My new $99 Full Balanced headphone amp toy Loxjie P20

Jeez this little toy lost its flavor quickly!

I had one on loan early last year in the middle of the craze and thought it was fairly dull. But then again I never tried "fully" balanced operation" which is supposed to be its very special party trick. So when one came up for sale on the weekend for about half price I took the big plunge.

I'm not a big fan of balanced headphone amps ... the results with a Matrix HPA-3B amp some years ago were inconclusive and noise when connected to my daily driver Wadia 121 DAC made me sell it on quite quickly.

Scrounging for cables to get this thing up and running reminded me why I dislike balanced so much. Over the years I collected a number of balanced cables as I bought and sold kit. I have an HD650 cable terminated in 2 x female XLR3 that I got with a TPA Buffalo DAC. Then I have an LCD2 cable terminated as 2 x male XLR3 ... this came with a pair that I bought and subsequently sold, probably made for something like the Headroom BUDA. I also have a fancy Campfire Audio cable with 4.4mm Pentacon that fits the HD800 - got this with a Lotoo PAW6000. And then I have a 4-pin XLR cable that I had made for the HD800 some time ago. Four cables with four different plug types! This lack of standardisation is enough to drive anyone up the wall and back to good old 1/4" TRS forever.

But I'll give it a try nonetheless. Anyone else still using the P20?

 

Balanced inputs help too. I still have mine but don't use headphones much.

 

Hmm after reading over both threads, here and there I did wind up buying one [with the little GE 5670 Tubes]

I also grabbed that iFi 12V DC to see how it compares again'st the/a Noise Nuke

 

Offtop of course
My recipe for drinking vodka. We need a cold winter, a lot of very cold vodka, hot pilaf with fat lamb, a little tomato juice, pickles.Tomato juice should not be added to vodka, but to pilaf. Half a spoonful of juice and half a spoonful of pilaf. You can add finely chopped onions, soaked for several hours in vinegar.
The average consumption of vodka is about 0.5 liters per person. You can add a large ampoule of medical glucose to the vodka. Strong intoxication and hangover will not be.
And no water at all.
The result is a wonderful evening with friends