Bakoon Amp-13R Review and Impressions

The AMP-13R and AMP-23R are voltage output amps.

 

I think the Bakoon looks fuckin cool. The labels were put on the bottom of the chassis to keep it clean looking. Just saying, it was a design choice, not stupidity. Though I don’t really like form over function design, I think this amp is so radically different from anything else out there design wise it's a bold design and a bold move business wise (that may not have worked) but I think it's really beautiful. One of them should be in an art gallery next to an old Moth amp or Eddie Current amp.

 

I am new to the loaners program here though I have been taking advantage of opinions and advice here for years. I would like to thank everyone who helped in this loaner as this was a very unique community effort, including Julie's efforts.

I have really focused my efforts on knowing the bakoon on speakers and comparing it to my existing amplifiers, as this was my primary interest in this amp. I enjoy dynamic headphones personally and they seem to do well on this amplifier - I am not going to talk too much about them as this was not the focus of my time with the amp. I tried my best to not read too many detailed reviews or impressions on this thread. I was aware of the amp as something folks recommend with the susvara. I had heard previously that they use a different mode of volume control.

my chain is pi2AES> Yggdrasil OG A2 > bakoon amp13r/neurochome modulus 86 with TDK pot for passive volume control >Triangle antal 40th anniversary. The triangles ( 92db sensitivity per manufacturer) have an upfront property which I enjoy as its not a speaker to play in the background. It draws you in and you forget about the gear - the real proof of its sound is that my wife agrees that it was worth the cost!

I had planned to use the freya S to have a single way of hooking everything up. . Unfortunately, freya S when placed in front of the bakoon changed its sound and I quickly stopped doing that. I didn't compare it to a single aegir as that is far too warm for me- I had almost sold it before trying a dual mono set up which was much much superior. I was concerned previously that this was power related, however (spoiler), the bakoon has clearly proved that not to be the case.

The Bakoon was very interesting as I let it play for a bit just listening without comparisons. It projects a very deep soundstage which is immediately noticeable. I was impressed with its handling of electronic music particularly, I wouldn't have thought of it as being skilled at that based on its very modest size and power output. It handles congested music very well and is able to separate different aspects of the music and instruments. Instrument tonality and detail is excellent - for instance its rendering of cymbals/hi-hats is particularly realistic.

Comparisons:
- with the neurochrome modulus 86: Neurochrome has a great soundstage and image height in general, seems a draw at best. Depth was superior with the bakoon - I would go as far as saying that it was a lot better. The neurochrome is very synergistic with my system for its reasonable cost, but its clear in comparison that it attenuates instrument decay and resonance. While the bakoon is not a much warmer amp it does have a slight sweetness which was preferable.

-with dual mono aegir: I had not been listening to this setup as much recently as I had chosen the simplicity of the neurochrome setup. Unfortunately, my freya S continued to act up limiting how much time I could spend with this. Staging and layering was superior with the bakoon. Tonality was comparable to what I could hear.


Downsides: it seems to be picky about some modern music as it seems to highlight the harshness somewhat more than ideal. It seems to only happen on some occasional recordings and I had trouble predicting which ones could trigger this behavior. I lack an "audiophile" taste in music so this aspect is very important for me.
-- the PRICE: the full retail price is difficult to digest for me with my current setup. Perhaps more resolving set ups might justify an amplifier of this cost.
- as with many lower powered amplifiers, going higher with the volume leads to a collapse of the soundstage and a hardness to the sound. I will point out that I only noticed this at higher than average listening levels for me.

Special Notes: I am convinced that the bakoon has different behavior at different gain/volume levels. I started exploring this more when turning down the sound to make a call - It was immediately noticeable that the amplifier was much more detailed than expected at low volume. I would love it if we could eventually get some measurements at low gain vs mid and higher gains. I did not find much difference on headphones between changing the overall gain of the amp( thank you again to @ilikebananafudge_ for help figuring this out).

 

Bakoon 13r Loaner Impressions
I’d like to thank Julie for organizing this tour and SBAF and fellow tour members for making it possible. Thanks also to Josh Schor for kindly selling his excellent amp at a great price. Someone needs to snag this amp, with the right setup it’d be a lot of fun.


Gear and Comparisons
Mac Mini with Roon (Qobuz and FLAC/ALAC files) via USB -> Yggdrasil A2 multibit (balanced to Jensen PO-2XR converting to SE) -> Bakoon vs Raal Requisite HSA 1b and DNA Stratus -> LCD-4 and Atrium.

The Raal amp is a bit of an esoteric one and probably isn’t all that well known here. It’s designed to drive ribbon headphones but also has conventional headphone outputs (incidentally, the Vérité sounds great from them). The ribbon output delivers a good deal more power than the ordinary ones and is great for hard-to-drive planars. I compared the Bakoon with the Raal amp and the Stratus with my LCD-4 and my Atrium.


High or low?
As others above have noted, the amp’s quite different from the two gain options. The low gain is indeed grainy and generally quite pants. It’s brighter, sometimes screechy, more brittle, and drier than high gain. The bass is looser, more thumpy and poorly defined and sometimes overdone.

The high gain is much better. It’s more open and expansive, warmer and richer, tighter, punchier and snappier, more focused and clearer, cleaner, more lucid, with a slight glow and roundedness to notes. Where the low gain is irredeemably solid state in its presentation, high gain is more tube-like (which is not to say it’s bloomy; it’s not, it’s tighter than a camel’s arse in a sandstorm).

The rest of these impressions are solely from the high gain output.


General Impressions with the LCD-4 (ribbon output)
The Bakoon is a fun, mildly aggressive amp with a slightly v-shaped sound and a bit more of an emphasis on the bass side of that v. Besides having a lot of power, it has quite an up-front presentation, much like the Schiit Mjolnir 1. That’s to say it doesn’t present music with much depth. But the staging is still quite expansive because it’s so wide—think front row of the cinema. The Bakoon also has incisive, hard-edged transient attacks. And it’s incredibly impactful, with a lot of percussive strength, strong macrodynamic contrast, and, thanks to the bass emphasis, plenty of slam. Where the Bakoon’s different from the Mjolnir 1 is in having a slightly more even and clean treble (from memory) and in being more resolving. In other words, the Kaboom! is effectively a souped-up Mjolnir with a few minor differences, a key one being its impressively black background.

