Got a bit of a mis-matched pair in the mail recently! First is the Kennerton Gjallarhorn (the regular one, not the JM, in their fancy red color):
However, I still haven’t listened to the Gjallarhorn yet because I didn’t want to mess around with hearing too many different things before swapping this next item into my chain and giving it a real first listen:
I picked up a used Allnic HPA-3000 GT! I’ve only listened to it for a couple hours, but let’s give some quick impressions on what I’m hearing vs. the Quicksilver.
The first thing I noticed was the staging: it’s a deeper stage than I was getting with the Quicksilver, but it’s not just distance away from me, it also feels like the close things are even closer. So there’s more contrast in where things seem to be staged. I’m also hearing more little details, or at least the details that I’m hearing are easier to pick out. Low-end definitely has more impact, though I didn’t notice it at first because the tracks I started off with were all like, acoustic covers and stuff, so it kind of hit me in the face when I got around to a track that had really strong sub-bass hits, lol. It seems like I’m also feeling the music a bit more in my chest, if that makes any sense, but no idea if that’s actually the music or just my state of being today.
Also, a nice usability improvement: this amp is significantly less susceptible to RF interference. Note that most of these impressions so far have been with the OG Clear listening to the single-ended out of the <=50 ohm output, so I’m excited to eventually try this with a higher-end headphone with a nice XLR cable. (Though I definitely over-spent with this last round of purchases, so I’m going to cool my heels for a bit when it comes to buying new gear.)