The Pioneer M22 as a head amp? (and recapping guide)

Discussion in 'Headphone Amplifiers and Combo (DAC/Amp) Units' started by skem, Aug 5, 2018.

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  1. skem

    skem Friend

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    Yes. XA25 is hockey puck. It’s quite close to M22. Both amps are almost identically detailed, but XA25 is a bit faster and cleaner. M22 (or at least my heavily modded version) is prettier and nicer to listen to.

    The sound quality of XA25 is significantly affected by load. It doesn’t seem to like planars, though strangely it does well with HD800. Not sure if it’s impedance or something else. By contrast, my M22 does fine with Susvara/HEKv1. It doesn’t have the slam you get from F5turbo, but it’s much more detailed and has better timbre.

    Both are great amps. I’ve heard $20,000 amps that can’t touch either of these.
     
  2. PioFan

    PioFan New

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    Old thread, new member... thought I'd post here. Have two M-22s in decent shape that I am looking to restore this year. Some great pictures and ideas to think about.
     

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