First impressions were great with the LCD-4. These headphones can be a bit sleepy, even when well amped, given their slightly muffled, closed-in presentation. I’m not a fan of the LCD-4’s frequency response – it has its charms but I’m holding on to these headphones so that they can get the rhythmdevils treatment – but the Bakoon transformed the sound into something that, at first, was really appealing. The amp did several things exceptionally well:

1. its wide staging opened up the sense of space. The amp also does very well with imaging and separation, which helped give the LCD-4 more air and openness. It became much less stuffy.
   
   
2. the amp has incredible grip on the drivers. The LCD-4 can be a bit rounded and sedate. Here it was snappy and impressively responsive, becoming much faster. This is a quality I’ve long sought in an amp for the LCD-4, and none of the Schiit beasts, Mjolnirs 1 and 2 and Rag 1.5, quite have the same tight control of the drivers.
   
   
3. the bass emphasis and grip on the drivers makes for a really tight, well-defined bass while keeping the great bass textures that are a standout quality of the LCD-4. You get plenty of slam, sub-bass rumble, and mid-bass punch.
   
   
4. the excellent resolution and clean sound of the amp helps make music come across not just more expansively and energetically but also more clearly and with greater immediacy.

Fun as this presentation is, the sound does become quite fatiguing. It’s not fatiguing in the sense of treble nasties. It’s more that you get pummeled from accidentally letting the volume get too loud. I simply hadn’t noticed how loud I had it, at least not at first. This happened, I suspect, because of the amp’s relatively clean power and the low distortion of the LCD-4. Even at lower volumes, though, the intensity of the presentation can still be a bit much.

I mentioned early on the up-front staging. I should note, though, that while the presentation is like you’re in the front row, there is some front-to-back depth differentiation. I use an opera track to get a sense of this: at one point, the fat lady runs singing from the back-left of the stage to the front-right, and then off into the wings, and you can get a sense of that forward movement with the Bakoon, although it’s not as well done as on other amps. The Baboon’s up-front staging is also offset somewhat by the good placement of vocals. Since they’re quite forward, vocals appear prominently, right in front of your eyes, but slightly above a center, horizontal plane. In other words, male and especially female vocals rise above the instruments. Altogether, the staging is better than most Schiit amps—or, put another way, if you can tolerate Schiit amps, you can tolerate this.

The overall staging can be 3D-like, at times, but it occasionally comes across as a bit 3-blobby, with hard-panned sounds to the sides and a prominent center image. Unfortunately, layering’s not great because there’s not much height to the staging. It’s very much a letterbox presentation.

The amp helps impart good textures to music. You get reverberations reproduced nicely. It’s not a smooth amp, then. But it’s not jagged, either.


With the Atrium (high gain as low gain sucked)
The same qualities from the LCD-4 translate over to the Atrium. The presentation is pretty good: the Atrium retains its warmth (I have the solid mesh on mine), its heft, and its lovely, voluptuous sound. The Atrium’s still slightly rounded in its presentation, although the transients are much sharper now. There’s still some fullness and euphony to the sound, as well some of that liquid, analogue quality, with a slightly tube-like, honeyed glow to notes. There are also some 3D-like staging effects, with good layering and imaging, which makes for a satisfyingly expansive headstage.

I have one of the harder-wood Atriums. The combination of this hardness, it seems, and the percussiveness of the amp makes for an overly intense listening experience. Again, as with the LCD-4, it’s exhilarating at first. But it gets tiring. The Atrium’s a hard-hitting pair of headphones at the best of times, and here it’s pummeling, like the wood had petrified and taken on a granite-like hardness. I should think for most of us, the combination would take us too far from the natural sound of the headphones.


Comparisons with HSA 1b using LCD-4 + Reveal plugin and ribbon output
These two amps make for quite the contrasts. The HSA 1b is darker, quite mellow but still engaging, not sleepy, and it has a big sound to it, one that’s bold, forward, rich, and weighty.

• the bass is too pronounced to work well with classical music; bass guitars, by contrast, sound great and have enough bloom to be nicely textured while still having lots of punch
• there’s not the best clarity, unfortunately. The fullness of the lower mids get overemphasized with the HSA 1b
• the transients are nicely snappy, making brushstrokes on cymbals sound reasonably accurate and not just a smeary mess
• brass instruments are great, with lots of texture and blart and blare to them
• trumpets are too rolled off and not piercing enough
• the alto sax a bit too rich and sharp, more brass-like than woodwind
• the piano is likewise a bit fruity, as in too warm and ripe
• male vocals are weighty and well placed but female vocals are slightly recessed and too warm
• textures, unfortunately, are too smooth
• and there’s not enough impact
  • drum strikes and bass hits in electronic music are too pillowy

The Bakoon…

• isn't as rich or big-sounding
• is not as overemphasized in the bass
• is more balanced and, while warm, closer to neutral
• has a tighter bass, which is better defined but still with some great texture and a hint of bloom, when called for
• offers more bite and upper-mid/lower-treble energy
  • is not quite as mellow, then; more aggressive, with some slight brittleness and faint, flinty quality
• has better clarity and more sparkle with higher frequencies (acoustic guitars sound better here)
• but doesn’t have as much depth, with both more up-front staging and less front-to-back placement of instruments
• the snappier, sharper leading edges make for a more aggressive sound
• you get better delineated brushstrokes on cymbals
• the alto sax is better, marginally
• piano is much better and closer to sounding correct
• male vocals are good but don’t rise above instruments enough, just as female ones don’t, either
• the resolution and clarity are excellent, although some of that detail might owe something to the treble emphasis
• has better separation generally and more space around instruments as well as wider staging
• is less closed in
• is way more impactful

Comparisons with Stratus using Atrium
There’s not much to say here. The exciting Bakoon makes for an even stronger contrast with the superb Stratus. Where the Stratus makes the Atrium more refined, nicely rounded, lush, immersive, gentle, enticing, lovely, and romantic, the Bakoon makes the Atrium bold, energetic, hard-hitting, dynamic, and, before long, fatiguing. If impact and energy aren’t important to you, the Stratus is leaps and bounds ahead of the Bakoon. It’s in a different league, quite honestly, and the fact that it cost 2/3 of the price of the Bakoon says something, I suppose, about the market for high-end solid state amps designed to drive exotic headphones (read: Susvara).


