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Light Harmonic Geek Out 450 DAC and Headphone Amplifier

Light Harmonic Geek Out 450 DAC and Headphone Amplifier

Ever since AudioQuest released its miniscule DragonFly combination DAC and headphone amplifier, I’ve been fascinated by miniature combo components. Ideal for headphone listeners who want to use their computers as a source for music playback, combination DAC/headphone amplifiers provide superior sound (way superior) to the typically wimpy headphone amplifiers in home computers. In addition to driving headphones, combination DAC/headphone amplifiers can also drive line-level inputs on an amplifier if you use an appropriate cable. But before proceeding with this review, we need a catchy term for this genre of equipment; calling them combination DAC/headphone amplifiers doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue (or the keyboard). I rather like a term I’ve seen various places on the Internet: dongle-DAC. That reflects the fact that most of the combination DAC/headphone amplifiers attach to a computer’s USB port via a short USB cable. Some of them can plug directly into the USB connector, but that can put a lot of strain on the connector, especially if your headphone cable is stiff. So dongle-DAC it is, at least in this review. Incidentally, AudioQuest started the dongle concept when it released a dongle cable it called the DragonTail to use with its DragonFly. Since then, most dongle-DAC manufacturers include a dongle cable with their DACs.

Light Harmonic began life as a manufacturer of very-high-end DACs. Its Da Vinci was stunning in sound quality and styling, and equally stunning in price: $20,000. When DSD recordings became available, Light Harmonic’s Da Vinci Dual DAC was one of the first that would play that format. Instead of producing a DAC that would do both PCM and DSD, it built a double-layer DAC that stacked a DSD-only and a PCM-only DAC. Pricing was commensurate with this uncompromising approach: $31,000. And if that seems high, Light Harmonic has announced a model called the Sire with a projected price of $120,000.

When Light Harmonic wanted to enter the dongle-DAC competition, it created a division called LH Labs, and used a crowd-funding approach to fund the design. To generate excitement, LH Labs needed something to appeal to the younger crowd targeted for the funding campaign, so they called the device the Geek Out. Apparently the name was a stroke of genius. Since the amounts raised wildly exceeded the target, LH Labs decided to offer three versions of the Geek Out, with amplifiers of different output power. The $199 USD Geek Out 450 reviewed here has an output capability of 450mW, while the $299 Geek Out 1000 produces a full 1000mW (that’s a full watt, enormous for headphones). There’s also a $289 Geek Out IEM 100, which produces 100mW and is optimized for very sensitive in-ear monitors that could be shredded by overly powerful amplifiers. All versions of Geek Out ship with a dongle cable called a Slacker and a cloth carrying case. The Slacker, which is just a USB extension cable, is only 6″ long, and if used with a desktop computer (at least with mine), leaves the Geek Out hanging in the air. However, you can order a second Slacker (for $19) and daisy-chain the two together.

Geek Outs don’t have a separate power supply; they’re powered by the computer’s USB connection, which is also their only audio input. They do have two output connections: one with a very low output impedance (.47 ohms) and the other with a 100-times-higher (but still low) 47-ohm impedance. The former output should drive any headphone, including the lowest-impedance models, while the latter output should drive line-level inputs and high-impedance headphones. Both outputs can be used simultaneously.

Measuring 3″ by a smidgen over 1¼”, the Geek Out is larger than the original DragonFly, but smaller than other dongle-DACs I’ve seen. Connectivity is via a USB Type A connector on the input end and two each stereo output jacks on the output end. Headphones plug directly into one of the Geek Out’s output jacks; if your headphones have a ¼” plug, you’ll need an adaptor, but your headphones probably came with one. To connect a Geek Out to an amplifier, you’ll need an interconnect cable with a stereo plug on one end, splitting into two separate cables terminated by RCA plugs. Fortunately, given the popularity of headphones and associated electronics, such cables are now common. My Geek Out 450 has a silver case, while the Geek Out 100’s case is black, and the Geek Out 1000’s red.

