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

There's no real way to tell how noisy yours is in comparison to another unless you have multiple units though. My V2+ Infinity balanced into the Jotunheim is very noisy without doing the grounding trick, so I don't even want to know how noisy the non-Infinity version is.

 

I had both.

The regular is even more noisy. You can hear the noise clearly even at the lowest volume knob position.

I had both GO2A and GO2A Infinity, as well as a GO2A Signature Edition that I could borrow briefly at the last meet.

The story went as follow for me... I sent my GOv2 Infinity in for the upgrade, then they sent back a regular model, so I had to live with that for a while until the meet. I met and complained to Larry, who was graceful enough to just give me the demo Infinity model. At the meet, I was also able to borrow his Signature Edition.

Regular was noisiest. Infinity significantly less so, and Signature Edition was slightly better than Infinity.

And don't read into the specs too much. Sometimes the improvements to the circuit will exceed the capability of the measuring device, especially if you're just measuring sums of parts like that. Improvements to the power supply circuit have typically not transferred very meaningfully to measurements, but yet they obviously have an audible effect when amplified, like with the test case I proposed.

On a side note, I had a GOV2+ and a GOV2 Infinity before, too, and I can also confirm that those sound different.

 

Woof, that's rough.

 

Honestly, I contemplated getting GOV2+ Infinity, because the difference between my GOV2+ and my GOV2 Infinity was too big, even when the GOV2+ was at full battery.

But then I figured I wouldn't be using it for much more than as a DAC, so I went with GO2A Infinity instead. Otherwise, I would have consolidated to GOV2+ Infinity like you.

On the other hand, having GO2A for a while now, I think the improvements are more in line with what I want. GO2A indeed has the improvements mentioned... like blacker background, a bit more staging cues, etc... but those are all subtle compared to the extra power it can push. I have to leave GO2A on low gain as a DAC because it just gets way too loud with Jotunheim on mid or high gain.

 

Thanks for the heads-up @Bill-P

 

Thanks Bill for the grounding trick....but doesn't lh labs suggested to not have both balanced and se connected at the same time? Hence the little red stopper?

 

I feel like the stopper is more there to prevent you from accidentally plugging a balanced plug into the SE port or vice versa.

 

I think that only applies to headphones, and because when you have both SE and balanced connected, your GO2A may draw too much current/power and cause weird things to happen to your computer.

Normally, the computer will just shut the USB down, which causes your GO2A to stop working until you unplug/plug it back in.

More severely (I don't think I have seen any case of this yet), your computer will supply too much power to the USB port and burn itself out.

Some computers intentionally supply more current to their USB ports in order to fast charge phones and so on, so these computers won't run into those issues.

I have driven HD650 out of single-ended output and HE-5 out of balanced simultaneously with my GOV2 without any problem at all, so I'd guess the warning is mostly there as a precaution rather than as an absolute necessity.

 

Anyone drive an he1000 from a GO v2+ infinity?

 

I am going to sell my studio monitors in Germany before moving back to the states. I will have enough money to get a TOTL Headphone. The only two sources I have now(since I travel a lot) are the Sony ZX2 and Geekout v2+ Infinity. Hence if I were to purchase a HE1K....I was wondering if I would also have to consider getting an amp as well. I know running the HE1k out of a portable amp dac is not the best thing, but if QP1R and Mojo can power it sufficiently, I wonder if a Geekout v2+ infinity can as well. Of course having a Yggdrasil/gungnir paired with another schiit amp or liquid carbon is nice, but I don't have that much money to spend.

 

Thx a bunch jexby. I guess with the power requirements, might be safer to pair the HEX v2 instead of the HEK, or just buy an amp.

 

I can't remember if I asked here, but if I was to get an iFi iPurifier2 to use with my 2A Infinity, anyone think that would make any difference in sound quality? I thought I read a guy said the LH Labs stuff is already well engineered so it won't make a difference. I asked Larry directly about it and he said it would make a difference.

 

Well, just purchased the iFi iPurifier2 ($75) and had to also get some adapters for it - an A Male to B Male cable, and a female B to Female A adapter. Ugh. Gonna be pretty ugly.

 

So you connect the SE output of the GO2a to the SE output of the Jotunheim - not the SE input? Doesn't that set stuff on fire?

 

As I see it, since the selector switch is on balanced mode, all you end up doing in this case is using the ground of the Jotun to ground the V2/2A..

 

That would be the input selector...there is no output selector, so all outputs should be live.