Conclusion
I’ve only heard the Susvara briefly at shows. It’s either come across as light and fast and ethereal, but slightly laid back, or else richer and warmer and more impactful, but still kind of mellow, as though not properly roused from sleep. I’ve not been entirely convinced by it, but then I don’t think I’ve heard it in an ideal setup (let alone setting). I mention all this because I could see the Bakoon working nicely with the Susvara, livening things up, playing to its strengths when it comes to speed, clarity, and resolution while also offsetting the Susvara’s limitations, caffeinating it properly, giving it a kick in the pants, having better grip on its drivers, more impact, more energy, and more slam. I just wonder if the lack of depth would be an issue.

The Bakoon wakes up the LCD-4 nicely, almost turning it into something it isn’t normally: the LCD-4’s attacks become sharper and it has more slam, impact, spaciousness, and excitement. And it’s way too easy to find yourself with the volume up too high. Beware, with great power (and low distortion) comes great irresponsibility. Ultimately, the dealbreaker for me with both the Atrium and the LCD-4 is the lack of depth provided by the Bakoon.

Spoiler: Coda: Holo Audio Bliss as a goldilocks of these two amps?

I have the HSA 1b to drive my Raal SR1a and like it for that reason alone. The Bakoon, however, exposes the HSA 1b’s marked limitations with the LCD-4, and after mulling over the experience of this loaner tour and the direct comparisons between these two amps, I’ve come to appreciate better the Holo Audio Bliss, which I owned for several months last year. (I made the most of a decently priced used model to audition it and then be able to resell it again with only a negligible loss thanks to the strong demand and long lead times). I ultimately moved on from the Bliss because the HSA 1b was significantly less expensive.

I didn’t post impressions of the Bliss because I don’t have a good frame of reference for what a high-end solid state amp should sound like. From memory, poor and unreliable as it is, the Bliss strikes me as splitting the difference between the Bakoon and the HSA 1b by being impactful and energetic but not overly so, by having a pleasingly warm presentation (perhaps too much so for some tastes), by having much better staging than both the other two amps, for being just as resolving, and for having an energetic but still a full, weighty sound. Where it falls down is in being very smooth and coming across as ever so slightly damped. If the Bakoon’s too aggressive for you, the Bliss might work better.

 

First off, thanks SO MUCH to SBAF and everyone who made this loaner possible. This place truly rocks to make oddball stuff like this happen.

Gear: Roon (MBP) to Pi2AES to Yggdrassil A2, Freya S passive only used as a switch between sources, to amps, to AN-E HE. Sorry folks, I only tried this with my speaker set up. I'm not a Susvara/HE-6/playnar guy so that's that.

TLDR: this amp is built for vocals. Intelligibility, nuance, layering; human emotive force in spades. I mean this not in the classic trope, “great for vocals and chamber music!” that implies limpdick/lacking extension/uninvolving sound. The Bakoon presents a gold-ish hued focus on vocal intimacy that I’ve not heard similarly in any other piece of gear.

In terms of dynamics, it’s not the most exciting; not a fireworks and audiophile hyperbole machine. A bit soft, but not displeasing really at all. Not lacking in detail and resolution, though; more of a matter of taste rather than a question of ultimate resolution. Where do you want to focus your attention? On the stick on cowbell or the bass guitar fret noise? Your choice… In other words, Bakoon has satisfactory planktons.

But where this amp lives is in the trailing edges, in the reverb tails, in the things between the notes and the space around a singer. I noticed I began to focus on a lot of the spaces behind and between events, like, what happens in the recording space (and post production) after a certain phrase or plosive in the vocals. It’s a bit academic, but kind of intoxicating - maybe like over-listening? I dunno. Anyhow, I’m thankful there is gear like the Bakoon that allows this different way of engaging with musical expression captured in a file, or disc, or slab of vinyl.

Another aspect the Bakoon excels at is revealing harmonic complexity and microdynamic contrast in the midrange. Yes, it’s slightly tonally mid-centric, obviously. But not in a mid-forward IEM way, more just exceptionally resolute midrange detail. In other words, it’s not a tone thing, it’s a resolution thing.

It slightly makes my 8600 sound veiled in the midrange in comparison, with vocals. Although it has a similar parlor trick to what my 8600 has, though: the volume knob is less about making things louder, but more about opening up the space around individual notes and increasing microdynamics.

Bass balance-wise is quite neutral, present but not quite slammy or overhung, either. overall, a smidge boring when the music gets more dynamic. But again, not rolled off or any kind of sin of commission in the lower registers.

Overall gestalt that i’m getting at: it’s like switching to a slightly smaller f-stop number, opening the aperture and shifting the depth of field, but tonally. The Bakoon is kind of saying, hey, look at this; this is all the stuff in the heart/midrange of the music you’ve been missing out on. And it's a deep way to connect with music that you've been missing out on.

Other thoughts: I’ve rambled before about the difference between a musical experience and and acoustic event. To me, the Bakoon is indeed a flawed/not “neutral” presentation, however, for certain personal preferences, this may be the type of voicing that does actually allow the gear to get out from in between the listener and the music. In other words, to me, the Bakoon leans towards musical experience.