Light Harmonic Geek Out 450 DAC and Headphone Amplifier

The first time you touch a Geek Out that’s been running awhile, you could probably guess from its hot case that the Geek Out’s headphone amplifier runs in Class A. The user guide warns that the Geek Out can reach temperatures of 158° Fahrenheit. Ouch!

Sometimes a dongle-DAC leaves out a few features you’d find on a full-size DAC, but not the Geek Out; it uses an ESS 9018K2M chip to play PCM sample rates of 44.1kHz, 48kHz, 88.2kHz, 96kHz, 176.4kHz, 192kHz, 352.8kHz and 384kHz in 16-, 24-, and 32-bit depths, as well as DSD64 and DSD128. That’s virtually everything commercially available, although there are a few DSD256 recordings have been released. Lights on the bottom of the Geek Out indicate the sampling frequency and type of input signal.

The Geek Out has two filters—Time Coherence Mode and Frequency Response Mode—that you can select by pressing one of the two buttons on the side of the unit. LH Labs describes the filters as follows: “Time Coherence Mode (TCM) uses LH Labs’ minimum-phase digital filter and time optimization algorithm, which removes all post-ring from the original signal and realigns the impulse response. This presents the listener with a more well-defined and natural soundstage. Frequency Response Mode (FRM) uses a slow roll-off linear-phase digital filter with our proprietary frequency-domain optimization algorithm. This mode gives you a smoother and clearer sound with even lower THD+N than our previous version.”

Like most DACs, the Geek Out works with Linux and the Macintosh operating systems without a driver, but the Windows operating system requires a driver. LH Labs updates the Geek Out driver and operating system, so you should visit its website occasionally to see if there are new versions available.

Setting Up and Using the Geek Out
For this review, I used my desktop computer, an aging Dell Inspiron 530, running J. River Media Center version 20 as the server software. I plugged in the Slacker USB cable provided with the Geek Out into my computer and to the Geek Out, and plugged my headphones into the .47-ohm output jack. I tried several headphones in my collection: HiFiMAN HE-400, AKG K701, AKG K712, and Audeze LCD-X. Only the K701s needed more power than the Geek Out could provide. I was surprised that the low-sensitivity HE-400s worked with the Geek Out. But they not only worked; they sounded better than they have with most other headphone amplifiers I’ve used. Go figure. The Geek Out had no trouble at all with the very sensitive LCD-Xs, and since they are the best headphones in my collection, they are the ones I used for listening impressions. It may seem goofy to use $1699 headphones with a $199 dongle-DAC, but the Geek Out was not embarrassed by the pairing.

Since I used a Windows computer as my server, I had to download and install the Windows driver. That process was simple and straightforward. There’s a detailed on-line instruction sheet that tells you how to download the driver and install it into Windows; however, there’s nothing telling you how to install it into your server program. Since LH offers four drivers—an ASIO driver, a WASAPI driver, a Kernel Streaming driver, and a Direct Sound driver—some suggestions about which is recommended for popular server programs like J. River Music Center and Foobar2000 would have been helpful; this stuff is not intuitive. Drawing on past experience, I used the WASAPI driver with J. River Media Center.

 

While it was easy to install the driver, it was not easy to update the Geek Out’s firmware. The update process is described on an instructional video on the LH Labs website that seemed a bit hurried and mumbly. I tried three times to perform the update before I got the process to work. Operator error? Maybe, but I’m an experienced computer user. An attempt to get help from LH Labs’ technical support was useless.

The driver installation also installed an icon in the notification area of the Windows desktop, which provides a Light Harmonic Control Panel that gives access to some of the settings for the Geek Out, including volume. Unfortunately, the icon consists of several black dots, and since the taskbar that runs along the bottom of my computer screen is also black, the icon was invisible. When I pointed to the apparently vacant space in the notification area, an explanatory message popped up, so I could tell something was actually installed in that space. There are 12 other icons from other programs in my notification area, all visible with different screen settings, so it seems surprising that Light Harmonic couldn’t design an icon that’s visible for all screen settings.

