TL,DR: Smooth. Beautiful emphasis on cellos, vocals, trumpets, etc… but no “air” whatsoever.
Small review:
First, the on-off switch is behind. But there’s a tiny, tiny blue LED under the volume pot to show it’s powered on.
Oh, also, the volume pot… if you force it a bit you can make it turn around infinitely. Why? That’s the standard metal cylinder with a cut in it. And they put a perfect cylinder on it… and a perfecly round knob over it. (?)
Annnd on top of the unit, a yellow Hi-Res audio sticker. Not sure about that…
A/B-ing again…
Playstation 3 -> RCA output -> SAP-1 (or JDS Labs Atom) -> Sennheiser HD58X.
One word for this amp: Smooth.
Yup. If you believe the JDS Atom sounds “artificial” and “treble-y”, this is for you.
I’ll be really surprised if ASR or anyone else measures this and it measures “flat” (frequency response) like the Atom.
Another word: Analog.
If you believe the JDS Atom sounds “digital”, this is the “analog” version.
When have I heard an “analog” system? Hmm… I don’t remember. That’s the weird part. But this SAP-1 makes me remember it. Shows I went to. This sounds like that. The huge, overwhelming presence of the rumbling bass guitar or cellos. Vocal presence. And… sadly, lack of highs and details at 10khz and above. (Remember I got HD58Xs and I’m treble-sensitive… I know what “air” is.)
Is this Class A?
What I was expecting with the “all-the-power-all-the-time” theory was more detail and more “in-your-face” electronic music kicks or drum snares (etc). Nope. This is the Atom’s job. What I got was something different but as much enjoyable. Musical presence all the time. Dare I say “compression” ? Probably. Smoothness. Beautiful emphasis on cellos, vocals, trumpets, etc… but no “air” whatsoever. I’m tempted to say crap like “more detailed vocals” etc but, this would be worthless: This amp is boosting the bass and the mids. It might just be more volume.
Is this Hi-Res audio? (haha)
I don’t recommend this for electronic music (there’s a ton of high frequencies you won’t even hear). Therefore I definitely won’t create music using this either. And remember, the “hi-res audio” sticker is supposed to mean it goes to 20khz and above. I don’t think so. There’s a lot of harmonics I did not even hear in electronic music. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of information missing above 10khz. This is like, old-school Class A.
I don’t know, I got it yesterday, maybe it needs burn-in…
Also, apparently 270mA of Class A is enough for T50RPs.
This morning’s review was sponsored by coffee.
Edit: Forgot to mention something. Even with the volume at 100%, there’s no hiss at all.
Edit 2: Just to clarify, this amp also kills like half of the soundstage of your headphones. Obviously: Most of the left-right panning is in the treble and “air” (10khz+ treble). And this amp really lacks “air”.