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"The revised unit should now play for 8.5 to 9.5 hours continuous. It is very important to only use the supplied charger as we have made major charging circuit revisions. One of those is that the unit uses a 5V charger and better IC. Any other charger will damage the unit. The charge time is approximately 3 hours from a fully depleted battery to full".

Everything now worked exactly as advertised. Above is ALO Audio's matching bag from Black Star Bags of Portland, Oregon. Next is a photo of Ken with his new cable braider to complete this review's ongoing subtext of a small maker with an ambitious idea making good.


"This 2000lb device is something I always dreamt of having in my possession for a long time. I tried to have other companies braid my wire but they'd always never get it correct. I just knew it would take a special touch to get my products just right, some of which I had on my drawing board for years. I have heard the new headphone cable already and just tested the newest solid-core silver x copper products from this machine. These really are something special.


"This beast was a huge gamble. For a moment there I was pretty sure I'd have to lug it down to the steel recycling plant for scrap. It came with no directions on how to assemble or run it. Then it did not run on 110V or single-phase 220V. I tried to contact another braiding company here in the USA for a little email assistance. This company's contact was given to me as a reference by the manufacturer I bought the machine from. This local USA company did not return my email or phone call. So much for helping a brother out. After a few days of experimenting, tinkering and many days of test runs however we finally nailed it." Which segues neatly into Solo sonics.

Macro: In my big rig I compared the Solo's S/PDIF output to that of the Onkyo ND-S1 digital-direct dock using the same Black Cat Veloce digital link. Subsequent converters were my usual Weiss DAC2 and Burson HA160D. The remainder of the signal path were a Bent Audio Tap-X AVC, the Trafomatic Audio Kaivalya monos and ASI Tango R speakers. Next I compared the Solo's analog output to that of the same converters. Here financial sense and sensibility of course went awol—the Burson is $1.100, the Weiss $3.000—but my $449 NuForce HDP with $99 Pure i20 digital-direct dock would make up for that on the desktop and the $999 iDecco with digital dock in the kitchen.

With the Solo the Weiss inserted a transient pop through the speakers between each cut regardless of whether a CD file played through track by track or a particular number was selected directly from the iTunes menu. This was accompanied by a mechanical relay click in the DAC2 suggesting that signal lock was momentarily lost and instantaneously reestablished. At standard listening levels this transient switching noise from the renewed electronic handshake was quite obnoxious. It was also unexpected. The Weiss never drops out on my iMac or Onkyo.


To establish initial signal lock between Solo and Weiss once the cable was connected took a few seconds but no longer than the Onkyo dock. The difference was simply that the Onkyo never dropped the connection thereafter while the Solo's interrupted briefly after every track. Sonically I imagined a very minor advantage for the Solo but it was ultimately simpler and more unequivocal to say that as a digital media transport it most definitely was the Onkyo's equal.

The Solo/Burson connection was made of sterner stuff to behave completely normal. Nothing dropped out or popped. If I imagined a slight sonic advantage for the Solo again, it really was too subtle to be called out reliably. The Solo/HDP link too proved unshakeable. With the Peachtree Audio iDecco there was a very subdued micro tick between each track which I likely only noticed because I really paid attention. It did however suggest that the Weiss weirdness was not entirely peculiar to that particular combo. The degree of audibility for this between-tracks noise ranged from most faint to obnoxious. Out of four scenarios two exhibited it, only one was unacceptable. The Solo's analog outputs in the big rig context of course were trounced by the Weiss and Burson DACs. Due to the price discrepancy involved, it's simply of no interest to get more specific.

Relevant again was the comparison to the DAC which NuForce has built into the overachieving little $495 HDP. That machine I consider the crown jewel in their Icon range. On my desktop Pure's i20 clever dock usually extracts the iPod digits for processing by the NuForce. Now I connected both the Solo's digital and analog outputs to the NuForce instead. This became instant game over for the HDP. The Solo's Wolfson DAC and batteries simply pushed NuForce's own converter into second place without any equivocation. The Solo was clearly more robust and fleshed out. It had the higher contrast ratio, the deeper colors and the more mature bass. Even the soundstage expanded a bit laterally. While the Solo's core raison d'être is obviously mobile use where it becomes both digital extractor and processor, its own converter in a fixed setup at home is far from afterthought or throwaway feature. While something like the Burson does exceed the Solo's own analog output, it should very likely outperform the D/A conversion stages built into the plethora of USB DAC/headphone amps that keep coming out of China these days.

Having the entire Schiit catalog of headphone amps on hand, I'd also peg the Solo the perfect companion for the Asgard, Valhalla and Lyr (at least until Mike Moffat of Schiit authors his own DAC which I doubt will accommodate a digital iPod). With the Solo you only need a good stereo-mini/twin-RCA leash to make it happen. ALO Audio of course can accommodate you there. I used a Zu Wylde leash I had on hand. In this context the Solo as DAC reminded me of Vinnie Rossi's Isabella. It had the same general core signature of meatiness, density, minor warmth and good dynamics.
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