Light Harmonic Enters the DAC/Headphone Amp Game at $99!

So my impressions are still positive. My work headphones are nothing special at all, Sennheiser HD428's, but the Geek Out gives them enough of a nudge towards respectability that I am no longer considering bringing my Koss ProDJ100's in. I've been listening only to free Spotify and iTunes Radio streams today and even that sounds really nice. The crossfeed "awesomifier" is great. It creates a real soundstage and makes instruments snap into focus. The sound with the Geek Out is full and deep and much more detailed. There are a few quirks, however. As I mentioned, this thing generates a lot of heat. And it also seems to revert back to full volume every time you plug it in, which is somewhat hazardous. This is my first USB DAC of this sort and it's going to make it really difficult to plug my headphones into the standard headphone jack of my laptop ever again.

 

I would be willing to bet some lossless files played with an app capable of Integer Mode in the DAC plus a headphone upgrade would really get your attention!

The heat is due to the headphone amp. Dynamic range comes at a price in such a small package.

Thanks for the report!

 

After a few months of listening to my Geek Out every day, I am still pleased with the sound and quite happy that I got in on the Kickstarter. My curiosity about outboard DACs has grown, and I have recently ordered two more, a Meridian Explorer and a Teac UD-H01. Should be interesting to swap them in for some extended comparisons.

And I did finally receive a second Geek Out 450 that I won in one of the contests LH Labs had during the Kickstarter campaign. It is currently for sale in the classifieds section, as I don't need two of them.