What it does well, it does really, really well. What it doesn’t do, doesn’t detract from the experience. Sins of omission and all…

 

To me this totally makes sense, reminds me of MJ3 and HD800SDR. Sorry for nano derail, what you said just clicked and I have not heard anyone say that before.

 

I just want to post this, too, since it's relevant to my personal biases. When I picked the Bakoon up from Sheldaze, I told him I was a bit (well, maybe more than a bit) skeptical of the Bakoon because it seems so polarizing in a lot of the published reviews. We had an interesting chat about desires to align one's preferences with certain gear because it's polarizing, and how often that's a fool's errand, and whatnot. In other words, in published reviews the praise seemed to "fit a type," as it were. I'd originally intended to skip comparing it directly to my TU8600, and instead only compare it with my Fosi ZA3. I mean, that ZA3 is a little "giant killer" of a chip amp, so why not, right? Emperor's clothes, and all that. I, like a lot of others, grow a little tired of 6moons-type consistent praise (or is it just consistently verbose praise?) of some piece of gear because it's merely esoteric.



Well, egg on my face. That version of my review didn't get off the ground. The Bakoon was just that engaging to me that I'd be doing a disservice to it's strengths by trying to shoot it down by comparing it with a (albeit great sounding) cheapo chip amp. Yes, I still stand by my opinion that the Fosi is better than it should be by a wide margin compared to a whole slew of other chip amps I've had in my system. But what the Bakoon did to the sound in my room was something novel, not just something "better" in audiophile terms. So I'd just like to reiterate a thought; I appreciate when a piece of gear is obvious in its craft; that there's intent, or that whoever made the thing made engineering choices about what to emphasize in a tasteful way. I'm not going to compare the house sound of Bakoon to ZMF but there's a similarity in the way both are using science and engineering to meet certain subjective desires (and no, you dipshits, don't read that as HE JUST SAID BAKOON AMPS SOUND LIKE ZMF HEADPHONES). But, when intent and care are evident, I don't feel it fair to dim-wit my own impressions of something that's obviously been crafted with pride.

Maybe in a bit I might have some thoughts put together well enough to share about the value proposition of the Bakoon...

 

Design

I can’t get over how tiny this amp is, especially when it sounds so big. Setting gain requires reading the manual, which is a bit annoying, otherwise it’s very usable and simplistic. I don’t find the volume control annoying, if anything I’d want finer control. The Urushi knob is a great touch.

Gain

Unexpectedly, I’m enjoying low gain far more, even with Susvara. High gain has a narrower stage and feels uncomfortably tense as if there’s too much grip on the drivers.

Sound

Reminds me most of the McIntosh MHA150, yet a bit less relaxed, narrower stage, and transients not quite as rounded. There’s no hint of running out of headroom. The bass is authoritative, gutsy, and deep, mids are fine, and highs can be a bit scratchy on some recordings. Not particularly detailed, and not at all holographic like a DSHA-3F or nice tube amps.

Pairings

JAR600 and Focal Utopia 2016 were fine. If someone only had dynamics, I would not recommend a 13R. There are less expensive options available with better synergy for dynamics. Where it shined was with planar magnetics such as HIFIMAN Susvara, ZMF Caldera, Final D8000, Meze Elite, and HIFIMAN HE1000se. Awesome levels of engagement, with just the right levels of intensity.

Many thanks to @julie for organizing this! I’m going to spend the rest of my 10 days comparing with the MHA150!

 

Look, this thing is a $6,000 amp. Yes, it is a speaker amp as well, but this puts it 4x the price of a Schiit Ragnarok. Now, granted, this is the older model and $6k was retail with a likely lower street price and likely lower used price. Still…pretty high priced amp here.

Source: Yggdrasil GS 2+ with and without Freya N
Headphones: Audeze LCD-2, ETA Gen-G, HD650i

Let’s get the good and the bad out:


Good:

• has good power for planars
• Doubles as a low power desktop amp
• Fast SS amp with good width with airiness quality

Bad:

• Quirky size and connection layout
• Has some harshness in the mids for this price range of an amp
• Not a bunch of depth and can sound airy and intimate/forward
• Simple things like changing gain or changing inputs is confusing/quirky AF

FR
For real, let’s talk about the frequency response. It kind of sounds a bit “dry” or thin to me. Meaning, the lows have issues with that last octave and don’t quite as lush as the lows I get from my MJ1. The MJ1 sounds a bit more “wet” to me and more of a separation or effortless presentation in the lows. I sometimes cannot get past a little bit of that brittleness in the mids for vintage classic rock (Pink Floyd, Traffic, Rush, etc.).

The highs are not brittle - they are very clean, non-piercing. You can tell the speed of the amp without a brightness. It is just I have heard smoother amps that are more non-fatiguing. There is still a “harsh” quality in the mids I cannot get around. Someone else also found the highs “grainy and splashy” and I get that, I just think it is happening more in the high mids than in the extreme highs.

Imaging and Soundstage
Gives a good L to R separation, very wide. Although the depth is only by so much. And yet the front to back imaging is kind of flat for whatever reason. Good instrument definition - I mean, very good here, you can tell this is a refined amp over anything below $1k. But listening to things does not get me lost in any sort of dreamscape soundstage. It has a tendency to sound too forward while also sounding a bit sterile (maybe that is just the dryness coming out again). Some might call it “airy” and intimate, but I call it a bit of a close talker.

Dynamic Impact
It is not soft like MJ3, it does have really good macrodynamics and impact. Probably not as much as MJ1 as some of the mids suffered from lacking a bit in microdynamics. It does not sound straining, even in low gain. It still has amazing instrument separation and space.

As a Speaker Amp
Again, kind of weak. Does not have as much gain as my Fosi V3. Meaning at full volume, it will not be as loud. Worked fine as a desktop amp, but did kind of like the headphone section, kind of grain in the high mids, and did not dig as deep of lows as I know my speakers could reproduce. It still showed off the speed, but lost some microdynamics in the mids for whatever reason.