The user guide has a stern warning to be careful to turn the volume down before listening. That is very important, since the Geek Out turned-on at full volume every time I switched my computer on. I’m not sure why the driver can’t remember the last volume setting used; no other driver I’ve used, and that would be a lot, has turned on at maximum volume. Since the standard Windows volume control had no effect on the Geek Out’s volume setting, you must use the “invisible” icon for the Light Harmonic Control Panel to control loudness.

Sound
I own several other dongle-DACs and have tried others, but the Geek Out surprised me with the quality of its sound. Playing old fave “Folia Rodrigo Martinez” from Jordi Savall’s La Folia 1490-1701 (44.1/16 AIFF, Alia Vox), I first noticed that the deepest bass notes were somewhat attenuated, missing a tiny bit of impact.

The Audeze LCD-X headphones are capable of awesomely deep bass, so the attenuation had to come from the Geek Out. Elsewhere in the recording, I heard sharp, snappy transients that penetrated the information-rich soundfield. The guitar and harp, playing similar figures in the same frequency range, were easy to distinguish, which is not always the case. Savall’s viola da gamba sounded unusually rich, with lots of body, although the string tone was plenty powerful when Savall dug in hard with his bow. Percussion instruments were reproduced with good detail, though not the best I’ve heard. For headphones, the soundstage was pretty well spread out, with instruments fairly well localized.

On Rebecca Pidgeon’s The Raven, (176.4/24 FLAC, Chesky), the audiophile-favorite track “Spanish Harlem” demonstrated its usual squeaky-clean, distortion-free sonics. The upright bass was amply deep, the violins sounded particularly sweet, and piano transients were well defined. I missed a little detail that I hear from loudspeakers, which creates an almost visual impression of seeing Pigeon enunciate each word.

Headphones are not noted for their soundstaging capabilities; nevertheless, I cued up the track “Miserere” from the Tallis Scholars’ Allegri’s Miserere & Palestrina’s Missa Papae Marcelli (96/24 FLAC, Gimell). To my delight and surprise, the Geek Out produced a spacious soundstage from the Audeze headphones: a large environment, with the singers’ placement fairly well defined. Most surprisingly, the sense of depth for the solo group of singers located behind the main group, was quite vivid. While not equaling the soundstaging performance of speakers, this was notably better soundstaging than I usually hear from headphones.

From Reference Recordings’ fresh! label comes a performance of Dvorák’s Symphony No. 8 by the Pittsburgh Symphony under its conductor Manfred Honeck (DSD64/DSF). Through the Geek Out, the recording positively glowed, with thumping orchestral dynamics that made the performance very exciting. It’s wonderful to have the Pittsburgh recording again.

To check out the Geek Out’s handling of solo instruments, I cued up the cut “Shenandoah” from Alex de Grassi’s album Special Event 19 (DSD64/DFF, Blue Coast Records). The Geek Out reproduced de Grassi’s unusual guitar with plenty of details, both transient and harmonic. I could easily hear how each note was launched, how it propagated into the room and then decayed into silence. Especially realistic was the initial transient, as each string was plucked. The odd drone effect produced by de Grassi’s guitar was clearly reproduced. Both string and body sound were superbly depicted by the Geek Out—a very realistic and detailed recording of a guitar.

