A few members here are proud owners of the P20 and I thought we should start a thread to let the rest know of this gem.
As the title says, the LOXJIE P20 is a fully balanced, tube hybrid, headphone amplifier for under $100. And not just that, it measures extremely well. Have a look at over on SBAF. SNR greater than 120 dB and Crosstalk greater than 115 dB https://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/loxjie-p20-technical-measurements.7607/
Wolvebain was nice enough to share his P20 with me for two weeks as he was travelling and didn't want it to just collect dust. Along with the stock P20, he has an upgraded linear power supply and a matched pair of NOS WE 396A Tubes. He also included a pair of Mogami interconnects, which cost more than the P20 itself! (again this thing is a bargain!)
My current setup consists of an SMSL SU-8 DAC and a Schiit Jotenheim solid state amp. As for headphones I have the HD6XX, SDR modded HD800 and LCD2-F. Everything is connected in a balanced setup.
So here we go:
Let's get this out first. It does not have the power to drive the LCD2. Even if I run it hot from the SU-8. It has the volume but the bass impact is lacking, details aren't there. It by no means sounds bad It's just not the same as with the powerful Jotenheim. But this should be no surprise to anyone. Planars require high current and tube amps like this perform better with higher impedance headphones.
With the HD6XX and HD800, it's a different story. No lack of power. Details are all there. The soundstage is wide and accurate. I particular I like the matching with the HD800 (yes this sub $100 amp with a headphone 10x its price). Even though my HD800 has the SDR mod which brings down that 6k spike, the P20 just smooths it over even more (just slightly) making a very pleasing listen. Apart from that, I really have to focus to find differences between the P20 and Jotunheim. They are very close. Highly recommended and I'm definitely adding one to my next Amazon order.
But all of this was with Wolvebain's modded P20, which is closer to $200 in value (power supply and tubes). You also need to consider the cost of running it balanced. Balanced DACs don't come cheap and then you need balanced cables for your headphone. All of this adds to the cost of ownership. If you already have a balanced setup (like I do) then I the P20 makes a lot of sense to add some flavour to your setup.
Now let's see how capable the P20 is as a budget setup. SE from the SU-8, SE to the headphone, stock tubes and stock power supply. This is unfortunately not a quick change (different cables and tubes) so A/B testing is not easy.
First off, the volume drops a lot in SE mode. Not a problem with either of the Sennheisers. Still had enough but had to run it quite high. In SE it kinda loses it magic for me. Sounds like other budget amps in this price class. Fairly clean, decent details, narrower staging, overall nothing special.
I personally struggled to hear a difference with the power supply. There is a slight increase in the low-end amount and quality. The stock one is only 1.67A and I think that's a bit too low. I feel a lot more comfortable using a 2A or greater supply which doesn't run 100% and warm.
As for the tubes, well here it's to each his own. I much prefer the WE396A over the stock but it's an expensive tube and hard to find matches. It has details and makes it sound more like a clean solid state than a tube. There is however nothing wrong with the stock but a matched pair in the $10-20 range would a decent upgrade. This is a nice amp to play around with rolling as it's cheap and really simple. It doesn't run very hot so you don't have to wait for ages when changing tubes.
tl;dr Great bargain, especially if you're running balanced.
As the title says, the LOXJIE P20 is a fully balanced, tube hybrid, headphone amplifier for under $100. And not just that, it measures extremely well. Have a look at over on SBAF. SNR greater than 120 dB and Crosstalk greater than 115 dB https://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/loxjie-p20-technical-measurements.7607/
Wolvebain was nice enough to share his P20 with me for two weeks as he was travelling and didn't want it to just collect dust. Along with the stock P20, he has an upgraded linear power supply and a matched pair of NOS WE 396A Tubes. He also included a pair of Mogami interconnects, which cost more than the P20 itself! (again this thing is a bargain!)
My current setup consists of an SMSL SU-8 DAC and a Schiit Jotenheim solid state amp. As for headphones I have the HD6XX, SDR modded HD800 and LCD2-F. Everything is connected in a balanced setup.
So here we go:
Let's get this out first. It does not have the power to drive the LCD2. Even if I run it hot from the SU-8. It has the volume but the bass impact is lacking, details aren't there. It by no means sounds bad It's just not the same as with the powerful Jotenheim. But this should be no surprise to anyone. Planars require high current and tube amps like this perform better with higher impedance headphones.
With the HD6XX and HD800, it's a different story. No lack of power. Details are all there. The soundstage is wide and accurate. I particular I like the matching with the HD800 (yes this sub $100 amp with a headphone 10x its price). Even though my HD800 has the SDR mod which brings down that 6k spike, the P20 just smooths it over even more (just slightly) making a very pleasing listen. Apart from that, I really have to focus to find differences between the P20 and Jotunheim. They are very close. Highly recommended and I'm definitely adding one to my next Amazon order.
But all of this was with Wolvebain's modded P20, which is closer to $200 in value (power supply and tubes). You also need to consider the cost of running it balanced. Balanced DACs don't come cheap and then you need balanced cables for your headphone. All of this adds to the cost of ownership. If you already have a balanced setup (like I do) then I the P20 makes a lot of sense to add some flavour to your setup.
Now let's see how capable the P20 is as a budget setup. SE from the SU-8, SE to the headphone, stock tubes and stock power supply. This is unfortunately not a quick change (different cables and tubes) so A/B testing is not easy.
First off, the volume drops a lot in SE mode. Not a problem with either of the Sennheisers. Still had enough but had to run it quite high. In SE it kinda loses it magic for me. Sounds like other budget amps in this price class. Fairly clean, decent details, narrower staging, overall nothing special.
I personally struggled to hear a difference with the power supply. There is a slight increase in the low-end amount and quality. The stock one is only 1.67A and I think that's a bit too low. I feel a lot more comfortable using a 2A or greater supply which doesn't run 100% and warm.
As for the tubes, well here it's to each his own. I much prefer the WE396A over the stock but it's an expensive tube and hard to find matches. It has details and makes it sound more like a clean solid state than a tube. There is however nothing wrong with the stock but a matched pair in the $10-20 range would a decent upgrade. This is a nice amp to play around with rolling as it's cheap and really simple. It doesn't run very hot so you don't have to wait for ages when changing tubes.
tl;dr Great bargain, especially if you're running balanced.
