LH Labs Geek Out GO2A, V2, V2+, Infinity and SE Impressions and Reviews

I thought I would go against the grain here because I would like to share my honest opinion of the Go V2+ Infinity. I think i'm going to get flak for this and alot of rando calls, but for some reason I really don't find the Geekout v2+ Infinity very engaging. It leans towards the QP1R more in presentation than the ZX2. At first, I am always impressed with the transparency of the sound and how much detail it picks up. However after maybe 30 sec to a minute, it feels very boring for me. I feel its playing sounds and I don't really feel the music. This is very apparent with vocals as I am more caught by the details around me than the actual singing. I think in terms of microdynamics and shading it is a bit weak. I do hear lots of details, but it feels slightly flat. Also macrodynamics and transient attacks are sharp but not very impactful as it has less body. It gives an overall sound that is a bit on the leaner side. I understand that this tuning helps details come through with more transparency in the sound. I can clearly hear different layers of superimposed lines, but it is somehow unengaging as they feel seperated and not engaging with each other. The cymbal hits don't really sound right either in jazz tracks as the decay is so fast and clean. Maybe it's effort to be resolving is the problem. Yes I did use the green filter FRM and it does help but it does sounds a bit sterile(digital maybe) to me. When you listen to music with rivetting pulse that keeps building and building.....it makes me know what I'm supposed to feel instead of making me feeling it. I guess this presentation could be called more analytical/clinical. I guess coming from the ZX2, the microdynamics/inner details and transients would be less stellar as they are the zx2's strength.

Thought this might be different if I connected to my speaker setup, but it mirrors what I found before. The Go v2+ does sound better as a desktop dac as the zx2 does not have so much output power, nor can it serve dac duties.

All listening was done balanced on Campfire Andromedas both with and without IFI Iematch and a pair of EVE SC204s with the pairing TS107 Sub.

From memory, I think the Chord Mojo(owned it for a year) sounded much better as a desktop dac for the desktop setup than the GO v2+ Infinity. I know all the complaints about it here and I do agree the GO V2+ has a better technical sound(no treble shelf, more details, some people have problems with fpga timing and prickly treble grain). The biggest difference for me with the Mojo aside from all the "critical listening" is that somehow it feels like I'm listening something live compared to listening through speakers. This is of course YMMV.

The GO v2+ Infinity is one of the only pieces of gear that I bought twice. I do think it is a great unit with great sound(albeit slightly clinical). Think it is a steal at campaign prices. However at $649 I have problems justifying the price when the Chord Mojo can be had new for $380 and zx2s can be had around $500.

 

Seems entirely reasonable, esp. with Andromeda.

 

In the house...

 

Imagine if LH had produced something like this the first time around...

I had to laugh though, the gain switch wasn't working out of the box. After opening it up I managed to make a shim with the tail of a ziptie. I hope that it's temperature stable...

Initial impressions SE with UE4 vs recent memories of Modibit & Pico Power;

• Larry has worked some magic with power regulation/filtering. The USB on my macbook is shit. Every other DAC (Yggdrasil included) has required some kind of intermediary to mitigate clicks/pops/noise over USB. GO2A pulls all of its power from the same port and still sounds clean.
• Great transients, although...
• Decay less natural than MB.
• Frequency response is well balanced, top to bottom. MB seems a little more 'downsloping'.
• MB had a weird haze/sizzle on some tracks with cymbals, not present with GO2A.
• I struggle to define soundstage because of hearing damage in one ear, but both throw a pretty evenly spread arc of reasonable dimension.
• MB wins out on spatial cues (chairs scraping, performers with IBS etc).

For my usage scenario, as a transportable DAC/amp to use with a laptop, LH has nailed it with GO2A. When away from home with work I can keep it in an IEM case, throw it in my bag and forget about dicking around with setting up, power bricks, interconnects etc.

 

Resurrecting an old response, but @zerodeefex, is this true of the line out, or only the onboard amp?

 

I found that the sizzle went away on my Modi Multibit when I played enough music through it. Also in terms of soundstage I felt the GO2a was about 10 rows back whereas Modi Multibit is more like second or first row.

 

What version is that? I have not seen a silver finish before.

 

Please bug him for me too...

 

Is the signature a large upgrade sound wise?

 

That's all relative, but in the grand scheme of things, no. It's an incremental improvement, squeezing a little more out of the design.

 

huh, the 2A preorder button hadnt been working the last several days, and now its gone completely!

 

Just really trying to dial out my expectation bias...c'mon Larry...prove me wrong.

 

Dumb question, but I can use a 3.5mm TRRS to dual XLR if I wanted to plug my GOV2 into a Jotunheim eventually, right? I can't see any reason why I wouldn't be able to, but thought I'd rather be safe and ask for the people who actually know electronics to weigh in.,

 

Yes you can do that without a problem, but you may also need a TRS->RCA as well to ground it. I and others have gotten noise using a TRRS->XLR cable without also having the SE plugged in.

 

Wait, so how would that work? The TRRS -> XLR, plugged into the jotunheim? And the TRS -> RCA just... sorta doing their best 'pair of testicles' impression?