Forgot to mention why the Echo has been good. This is a copy/paste from another PM so sorry if I posted the same thing in another thread.
The Echo is a warm, relaxed amp. It has this moderately spacious, atmospheric stage drawing the listener into the music. Found the upper mids to lower treble has most of the euphony it can dish out. Jsim puts it like this.
“Imagine playing a C note on a piano The 2nd order harmonic is an overtone caused by a “ripple” effect at double the frequency of the fundamental tone (the C note). So the overtone sounds in euphony with the music, because it’s the same tone.”
Bass has a slight lift. I find it to be clean, always present without bloat, and a little expansive. You are not going to find a thunderous EDM monster of an experience here. Everything about the amp resonates a politely gentle appeal. It is very well separated from the rest of the spectrum doing justice to percussion instruments needing their own space.
Midrange is naturally placed. I was left wanting a little more in the lower mids as I have a strong preference for girthy male vocals and cellos. Texture is thankfully great presenting live performances like they’re in front of you rather than cramming the energy of their playing down your throat. I was listening to Moon River in the album American Standard by James Taylor just now. The presence of his voice was absolutely incredible. Michael from Headfonics calls it one of the cleanest sounding amps for mid range and bass fidelity in the price range. Upper mids absolutely fantastic. Taking headphones like the Focal Elex or any of the Sennheiser 6X0 series, you’ll find the forwardness of their tonality has become completely tamed. Not withdrawn or reduced in any way; just effortlessly organic in timbre. Let me tell you it annoys me a bit when people say things like ‘I’ve never heard my headphones until trying X gear’. This was one of those moments for me. Like it the headphones were totally robbed of anything with a risk of coming off as offensive. Easily the best part of the listening experience to me.
Treble is wonderfully silky free of grain, glare, or fatigue. It feels weird being able to turn my Elex’s volume up a bit. Upper mids to lower treble has some sort of fairy dust magic when it comes to moderately bright headphones in my case, I swear. Looooaads of euphonic character. Very open feeling treble gliding over the music but I wouldn’t say it’s got a ton of impact despite having a well formed, decent body.
Using the Focal Clear I noticed the tonality of the headphone thicken a bit. Bass got a really good kick in energy and vocals became fuller. Metallic edge practically vanished making for a smooth yet engaging listen.
The 6XX Opened way up sounding uber organic. Hands down the most chilled out I’ve ever been listening to music. Forward mids became very spacious. Transients greatly improved, too! Loved it.
The ZMF Atticus is a warm headphone that can easily sound overbearing in bass if you’re not careful. Happy to say it is not over done here but it may be a little bit much for those considering the 6XX to be a bassy headphone. Slightly recessed mids became more coherent, stage opened, and I overall felt it was a very enjoyable, musical experience making me feel like I was at a rock concert. Already my favorite headphone and this took it to a new level.
On the Focal Elex I ended up preferring this synergy the most. Zero glare, hints of brightness, or fatigue. EVERYTHING in the upper end got super charged with euphony. I felt as though there was a never ending happy feeling lacing each song regardless of the mastering. Super excited to see how the Aeolus compares here as that has better extension and more forward lower mids than the Atticus.
What am I forgetting? Uhhh. Oh right, soundstage was much wider than deep still having satisfactory layering. All aspects of the Echo can be considered moderate. That being said, expect songs optimized for speakers to come alive! No exception here so don’t expect to feel like you’re in a stadium. Still the most open I’ve ever heard music, and especially wider than the Lyr 3.
Edit: Let me throw out a big disclaimer here. Echo is relaxed, but still the most dynamic amp I’ve heard compared to the Lyr 3, CTH, etc. The hybrids sounded more.intimate only having small hints of tube color in comparison. Mostly solid state sounding.