Geek Out 1000 USB DAC and Headphone Amplifier

Update: I recommend updating to the latest firmware and using the TCM mode for tighter rhythmic coherence. This upgrade will do away with the Awesomifier, which doesn't do much anyway. The smoother but slightly less tight FRM mode is also nice, depending on the music, but I keep it on TCM (matter of personal taste).I use the Geek Out 1000 at work with a set of Sennheiser HD280s and TIDAL lossless streaming. I have also auditioned it with Focal Spirit Pro headphones and Beyerdynamic DT880 Pros. The GO is able to drive all of them very well - way louder than "safe" levels, and is able to get about the best sound I've heard out of them. With the Focals and Beyerdynamics, it's able to get a cleaner, crisper bass (this is something I noted in my review of the HD280s and is a characteristic of the headphones, not the amp). The overall sound isn't exactly neutral but is close enough (to my ears) that I wouldn't hesitate to mix using it in a pinch. There's a little emphasis of the 2nd and 3rd harmonics. Nothing you'd notice unless you were comparing it to a reference setup, and it actually is an improvement (rather than a detriment) for listening, slightly warmer but still crisp and clear.More detailed audition notes from using the Focal Spirit Pros with the Geek Out: Listening to "So Far Away" by Dire Straits, the opening riff was crisp and clear, you could close your eyes and hear what he's doing with the strings, and even notice a slight editing glitch if you listen closely. In the intro, you can hear the strat pushed just past breakup as he changes his dynamics at 0:06. The far right synth is rendered well to the right, the guitar and voice are clear and well separated. You can hear everything that's going on, and hone in on any specific part that you might want. The drum fill at 0:58 and 1:27 give you a good sense of the dynamics that the inimitable Pick Withers employs; you can easily hear both the left-right pan during the fill and the resonance change as the hit decays. Listening to "BC" by Tal Wilkenfeld, you can really pick out all the individual lines, with good weight and clarity on the bass. The cymbals are clear without being overpowering. The parts (e.g. starting around 0:32) where the bass, keys and driven guitar play very similar lines over each other retains the character of the individual instruments very well. The drums are clear, dynamic and very compelling. "Signs" by Tesla from "Five Man Acoustical Jam" is rendered as a very convincing live recording and in spite of the complications of recording and mixing such a track, it's rendered with good detail, clarity and soundstage. This is a track on which I've found lesser equipment much less able to render the nuances and detail. Finally kicking it up to 11 and playing Iron Maiden's "Wasted Years" - another track that trips up lesser gear - I was very impressed with how it handled the very compressed and dense midrange in the mix with great clarity and separation. I could clearly pick out the duelling guitar lines, Steve Harris' machine-gun bass without losing track of Bruce Dickinson's vocals.Overall, great dynamic range, good sound stage, good clarity while never becoming harsh.Final comparison notes: My home setup is an Oppo HA-1, and the Geek Out compares very well to it. The only reason I use the HA-1 at home rather than the GO1000 is because it also acts as the DAC and preamp for a set of powered monitors that I use for my home studio; the sound quality difference between the two is small (the HA-1 is marginally smoother while retaining clarity and separation, with slightly tighter bass - but if I weren't doing a close, eyes-closed listening test, I likely wouldn't miss the difference). Other than that, the sound-stage and overall sound quality is close, at about 25% the price. Which is not to say the HA-1 isn't a great device and much more versatile (which is why I use it and would buy it again) - but if all you need is a USB DAC and Headphone amp, the Geek Out is a great buy.The one thing I'd call out is the 3D Awesomeifier doesn't do anything for me at all. But then again, I've never been a fan of crossfeeding for headphones. Headphones sound different from speakers, and this will always be the case. Unless you hold your head rock steady and don't move at all, even the crossfeed just ends up sounding fake. In other words, I'm in the camp of "headphones have a different sound stage, deal with it." However, personal preference aside, I find the audible difference with the 3D Awesomeifier is marginal at most.So, if you're looking for a good sounding DAC that can drive moderate loads (possibly high loads too, but I haven't tried it with very-difficult-to-drive headphones so I can't comment on those), has great sound quality and clarity, I'd go with these without hesitation. A great unit at any price, but especially so given what equivalent units from other manufacturers cost. Just don't buy it for the "Awesomeifier" alone.

Sound wise this is a superb item, taking the output and filling the music with amazing depth and character previously not heard on my earphines. Simply amazing. The downside is the battery drain which is 6x the norm of listening to my music without it. The unit heats up excessively! Why I don't know but very hot to the touch quickly. These latter two, although not show stoppers to avoid a purchase are far offset by the amazing sound output. If not for battery drain and heat this would have been a 5.

I cannot recommend this DAC at all. Build quality was very poor. Cheap, plastic like enclosure, USB connector is loose and almost pulls out of the DAV every time I remove it from my MacBook. The price vs performance is very poor. It should sell for less than $100 given the performance. Customer service at LH Labs is also non-existent. None of my emails have been returned, so now I know why they do not publish a phone number anywhere.

It's very good to OK when it's working but I have to constantly reset and reload software from website. Overheats and is very inconsistent in performance.

I'm a Mac user, and that seems to be the source of both of my problems...I bought this to use with Sennheiser 650's, which are amazing headphones but really require an amp (unless you never need to hear anything at high volume). One issue, out of the box, is that when plugging in the unit, the sound was initially nothing but buzz. It turned out that the 1000 was setting the default sample rate to 384,000 Hz. What the hell? Changing this setting within Apple's Audio/Midi setup utility to 48,000 Hz fixed the buzz. But then there's the volume issue. The 1000 has analog volume buttons on it, so you can crank the volume up on the unit, and then, you'd think, tweak the volume as needed from the Mac itself. But pressing the Mac's volume up/down buttons overrides the master volume of the 1000, so if you crank the 1000, then press volume down once on the Mac, the volume drops probably 50%. Pressing volume up on the Mac does not return the 1000 to its original volume. These two volumes should be completely independent, but as soon as you adjust the volume on the Mac side, the 1000 forgets where you'd set the volume with the analog buttons.There's a firmware update to address this, but - surprise! - you can't install it on a Mac. So while the 1000 "works" on a Mac, and doesn't require a separate driver like it does on Windows, Geek Out doesn't actually support the Mac at all, and offers no way to update firmware.It sounds really good (until you need to adjust the volume), but I'm going to return it and look elsewhere. There are plenty of good $300 DAC/headphone amps that do actually offer Mac support.

This is an incredible device. - my third attempt to increase the headphone volume from my MacBook Air. First, you should all know that one of many things Apple does is produce outstanding pure clear music. So without this device my music on all good headphones sounded great. That being said - many of my headphones were barely loud enough to listen on a plane as the background noise even with the Bose quiet comfort noise reducing or the standard apple headphones. This device (1) increases the volume way beyond what I will ever use and (2) creates clear perfect unadulterated sound! Bought one for others who have Macs also. Why they don't have enough headphone amplification is beyond me. But if you are looking for something for Macs or any PC that has headphone jack issues - get this!! worth the price.