Comparisons
Compared to something like the Black Widow, the BW had more power, although it had a more “tube colored” sound and was more brute force amp. It still had more depth and soundstage and a cleaner presentation. It just was not the most refined amp and not one I would want to listen to if I wanted to listen to intimate vocals.

I mentioned the MJ1 earlier in this review and about the only quality the 13R has over the MJ1 is probably in width and maybe some fine inner detail. The rest of it the MJ1 just slams in tonality, space, depth, smoothness, low impact, and lack of fatigue. Not to mention that it gets louder at full volume with LCD-2’s than with the 13R.

Function
I saved this for last because I did not want it to take away or overshadow all the other stuff, but let’s talk about it.

First of all, when I first saw one of these, I thought it looked like some crazy DIY project. Like someone had one circuit board and one chassis and shoved every connector on the back they could fit. And then you realize that everything is mirrored and not straight across. And then you realize all the markings are on the bottom of the amp. And then the three legs, which I do appreciate them serving function of a heat sink, but they still look randomly placed on the bottom.

Then there is the whole gain change and remote debacle. Even changing inputs is turning the volume too quickly? I mean, WTF. I actually get the volume control lights and don’t mind those, that is pretty cool. And the relays with the volume, well, a few other amps and even preamps I know do this. But to turn off the amp, push the button in for 5 seconds, rotate the knob…if it has to be explained or I have to RTFM, then you have failed at a good design. Something as simple as change gain or change inputs should not require reading a manual. I mean, that is all it does, other than change volume. On/off, gain up/down, input V1/V2.

And forget understanding the remote. Power and volume up and down is all I used it for. The rest is for opening an alien portal for all I know.

Conclusion
Yes, I did expect more from this amp given the price tag. I think it just is a testament to how much this hobby has grown and how much more really good stuff is not stupidly expensive. For some, this might fit your cuppa tea with its airiness quality and wide presentation as well as a secondary use as a desktop amp. And no, I don’t have Susvara. This amp may fit that, but that is one hefty price to pay for both amp and headphone pairing to just fit those headphones. I just get lost in so many other amps that leaves me not with an inner ear scratch.

One other thing I will add is that I did test this with and without Freya N in the chain. I had no ill effects with Freya N in 1x mode. It actually probably improved things. I noticed more bass impact and less thinness to the sound.

PS
I was told by @Inoculator that the Enleum 23R, the upgraded version of the 13R (note, the company changed names from Bakoon to Enleum) is not at all what I describe. I will say the 23R is a favorite pick of some notable reviewers, but that amp is another discussion altogether. I just wanted to mention this to not take anything away from the 23R.

 

I might have mentioned this before - I think the Bakoon might be a better speaker amp ( for sensitive enough speakers) than a headphone amp. My hypothesis is that this could be a function of the interaction of its gain volume control with a headphone load vs a speaker load. Also maybe a flat planar impedance curve might be helpful for it. I hope we are able to measure this amp at some point.

@Azimuth - what speakers do you use?

 

Tl;dr: I did not like it. The rest of the review is a mix of philosophical musings and stream of consciousness ramblings. I hesitate to say it’s a “bad” amp, but I think the person who will like this is a very particular listener who’s musical preferences are relaxed, with sparse instrumentation that never really goes harder than third gear.

Fair warning, I only spent about 48 hours with this amp. I listened as much as I could in those two days, but it's entirely possible my assessment of this amp would be different if I had spent more time with it.

However, I was not going to spend more time. In my note on the Loaner Tour thread, I said “I did about all the listening I could or cared to already.” I did not care to listen to this amp any more. For as much as we like to talk about character and technicalities, if Hifi gear doesn’t make me want to listen to music, then nothing else matters.

It’s entirely subjective, but I’m going through a bit of a Marie Kondo phase, and if an amp or DAC or whatever doesn't spark joy, I’m quickly done with it. Not only did the Bakoon AMP 13R not spark joy, but listening to it felt like a homework assignment I simply did not want to do.

A Word About Expectation Bias and Preferences

“Expectation bias (EB) occurs when an individual's expectations about an outcome influence perceptions…” (link)

An oft levied criticism in the audiophile world when others share their opinions on a particular piece of gear is the influence of expectation bias. Just the anticipation that a new piece of gear will be better can cause gear that simply sounds different to be perceived as a major improvement.

And let me tell you, I was mentally primed to really like the Bakoon AMP-13R. See, I’m one of those obnoxious “no negative feedback” audiophiles. I bought a Mjolnir 3 for the NFB switch alone. I rock a pair of Monarchy SM-70 Pro amps, which proudly proclaim “Zero feedback” on the faceplate. I love my Decware Zen Triode, which has so few parts in the signal path, it couldn’t implement feedback if it tried.

So, of course I expect to like a quirky and offbeat low wattage amp with no negative feedback. Heck, it’s even the second search I ever saved to my Hifi Shark account!



Which is why I was so surprised that I ended up disliking this amp so much, I packed it up and shipped it out 48 hours after I received it.

Now, this amp has got the no-negative feedback sound in spades. To pontificate a little more - every note in any recording has a beginning, a middle and an end. Recording engineers call this the “envelope”, or musicians might describe it as the attack, sustain and decay. The best performers truly master the nuance of how each note starts and stops. It’s what allows chamber orchestras to perform complex works without a conductor, or what makes jazz ensembles sound like a unified voice and not a mish-mash of a few dozen soloists. To borrow an overused guitar player analogy, David Gilmour can say more in one note than Yngwie Malmsteen can in a thousand, yet both are defined by their articulation as much as their technical prowess. Because let’s be real: if you lopped off the beginning and end of every not in a piece of music, you’d be left with something akin to an 8-bit MIDI rendering. The heart and soul of music lives in how each note starts and stops.

And that’s why I’m obsessed with no-negative feedback (NFB) amps. The main strength for NFB is 1) they have long reverb tails that decay into the distance, creating a more expansive sense of space than other types of gear, and 2) Having some of that more “forward” characteristic to the leading edge of tones. I don’t want to say “sharp”, because transients aren’t typically particularly pointed on NFB amps, but, “lively” is a better way of putting it. Musically speaking, I find phrasing to be more nuanced on NFB amps, with the intent of the musician communicated with more intent than on other amps.

