And I have to say it's a very nice headphone amp when used as such, it only matters if you use the unit as both preamp and headphone amp. Which fit my needs perfectly save for this one issue.
As far as sound quality goes it's a very dynamic and detailed amp. It's a tad rolled off in the extreme treble, just a tad, and has a slightly warm tone, both very much to the pleasurable degree if you're like me and appreciate just a little bit of both. This without losing an any detail or dynamics, it adds up to a quite pleasant presentation.
I imagine the phono section is better than that Pro-ject phono box mentioned previously, because it doesn't seem to change the character of the amp one bit. Both the positive and negative aspects of the sound come through the analog inputs from my DAC and the phono section equally, which tells me the phono amp side isn't adding or subtracting anything.
You might ask "What negative aspects are you talking about, you haven't mentioned any". Nor have I talked about soundstaging and imaging. Both are well done with caveats, soundstage and headstage are a little bit shallow in depth and height. It's a pleasant soundstage that's competitive with many head amps out there, just not as deep or high as my vintage PS Audio 4.6. Images are sharply drawn and easily delineated even in complex passages. They are however less "round" than with the 4.6, not so much that you would call them cardboard cut outs, just not as full. I could be completely convinced that that all these impressions are simply a result of a more detailed preamp, such is the minor magnitude of them.
And I've deviated a touch from the headlamp side in favor of the preamp because it just completely smoked my previous "headlamp", the headphone section of a NAD 3020b using only the amp side, preamp separated. This was a configuration that wasn't previously surpassed by anything I could afford. A slightly reduced depth of image doesn't seem to matter as much to me with headphones than it does with speakers. A versatile product that does a lot of things very well for not much disposable.