Comparison
Conceptually similar to the Geek Out is iFi Audio’s nano iDSD DAC/headphone amplifier, which sells for $189 and has a battery-operated headphone amp rated at 130mW, considerably less than the Geek Out. The iFi nano iDSD’s internal battery means the unit can operate independently from a computer and be used with any device that has a USB output, like a smartphone or iPod. Battery life is said to be 10 hours. The nano iDSD has several features I like a lot: 1) a volume control knob, which works better than any digital volume control I’ve seen, 2) the volume control knob incorporates an on/off switch so you can turn off the unit to save battery power, 3) a dongle cable that’s 24″ long, so the dongle-DAC doesn’t dangle in mid-air, 4) RCA output jacks for the DAC section, so you can use the nano iDSD’s DAC section with a hifi system without an adaptor cable, and 5) a USB Type B input, which should work with standard USB cables. The last two features make the nano iDSD easier to use with an external amplifier than most other dongle-DACs. For what it’s worth, the nano iDSD is one of the few DACs that can presently play DSD256 recordings. Although it’s not germane to this review, iFi makes some accessories for the nano iDSD that can further improve its sound—at a price, of course.

After replacing the Geek Out with the iFi nano iDSD, and changing the settings in J. River Media Center to use the nano iDSD ASIO driver, I proceeded to listen. On “Folia Rodrigo Martinez,” bass extended deeper, creating the impression that the recording space was larger. Savall’s viola da gamba sound emphasized the string tone over the body, not sounding so much like a whole, real instrument. Percussion instruments had impact, but receded into the background a little more. There was less spread of instruments across the soundstage, more right/left distribution.

 

“Spanish Harlem” sounded clean, but just a little mechanical—more like a hi-fi playing than a person singing. The upright bass was deeper, more resonant. The piano sound put relatively more emphasis on sustain and decay, rather than on leading-edge transients.

On “Miserere,” the soundstage was not as well defined, nor the singers placed so precisely within the soundstage. The distant solo group had a sense of separation, but didn’t sound as far back in the room as it did through the Geek Out. The tenor soloist in the main group didn’t sound as realistic as he did through the Geek Out. These differences were small, but noticeable.

Dvorák’s Symphony No. 8 sounded less harmonically rich, but still had lots of dynamic punch. The nano iDSD’s lower power output wasn’t obvious; its dynamics were just as exciting as the Geek Out’s.

Alex de Grassi’s guitar sound emphasized the strings more than the body. Again, a small but perceptible difference.

My experience with the nano iDSD dongle-DAC had shown me that its headphone amplifier is not quite up to the performance of its DAC section. When I used the RCA output jacks to feed the signal from the DAC section into iFi’s upscale separate micro iCAN headphone amplifier, the overall sound improved noticeably. The $259 micro iCAN headphone amp is a Class A unit, which sounds more detailed and refined than the amplifier in the nano iDSD dongle-DAC—at a price.

I enjoyed revisiting the iFi nano iDSD dongle-DAC, but was happy to switch back to the Geek Out when the review was completed. The Geek Out’s refined portrayal of harmonics and its nearly-loudspeaker-like soundstaging were hard to do without.

Bottom Line
A fantastic combination of features, sound, and price, the Geek Out 450 is one of those rare components that screams value! LH Labs’ ability to get this kind of performance out of a device this small for this little money attests to some incredible engineering chops. While I’ve noted some minor operational glitches that make using the Geek Out more of a hassle than it should be, the problems I’ve mentioned are not serious, and once I figured out workarounds, using the Geek Out was a blast. The sound was never less than engrossing.

The Geek Out 450 is out of this world!

SPECS & PRICING

Input: One asynchronous USB 2.0 Type A
Outputs: Two stereo jacks
Output impedance: .47 ohms and 47 ohms
Output power: 450mW
Bit depths: 16, 24, and 32 bits
Sample rates: PCM: 44.1kHz, 48kHz, 88.2kHz, 96kHz, 176.4kHz, 192kHz, 352.8 Hz, and 384kHz; DSD: DSD64 and DSD128
Price: $199

LH LABS
920 Reserve Drive, Suite 160
Roseville, CA 95678
(888) 842-5988
lhlabs.com

Vade Forrester

By Vade Forrester

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