probably the case. I’d read @WaveTheory’s review of the Mini and listening to Zeos describe it, I was scratching my head thinking this doesn’t sound right. You’re(Zeos) saying it’s making the sound nice and warm, but @WaveTheory said that it was neutral-bright?
I haven’t turned my Jotunheim 2 off since I got it back in the middle of February.
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Reviewers really should start informing themselves before showing their lack of knowledge to the masses.
Example from early on: “Linear Toroidal Transformer” → A power supply can be linear, a transformer most certainly is not.
From later on in the video: LEDs can be used as voltage references. Link. Not saying either of the amps does that, just that is an option.
At minute 14:00, Z just ignores all the transistors of the amplification and just points at the heatsinks in the PSU-section. Class A is inefficient as hell! So guess what those transistors are producing even when no sound is playing!
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So I saw the review… and FINALLY get mine back after it has been reviewed by Wave.
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It’s a technical amp. I wouldn’t say analytical as that is a sound coloring. Neutral bright is what M0N describes it… I have to slightly disagree on the bright part. I think the DACs I’ve used are on the transparent side and the amp refuses to add much warmth to the sound. Neutral, yes. I wouldn’t call it fully natural as some other amps since the third order harmonics are squashed a bit that kills the space a bit. That said, I believe the GS-X Mini FULLY delivers on all the promises that people think they are getting from a “linear” amp. (Linear amps IMO color the sound too much and provide little value).
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Only beef I have with Zeos during his review, the mini REALLY comes into it’s own with demanding headphones. The sound I get out of the Abyss Diana Phi is… wonderful. Detail monster to a the max and as an owner of the LCD X and used it on that amp, you need a top tier planar headphone that is power hungry to appreciate the Mini.
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Singxer vs. Mini: I haven’t heard the Singxer but I can fully say I can’t appreciate the Mini properly without the Diana Phi. It’s a fickle beast of a headphones for synergy ask the ZMF Eikons sound dead and lifeless in the treble compared to the Vali 2+ and MZ2. The LCD X is nice but the RNHP is more holographic (the mini does have better impact/slam than the RNHP). The NDH-20 sounds overly harsh on the Mini. The Diana Phi… sounds pretty smooth overall and them details are just drool.
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The only question I have for Zeos here with the amps are: 1) How do they sound to you with harder to drive headphones (Fostex I’m curious as that’s a hard one to amp)? 2) Bass response between the two amps I’m expecting a difference. I would expect to see a difference with different DACs here, but I assume EQ the crap out of the bass response. The Mini tends to do be high quality on the bass impact and slam and A/B of the Singxer with demanding headphones has me more questioning how good is the bass grip between the two amps. Should be very subtle.
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I can fully say that with the Bifrost 2, the mini with a proper headphone will show you a flaw that the LCD X cannot show: The BF2 does not resolve enough for that amp. I think in that review I think a test with the BF2 should be done to better say if the amps are the best.
If anyone is looking at this thread and the recent review, I can 100% say that most headphones in the $1000 and under will most likely not show a difference. The core of Zeos audience is in the budget to lower end mid tier gear and for that, Zeos maybe dead on correct with the Singxer sounding the same (again I can’t speak here). However, based on some discussions, researching, and owning the Mini for about a year (in the best color ever offered), if you don’t have or plan to have headphones that synergize or utilize the performance of the Mini you maybe wasting your money.
At this tier of headphone amp, I can say the synergy with the Spring 2 is amazing and I’ll be updating my review shortly once I get some time with the Sagra → GS-X Mini → Diana Phi (more bass macro details might make me salivate).
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