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Home >> edwin's world >> Go-Vibe Headphone Amp Headsave
Go-Vibe Norm Dalgarno has made a name for himself as a headphone amp builder, offering cost effective solutions for those desiring to obtain good sound without spending huge bucks. After a coworker put me onto the amps built under the Headsave name, I was happy to find a way to get my feet wet into the world of higher quality headphone listening without a huge outlay in cost. Norm also has a reputation for being very good to deal with and backing up his products and he’s Canadian to boot, so it all came together for me. I ordered his top amp, the Classic in late 2004 and found it to be very competitive to the higher cost Headroom Little. As 2004 passed into 2005 I was thinking that it would be good to have a portable, battery powered amp and since I knew that Norm had offered such products, I had planned to buy from him again. Unfortunately, by the time I was ready to buy, Norm had surprised and disappointed the headphone using community and closed shop. No more Headsave amps would be available anymore.
I emailed Norm and worked out the details of what kind of Go-Vibe I should buy. The basic Go-Vibe sells for $69 (S&H included), but op-amp upgrades are available that will bump up the price. Based on Norm’s recommendation, my upgrade took the price up to US $85 and because Norm was no longer running a business under the Headsave name, he didn’t have to charge me the Canadian Goods and Services Tax, as he had with the Classic amp. Time from ordering to delivery was about a week and a half. The day I received the Go-Vibe I couldn’t listen to it immediately because I had forgotten to charge up my Energizer 9 volt batteries, so I had to cool my heels for another day. Even on that first day I couldn’t do the first listen under ideal conditions, but I was so eager that I just grabbed my iPod along with my Koss PortaPro headphones and rushed out the door for the morning commute to work. I usually snooze on the morning bus ride, so it wasn’t until a coffee break before I finally got to listen using one of my standard test tracks, the Northern Exposure theme song. I listened to the iPod direct and with the Go-Vibe, connected via a Zu Pivot cable and a mini to RCA adapter. But more on this later. The
Go-Vibe The bottom of the case has a battery cover that push/pops opens to allow access to the chamber. The front has a nice volume control dial that has a smooth feel. A little toggle switch powers the amp on or off with a little red led for power on status. A 1/8-inch headphone jack finishes off the front. Looking at the amp from the front, on the left side of the amp is the 1/8-inch signal input jack.
First
Listen What I got out of that first listen was that there was a deeper and tighter bass response with the Go-Vibe, but I found little to no difference for the mids and highs. That same day, I also visited with my coworker, a Jedi headphone master, for him to listen and assess the Go-Vibe. He wasn’t impressed with the quality of the rips I had available on the iPod and he had to search for one with decent enough quality for him to compare the iPod on its own and with the Go-Vibe. His opinion was that yes there is difference and its good, but that he’d need to hear some really high quality rips to get a measure of what the Go-Vibe could really do. Chastened, I looked towards actual CD source material to really listen to the Go-Vibe in a critical fashion. Second
Listen Using my standard test track, as well as some others from an Opus 3 demo CD, I was disturbed by the glare I was hearing from the Go-Vibe. In the past, I don’t think I would have used the word “sweet” to describe the Classic amp, but when compared to the Go-Vibe, the Classic is indeed a sweeter sounding amp in the high frequencies. Basically, the soundstage collapses with the Go-Vibe, the tonality hardens, and I end up with a much more forward balance of sound than with the Classic amp. I ended the second listen shortly to provide the Go-Vibe with more burn in time before resuming the assessment. This burn-in session was either with a portable CD player, or my old Arcam on repeat mode to playback a CD continuously for 20 or more hours before changing batteries and then resuming the process. I did this over enough days that the next time around, the Go-Vibe had at least 100 hours of burn-in. After this second session, I was thinking that the Zu Mobius equipped Sennheiser HD580s were not going to be an ideal match for the Go-Vibe and after swapping the Mobius for the stock cables, I got a more relaxed presentation from the portable amp. Would this impression hold up? Third
Listen Compared to the stock headphone output found on my Kenwood portable CD player, or the iPod, the Go-Vibe presented a superior presentation of the music. Where the Kenwood or iPod would offer just enough volume at maximum to provide a decent sound level, the Go-Vibe had plenty of juice in reserve to take the sound level to harmful levels if listened to for any length of time. However, sound level is just one aspect of music listening because as one increases the volume, some devices will harden and make for a difficult listening session. Both the Kenwood and iPod had such glare and hard textures in the high frequencies when pushed to the max with the HD580 cans.
Things started to get tough on the Go-Vibe when it was compared to the Classic again. Just as the Go-Vibe had improved on the sound of a stock headphone jack, the Classic improved matters over the Go-Vibe. The Classic has a sweeter top end, it’s less forward than the Go-Vibe, and the soundstage is wider. The Classic does all this without losing detail either. And in fact, the Classic is better in revealing the fine details in the recording. Bass is better balanced, but still seemed to have more impact in the lowest frequencies than the Go-Vibe. Going from the Classic to the Go-Vibe had everything constrict downwards into a smaller space and the presentation is more in your face. There’s less sense of “air” around the instruments, even from recordings made in spacious environments that the engineer purposely wanted for the depth provided. Conclusion The Classic is no longer available, so the only other amp that I’ve heard that’s in the same class, but for a bit more money, is the basic Headroom Little. However, Headroom appears to be in the midst of a major product lineup change, so it might pay to wait a bit longer to see what new products will be offered from Headroom. For mobile use, the Go-Vibe, as with any other portable amp, does add in some extra bulk, so it isn’t going to be good for those who might think an iPod is already too big. But for many of us that carry bags or cases to work, there shouldn’t be any issue in adding a Go-Vibe to enhance the music flow from your portable CD player or hard drive based player. Once my second Zu Pivot cable arrives, my mobile kit will consist of my 40 GB iPod connected to the Go-Vibe with the Zu cable, and the Koss PortaPro headphones. |
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This
was back in January 2005, but fast-forward to April 2005 and word
comes that Norm is once again building amps, but only the portable
Go-Vibe version instead of any of the home, AC powered models. Word
came on April 1, so I was hoping it wasn’t an April Fools day joke.
The
amp is compact, about the width and height of poker-sized cards,
but thicker than what the deck of cards would be. The case is plastic
with a matte black finish. No it’s not in the same league for build
quality as Norm’s Classic amp, but then the Go-Vibe is less than
half the cost of the Classic.
Overall,
pretty straightforward with a minimum of fuss for easy operation.
Thanks
to my CD player offering dual output jacks, I could hook up both
the Classic and Go-Vibe at the same time and just switch between
them with my Zu Mobius cable equipped Sennheiser HD580 cans. I used 
My
third go around with the Go-Vibe was when things finally started
to settle down and I could listen to the Go-Vibe on its own merits
as well as compared to its bigger brother, the Classic. It’s obvious
now that this little amp requires a generous amount of break-in
time.
The
Go-Vibe tempered the glare and tightened the presentation, so while
one could go louder, the music wasn’t breaking up. The soundstage
got a bit wider, bass had a bit more impact, and the high frequencies
became smoother. Overall, a good improvement over using the stock
headphone jack on a portable device.
If
your needs are for a portable amp and you’re on a budget, the Go-Vibe
is good and the price is right, even with the op-amp upgrade to
make it US $85. Horses for courses as the British would say, so
while a Go-Vibe can be a suitable option for mobile use, I’d consider
something else for home use. 