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Listening to Roberta Gambarini & Hank Jones’ You are there, the voice of the Italian singer maintained its particular confidence and brightness while the cabaret intimacy was faithfully preserved. The Jazz club atmosphere of the Mulgrew Miller Live at the Kennedy Center album also was well served by the association of Amp1 and Grand Maestro CD Player.
Comparing once more Amp1 to Zhaolu D 3.5 while using the Luxman D-06, the results always favored the little Canadian black box but the difference was tenuous – source gain is obviously less problematic with the Luxman’s output stage and one could even prefer the more sober restitution of the Chinese. In my opinion, these differences tended to reiterate that it is quite difficult to find a very good headphone stage built inside a DAC where separates still present a greater value. This does not change the fact that the Zhaolu remains an extraordinary DAC offering great sound for the price to compete with the converters built into CD players costing five to eight times its price.
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Conclusion: I hardly expected that a Western newcomer to the home audio scene would release such a competitive product. But at the end of the day, I must admit that it’s not only possible but in fact happened. I enjoyed the design, the minimalism and DIY kit spirit, the performance and the very reasonable pricing policy. As a desktop device with the Trends UD-10.1, you will have a small high-performance music station that can provide many enjoyable hours of listening with the headphones of your choice.
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Of course there are higher performing and more expensive solutions on the market but at this price and if you consider your desktop station to be of secondary use—that is to say, you are not expecting the same level of performance as delivered by your main high-end system—the RW Amp1 is a very compelling proposal.
For my personal tastes, it very much is and the RW Amp1 will definitely remain on my desk and could also follow my iPod during the few weeks I spend away from home to double as a true portable device. Hence I am proud to give to this entry-level priced headphone amp when upgraded with the optional LME49720HA op amps a Blue Moon award for affordability and design efficiency.
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Quality of packing: Good.
Condition of component received: Perfect.
Website comments: Friendly and complete with very complete documentation downloads for the DIY kit.
Warranty: Manufacturing defects and defective parts are covered for 3 years (parts, labor and return shipping included from the date of purchase).
Human interactions: Robin Wainwright was always on hand and very helpful.
Pricing: Excellent value for the money.
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