And, to give credit where credit is due, the Bakoon 13R is as good at this as any other amp I’ve heard. But, it’s also about the only thing it’s good at, and it’s not as if it’s better at those things than other NFB amps. It’s simply par for the course.

For those who are familiar with the amps I just mentioned above, and the associated gear I list below, it’ll quickly become obvious that my sonic preferences don’t just lean “warm and fun”, but they plant a big ol’ flag firmly in that camp. Give me big, bold, braggadocious gear that makes music fun to listen to! I primarily listen to rock and metal, once I find a system that makes that sound right, classical (especially big symphonic works), musicals, and all sorts of other genres end up sounding right to me, too.

Whatever it is I like, the Bakoon 13R isn’t it.

What Is Cool?
One of the things I often ask myself is why does no one ever describe any hifi gear as “cool.” And no, not the kind of cool we all tried to be in high school, nor the kind of cool we’ll never achieve no matter how much we try (see exhibit A).



I’m talking about the false dichotomy between “warm” and “neutral” that most professional audiophile reviewers and casually forum dwellers alike use when talking about just about any piece of gear. To me, it begs the question “Why does no one ever describe anything as cool”?



Anyway, all that to say, if ever I were to declare something goes past neutral into cool territory, it would be this amp. Most of my preference is to listen to gear that leans warm, and nothing about the tonality of this amp sounded “right” to me. It sounded foreign.

Here’s a crude drawing that roughly approximates what this amp sounded like to me.



Measurements may tell a different story, but this is what I experienced. This kind of sound was consistent across all headphones, speakers and other gear pairings. Speaking of…


Associated Gear

Here’s the gear I tried with this amp:

Headphones: Audeze LCD-2 and LCD-2 Classic, ZMF Atticus
Speakers: Zu Dirty Weekend Mk II, Klipsch RP-160m
DACs: Gungnir A1, Bifrost 2 OG, EAD DSP-7000
Preamps: Freya +, Slagleformer AVC

Ultimately, I spent most of my time pairing this amp with the Bifrost 2, a warm and fun sounding DAC, and the ZMF Atticus was not just my favorite transducer for it, but about the only one I could tolerate for any moderate length of time.

Back to my question - “what is cool” - this pairing feels an awful lot like using warm gear to try and curb the sins of commission with this amp, rather than finding any real synergy. For the record, I absolutely love the Bifrost 2 and ZMF Atticus with the Schiit Mjolnir 3, as a point of comparison.

The Zu DW was the next best out of this amp, and while my time spent listening with them driven by the 13R had moments where I actually enjoyed the listening, those were few and far between, I think driven more by songs that managed to not excite the Bakoon too much more than anything else.

I spent all of 20 minutes with this amp connected to the Klipsch speakers. The boosted upper mids and treble made speakers that I normally enjoy sound exactly like how everyone on random forums would lead you to believe that all Klipsch speakers sound - harsh, bright, fatiguing.

Surprisingly, the Audeze’s were OK-ish, but uninspiring. For all the hype of this amp being “for planar headphones”, it simply wasn’t. The LCD-2 Classic can sometimes get a “metallic” ringing sound to it, and the Bakoon excited that element here. The LCD-2 Classic fared a little better, with it’s own boosted mid-bass counteracting the scooped lower mids of the 13R, but the mids were just too forward, bright and congested. Singers sounded nasally, like they all had a head cold.

One thing I tried, with both the Freya + and my Slagleformer AVC preamps was to crank up the Bakoon, and use it more as a straight amp. My thinking was, since it’s a variable gain design (at least that’s my understanding that gain varies with attenuation), then, cranking the volume to max would also maybe “hot rod” the amp, and give it some maximum gain, too. Like opening up the throttle on an engine. Results were inconclusive.


Renewed Perspective

One of my goals in participating in this loaner tour was to test my contentment with the gear I currently own. Short story long, I was once perfectly content with a sound system I thrifted from Goodwill and Craigslist. A vintage Kenwood receiver into a pair of JBL L40s, and streaming music form my laptop was all I needed. I spent $100 tops, including some bare wire I also thrifted. But, life happened - I moved, I got married, and the system no longer met my needs. I gave away the amp, I sold the speakers, the laptop died.

So about five years ago, I bit the bullet and waded into the world of hifi to try and piece together a new system I would enjoy as much as that thrift store score, and in the last year or so, I feel I’ve finally settled on gear that works for me. I think I’m happy to ride into the sunset with what I’ve got. I think I’m done.

But, am I really? How will I know if I don’t try something new from time to time? Enter the Bakoon 13R - this seemed like the perfect opportunity to try something that originally sold at a price point higher than anything I own, and, as I outlined in my expectations, it also seemed like something I would enjoy.

Alas, I’m now more certain than ever that I really can just be happy with what I have. Spending more money will only get me more different. Maybe a little more better, but probably a lot more worse.

So from that perspective, even though I did not like the 13R, I am more content than ever with what I own, and I am entirely thankful for the opportunity to participate in this tour.

Thank You

On that note, to everyone who helped agitate for, organize and bring to fruition this loaner tour, thank you! To those who kicked in $100, and to SBAF and @purr1n for covering the rest, and to @julie for keeping the tour on track.


Stream of Consciousness Ramblings

Spoiler tag because this is already far longer than I ever intended, and I know how much people love big, disorganized chunks of texts. Only the bold dare venture beyond this point.

Spoiler

• I would describe this amp as being primarily “polite” and “nimble.” Very mild mannered.
  
