Oops. I thought I had sent it back but was still sitting on my shipping table. sorry about that.Wait. Did you send the NX4 back to me?
Or, are you talking about opening it up to look under the hood and compare visually?
great review as always.
a note regarding pricing: CTH is normally sold for $250, while a basic O2 can be bought from JDSLabs for $130 or configured to up to ~$200. also Massdrop sells their version of O2 for $95 (made in China + not a great power adapter judging from reviews, but configured for desktop use).
I did test it a bit a while ago against the O2 and it indeed had more power. But I need to properly test and compare it against O2.if you ever get a chance to test Schiit Magni (3?) keep the same settings, it would be nice to see how it compares. supposedly it has more power but knowing them I have doubts about that.
It can impact the noise measurements. That is, the part of the THD vs power curve that is sloping down.by the way, does the gain setting actually influence the measurements? I heard it's best to use the low gain if it can power your headphones loud enough.
Oops. I thought I had sent it back but was still sitting on my shipping table. sorry about that.
Yes, I will do a couple of spot checks.Amir, do you think it is possible to test the O2 against NX4 DSD if it is still lying around?
that's also a bit concerning. I thought all they changed was the power supply, rca out and power in sockets and the headphone jack (all should be ok except power supply which is 12V I think).Note that the Chinese/Massdrop O2 supposedly uses some different parts which are actually in breach of Nwavguy's free use policy (no changes to be made to his design).
makes sense. I like your approach to match the levels at some reasonable point across different devices.It is very time consume to cover all combinations of settings, volume control and input levels.
I like it very loud! Actually I did not know I wanted it that loud until I played the iFi. The sensation of the cups physically moving back and forth is something else.btw, I'm slightly surprised with the higher power of iFi. still O2 should be powerful enough for any headphones, even 600Ohm ones, right? unless one needs it to be very loud. or does iFi provide something more than extra loudness?
Doesn’t look like there was any changes at all in my O2 either way they seem to have fixed it.Note that the Chinese/Massdrop O2 supposedly uses some different parts which are actually in breach of Nwavguy's free use policy (no changes to be made to his design).
Wow I never knew this. It would be interesting to get one and test it.Note that the Chinese/Massdrop O2 supposedly uses some different parts which are actually in breach of Nwavguy's free use policy (no changes to be made to his design).
Doesn’t look like there was any changes at all in my O2 either way they seem to have fixed it.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Massdrop/comments/7ny0vj
*This is a teardown from somebody else’s O2+SDAC but both O2 drops should be the same minus the SDAC board.
I don't see why they would redesign the O2 and then make a product later that follows the specs. This is likely the same board sold in the regular O2 drop, just with an SDAC board included.Interesting link but note that the O2+SDAC version is by Grace Design as seen on the teardown. I'm pretty sure the regular O2 drop has nothing to do with Grace Design. I've not yet seen a teardown of the traditional O2 massdrop unit.
it's exactly the same as the regular massdrop version except they slapped an extra DAC board on top of the amp board.Interesting link but note that the O2+SDAC version is by Grace Design as seen on the teardown. I'm pretty sure the regular O2 drop has nothing to do with Grace Design. I've not yet seen a teardown of the traditional O2 massdrop unit.
there was at least one batch where they confused the gain settings for this DAC/amp combo. it was supposed to be x1 and x3.3 and they used x2.5 and x6.5 (the default one from the original design). and since the DAC outputs 2V in this case x1 and x3.3 is more appropriate. I read this on massdrop comments.Doesn’t look like there was any changes at all in my O2 either way they seem to have fixed it.
Amirm + Car Analogy = NwAvGuy?I thought Amir was NWAVGUY, LOL...
I like it very loud! Actually I did not know I wanted it that loud until I played the iFi. The sensation of the cups physically moving back and forth is something else.
But yes, by most standards, the O2 was loud enough. It just couldn't make the headphones cry.