I am very pleased with this DAC/AMP combo. You all have done something very special here. I had a RSA Raptor amplifier that began to exhibit noise and it broke my heart. So I had my Sennheiser HD800s running right off of my motherboard which was surprisingly silent. I finally broke or bent the headphone output and needed a DAC and amp. The Playmate 2 fit my current budget nicely and I am honestly surprised at the level of performance relative to its price. I really appreciate the opportunity to enjoy my music and audio at a competitive price. Thank you for doing what you do. You all clearly love audio. The truth of that is in how your product sounds. Clean, impactful, solid. You could have easily called it the smile machine 2. Happy Holidays.
Matching notes: At 300 Ω and 102 dB/V, the HD 800 S is a high-impedance load that needs voltage more than current: about 2.5 V (21 mW, 8.4 mA) for 110 dB SPL (calc.). Burson rates the Playmate 2 at 0.15 W (SE) into 300 Ω, which is about 6.7 V RMS (calc.), roughly 9 dB more than that. The Playmate 2’s under 2 Ω headphone output impedance is less than 1/150 of the load. [1] [2] [3]
Specs from manufacturer data unless a source below says otherwise. “calc.” values are worked out from those figures (V = √(P × R); 110 dB SPL used as a loud reference level). Gear listed without specs is not in our spec library yet.