  
• I do have to give the 13R a compliment. Even among NFB amps, and especially among more conventional designs, the reverb present in some recordings in the bass and mid-bass frequencies are easily masked or completely lost. Think things like a little reverb on kick drums, or later recordings from the Beatles where they would put a mic with a figure-8 pattern in the room when recording Paul’s bass to get a mix of the direct signal and the room. The 13R did a good job of keeping that sense of space in the low frequency content.
  • This is my go-to song to test this these days:
• The exception to this, however, is that the sense of space, those long reverb tails, completely evaporate anytime the music gets complex. The sound stage just gets flat, and presents a thick wall of sound from left to right. This is real disappointing.
  
  
• On the flip side - whenever the music is simpler - sparser instrumentation, nothing too loud or complex, it’s actually quite enjoyable. I had a few enjoyable moments with Ichika Nito, for example. So, for someone who primarily listens to relaxed genres of music, this could be a good amp for them. Not so much if you’re into rock or metal. I even tried some classical - chamber music was OK, but anything with a larger ensemble just didn’t have it.
  
  
• The bass frequencies of this amp are best summarized with one word: unremarkable. Part of me feels like that’s a cop out, but, in all my listening, I couldn’t come up with a better description. There’s not too little bass - when listening on my bookshelf speakers, there was enough low end to be satisfied. And there’s not too much - listening on the Atticus, the warm tilt of the headphones never led to overpowering bass. Extension to the lowest registers is OK. But, there’s just nothing else to note. The bass isn’t bloomy nor boomy. It’s not tight and textured. It’s neither lean nor fat. It doesn’t slam. It simply exists. It’s fine. It’s unremarkable.
  
  
• As an example - the opening of “Dance Dance” by Fall Out Boy - that bass normally has some attitude to it. The Bakoon makes it have all the energy and tone of a tuna salad sandwich.
  
  
• My wife is going through a phase where she enjoys male bass singer dominated acapella music. This song sounded fine on the Zu DWs. Not a lot of upper mid content, so it played well to the Bakoon’s tonality:
• Warm Up - this amp has some real weird warm-up behavior. As in, sometimes, the amp goes hours sounding awful, and then, finally has a moment of “Oh, now it sounds better?” I haven’t done a lot of testing, and I don’t plan to, but it seems that the amp gets warmed up and sounding better quicker with speakers, and languishes on headphones. Supposedly, there’s an advanced microprocessor in the amp that oversees bias. From 6 Moons:

• I call BS. My experience with the amp is that, it sounds insipid and bright, sometimes for hours (I literally looked at my watch, and didn’t have a “Ah, this is finally sounding good” moment until four hours after I had started listening!)
  
  
• ***WARNING - THE FOLLOWING COMMENT IS ME SPECULATING WILDLY ABOUT THINGS I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT*** Maybe the 13R does some “overthinking” with this JET bias circuit, or whatever. I’m guessing speakers present a more difficult load to the amp, and as a result the MPU does less “thinking” and the amp stabilizes. But with headphones, presenting an easier load, the processor does more “thinking”, and ends up sounding bright and lifeless. I don’t know, probably grasping at straws - but, sometimes the amp sounds good, sometimes it doesn’t - it loosely correlates with how warm the amp is/how long it’s been on, and whether it’s driving headphones or speakers. Almost universally, it didn’t sound good to me until about an hour after it had driven speakers.
  
  
• I also wonder if the obsession with the Susvara and this amp isn’t so much that the Bakoon can drive it (supposedly, the output is the same, or substantially similar, whether it’s the taps in the back for speakers or the ¼” jack in the front), but because the Susvara plays nice with the JET bias circuit, and gets the most out of it? I don’t know, never heard a Susvara. Again, wild speculation.
  
  
• I did not hear much difference between low and high gain for headphones. Again, I wonder if that microprocessor is doing a lot of “thinking” to create a listening experience that is consistent at all volumes and all gain settings.
  
  
• There is an inescapable overabundance of frequencies in the upper mids, which leads to a sense of congestion and, frequently, the sensation of brightness. It’s particularly evident on vocals, and makes everyone sound piercingly nasally. And it’s present with every combination of upstream and downstream gear I tested. The ZMF Atticus presented it the least, but it made listening frequently unenjoyable, and made my Klipsch’s sound like how everyone says Klipsch’s sound. (Normally, they don’t.)
  
  
• This amp has as much balls as a neutered dog. Macrodynamics are muted. This amp simply has no drive once the music gets going. Again, if all your listening is to music that’s stuck in third gear - occasionally fourth gear, tops - this amp may be for you. There’s enough nuance and articulation in quiet and moderate passages to be satisfying, but, once your music gets to the big finish, or the roaring chorus, the amp just gives up and dies.

• Oh god! Apocalyptica’s “Master of Puppets” just came on, and is entirely intolerable! (Edit: went back and listened with the Decware amp and Slagleformer AVC - all else same as the first time I heard it with the Bakoon. Sure, it’s an aggressive sound, but its entirely listenable on this setup)
• This one also just came on - first time hearing it, although, I’m a fan of Eric Whitacre - and it sounds OK. Although, I get the feeling this would make most systems sound good:
  

• This amp has some real bright treble, too. I’m not sure I have any good descriptors on the quality of the treble on this amp - grainy maybe? Kinda harsh like a saw? - but the quantity - it has it in spades. Music heavy with cymbals or aux. Percussion could be downright painful. It’s not really a treble boost that adds “air” - more of one that adds articulation to stick hits. Possibly a continuation of the boosted upper mids I hear, too.
• As a consequence, I have a hard time listening to this amp loudly. But, the present bass and boosted treble basically serves as a “loudness” boost of sorts, and the amp sounds OK at low levels. That said - I consider myself a “low level” listener, usually clocking in around 70dB on average, and it’s got to get a bit quieter than I like to listen to really balance out the treble.
  
  
• I’m not entirely sure I grasp the concept of “wetness” and “dryness” on these forums. I come from a studio recording world, where a “dry” signal is one without reverb, and a “wet” one, well, has reverb. So, take what I’m about to say with a grain of salt - but this amp is what I would call “dry” in the first sense. There’s no real warmth, or bloom, or character in the mids, and in fact, I’d go so far as to say the lower-mids/upper-mid bass is simply lacking on this amp. The area where power in the music lies, and this amp is giving nothing.
  
