Well, this was gonna happen. Folks started to ask questions about power out and stuff and I had to measure it.
--- Practical Versatility ---
This is a fairly well put together (SQ-wise) little and VERY practical gadget. I find it very enjoyable with my HD600 out of the unbalanced out and at the usual 44.1k PCM setting. But that's not where the fun ends. This thing can do DSD, DXD and 192kHz... and perhaps 352.8 kHz and 384 kHz. I was able to verify 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz, 88.2 kHz, 96 kHz and 192 kHz with REW through ASIO. This is the only such device I have that can do uber rates and all kinds of flavors of DSD.
Furthermore, this is the only head-amp that can gimme balanced out. Which means that if I ever go balanced to feel special, I'm covered.
--- What I no-likey ---
Now lets get this out of the way. I do not like the chassis. The artistic design is more than fine. But I would have preferred the aluminum + little USB cable solution offered with the original Geek Out. And it does indeed fall off as the device heats up.
But hey! It's an improvement opportunity. It would be kool if LH offered aluminum skins for your Geek... Just saying... If you like the Hugo looks, you might be able to Huglyfy your Geek! You might Tobleronify it if you crave that Pono looks.
--- Frequency Response ---
Good ol flatitude down to the bass regions even with a 33 ohm load. And as far as the tremble you now have options. Extended awesomeness with TCM (blue pill) and slow roll off with FRM (green pill). The TCM seems to be a minimum phase filter. I prefer linear phase filters, but subjectively the options don't bother me.
Frequency Response TCM (33 ohm @ 44.1kHz)
Frequency Response FRM (33 ohm @ 44.1 kHz)
At 192 kHz it may not matter much as we get a FR ruler past what the Focusrite (96kHz) can detect.
Frequency Response TCM (300 ohm @ 192 kHz)
--- THD 1kHz ---
At 300 ohms and 0.4 Vrms (about -15dBFS) and using high gain the Geek behaves like a boss with about 0.0098% distortion and negligible higher order harmonics. Now you can give the finger to your crappy computer interface with confidence.
At 33 ohms and 0.4 Vrms distortion rises to 0.0109% which means that you can still curse at your PC or laptop funky soundcard happily.
--- Output Impedance ----
Even at high gain I measured less than 0.51 ohms. The Geek is supposed to use a TPA6120A2, so maybe they used a ferrite or some other kind of magic cuz high impedance is not a problem.
--- Maximum Output ---
The V2 is able to provide about 2.2 Vrms in unbalanced and likely 4.2 Vrms balanced. Power is limited by the load and whatever current your USB port can supply. This should be more than enough for most cans in the market... But no. It will not replace your 60 Ibs Krell feet warmer.
--- IMD ---
SMPTE gives up a respectable ~0.0224% into 300 ohms at 0.4 Vrms ~0.0215% into 33 ohms. It seems that the more difficult 33 ohm load is doing better, but that's just the measurement being a little misleading IMO, cuz THD at 60 Hz harmonics does increase for the 33 ohm vs the 300 ohm. It's just that this test only looks at IMD distortion around the 7 kHz
tone.
SMPTE IMD (300 ohm)
SMPTE IMD (33 ohm)
So. Are we concerned about stability cuz it's using the TPA6120A2 and the output impedance is kinda low? Well, CCIF is not a tell all and my 2i2 can only go to 96 kHz sampling, but upto that range, things look good IMO with 33 ohms:
--- Jitter & Noise ---
Looking at the distortion plots, I didn't see any considerable widening of the fundamental, so my guess is that jitter is fairly well controlled. Noise on my interface goes down to about -130 dBFs so this device is doing better. I might be able to get lower noise floor on my 2i2, but I don't want to mock around with the line-in levels. Let's just say that this device is not noisy at all.
--- Summary ---
This is an awesome device. I think the MSRP is $299. Well, an ODAC + O2 combo is about $280. Sure, it's got more voltage swing. But can it do all the crazy data rates? No. Can I run it from my USB port with no wall wart? No. Can I fit it in my pocket? No. Can it do balanced? No. Does the ODAC + O2 dull & DIY-like chassis fall apart and look rugged around the edges? No (skins please?).
So there you go. I like this little stuffs. It sounds good and I can just hook it up an be happy.
