hifiDJ
May 19, 2021, 3:15am
214
I know a lot of y’all are wondering how different op-amps would sound like on the Soloist; I know I was…
There’s a member that typed up a little comparison of the Soloist vs GS-X Mini and they had the chance to roll op-amps with the Soloist.
Anyway, I’ll quote the op-amp section of the comparison as I thought it’d be useful. If you want to read the whole comparison click on the quote. I should be getting the Classic op-amps soon and post impressions as well if anybody is interested…
With the default red Vivid op amps installed I liked the presentation the most. It wasn’t trying to outright impress me in its technical performance but it was more fun and laid back and surprised me occasionally with its dynamics. It didn’t have as much weight to music but was more airy sounding. It also retains that holographic presentation to my ears, which I believe people associate with Class A amplifiers. It’s not as bright as the mini, but I suppose that means it’s closer to neutral? It’s certainly not warm though I’m sure my Bottlehead Crack has skewed my perception of what warm is.
Anyways when I swapped to the orange Classic op amps, I could notice a slight edge to the music now. I wasn’t particularly fond of it to be honest. If you prefer that sound then more power to you, but I think it made the amplifier too lean sounding for a marginal detail improvement. The op amps also cost a pretty penny.
As a bonus, I swapped in some Sparkos Labs SS3602 dual op amps. Unlike the Burson op amps, you need to be extra careful to orient them properly or you’ll probably damage the amplifier. The Sparkos were quite different. They sounded very clean, wide, and detailed. Unfortunately this came at the cost of being too bright. Brighter than I was comfortable with as my planar magnetic headphones especially just sounded sibliant.
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