  
• That said - this amp does a “cool” thing in that region. I’m not sure how to explain it, but, like, toms, and snare drums (the lower frequency drum part, not the rattly snares), and things like palm-muted guitars, have a cool “presence” that other systems I listen to don’t have. Kind of like a ghost in the room. The overall presentation is still a bit anemic, but, you’re also comforted by those elements being there.
  
  
• Here’s an example from one of my all time favorite bands, and an all time favorite song. Over a decade of listening to it on so many different systems, and only for the first time did I hear a strange noise. One that sounds like a gurgling, hungry stomach, during the first few bars of the opening. That’s the ghost in the music this amp brings out:

• I might be in the minority, but I quite like the design of this amp. And surprisingly, my wife did, too! Normally, she hates tube amps, and describes them as looking like a “science experiment”, and while she likened this design to that, she thought it looked more like a pier over water, and that she could go under it. She waxed on poetically for an uncharacteristically long time over a piece of audio gear.
  
  
• Sometimes, the mids sound just flat out wrong to me. I listen to a lot of rock/metal with distorted guitars, and something I really like is an “open” midrange - usually characterized by distorted guitars sounding good. It’s really easy to mess up rock guitar tone, and this amp does that from time to time. The guitars just sound wrong. I’m curious what piano aficionados would say about how this amp renders them?

• The amp does have good left-to-right imaging and a solid center image, but, not much front-to-back layering. Good sense of depth and space from things like reverb and delay (thanks to the NFB design), but nothing beyond that. And, when the music gets busy, the whole thing just collapses and you end up with a wall of sound.
  
  
• Something I didn’t notice until switching back to my Decware amp - the Bakoon doesn’t groove. Probably a consequence of the milquetoast lows, and lack of low mids. But, all of 30 seconds into playing some Red Hot Chilli Peppers, and what a groove!

• At one point, I was so flummoxed with the performance of the Bakoon, I went to listen to my Mjolnir 3, and entirely cold, through the single-ended output, and I vastly preferred it. The Mj3 gets so much better from balanced outs and warmed up.

• Also - I found the ergonomics to be fine. After a few hours of use, turning it on/off, changing settings, etc., all with the knob, felt like second nature. The only thing that was a pain in the neck was, if I had it at max volume, having to twirl the knob for what felt like an eternity to get the amp to mute or turn off again.
  
  
• That Urushi lacquer dial is gorgeous. What a shame it spins endlessly on a digital rotary encoder.

Also, not to start rumors about “little giant killers,” but I did order a Vali 3, and it just showed up as I’m wrapping up writing this review. Two songs in, and it’s already playing to my preferences in a way the Bakoon never did.

 

Huh. Weird. I've got the Enleum Amp 23-R, my regular rig with the Susvara, and I've really not heard it sound bright at all. Rather, it's slightly on the warm side. I'd agree it's somewhat polite, reserved, whatever, but it doesn't seem to get cluttered ever, and I get plenty of slam when I want it.

Maybe I'm starved for a truly mind-blowing solid-state option, but I've heard a few acclaimed ones and still like the Enleum plenty. Possibly this is just another data point that it sounds different than the Bakoon, though you'd think the two very similar? Anyway, not here to gainsay anyone's Bakoon review, just surprised by some of the descriptions of its character.

I think the reason the Enleum and Sus are a frequent pairing is that it warms the Sus up a bit and gives it a bit more bass heft. I also like my HD58X on the Enleum, where it's also nice and cosy and warm. The Verité Closed is okay, but I find that HP runs really hot and cold for me on any amp. For whatever reason, my LCD-4 is better on my Phonitor SE. Go figure. I think I'm learning that planars pair unpredictably with amps of all kinds, especially the power hogs.

 

First off, thank you to SBAF for making this loaner happen. Many of us put a little money in the kitty to make the loaner happen, but at the end of the day the site made it happen and we couldn't have done it without them. What an incredible community and the folks to support it are amazing. Truly a one of a kind place for us all to get together.

Without getting all crazy technical on here because that's just not my style, here are my impressions:

I've been experiencing this amp in passing because my in-laws decided to spend 3 weeks here on like no notice. And that's actually ok because they're great people. So I've had what little time I've had to actually listen to this amp, and I've also had much more time in passing to experience it while it's background music.

I have zero problems or complaints with this amp other than the flat staging on speakers. I listen to it at full volume (with my preamp) and it hisses, and that likely wouldn't work for something I plan to keep. Once music is playing, it's nothing I hear. However, I always think that hiss masks background details.

I attenuate the volume with my pre as I do with all other amps. Once the music gets going I don't even notice the hiss, but for $6k new I would not be a happy camper. And if we're talking new products at retail, I'd take a Coda 8 over this all day long because while I appreciate this and recognize that I have no complaints, the Coda is enough to make me actually consider that I could live with a solid state amp and be happy. Pass Labs ain't got shit on Coda IME.

In short, this is a fantastic amp for headphones. Less so for speakers because the staging lacks. You can't pay retail for it anymore because it's discontinued and that's great because it's not worth it. I'd take a Nitsch DSHA-3F over it all day every day, and I'd (personally) take Sennheisers with good tubes over all of it anyway, but this is very good and I'm pretty damn happy while listening.

If we're talking background amps, this one is fantastic. If we're talking amps I'd pay $6k for, this ain't it. $2.5k on the used market, if I wasn't already tubepilled, I'd take it if I'd never heard a Coda amp because it's certainly some of the best solid state I've heard and doesn't have the haze that Pass Labs has.

Edit: Forgot to include chain. Holo Red to May KTE to icOn 4 Zen to Bakoon to either modded Klipsch Quartets or JAR800V3.

Another edit: After reading my words it sounds like I'm shitting on the amp but it's actually one of the best solid state amps I've heard. I'm not super into solid state but this is one of the few I could be happy with if I had to have a solid state amp.