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the cooler master glacier 240l CPU cooler delivers the convenience of an

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all-in-one and the performance of a custom water cooler click now to learn

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more dear support is your company's name

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really pronounced [ __ ] is there a backstory or was it just

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because it was funny i got a reply from [ __ ] audio co-founder

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jason stoddard personally who happens to be in the process of chronicling their

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journey as a tiny startup over on headphy which i'll link in the video

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description if you're interested and he took a moment to share a very relatable

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moment with me where early in the process of product development on the

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asgard his wife got so tired of hearing

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him say no i can't do that i have [ __ ] to do

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that one day she said why don't you just call the new company [ __ ] since that's

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what you're always doing and that's the back story as a fellow small startup i

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definitely loved my wife definitely didn't anyway from a grab your attention

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standpoint i can see why they did it it makes you go

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did i just read that and the slogans that they can make up to

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market their amp and dac products which range from hundred dollars each all the

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way up to units that are highly upgradable and cost 750 dollars each are

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pretty much endless all right so with that out of the way what do i actually

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think of their entry level amp and dac offering the industrial design is

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something that you're going to love or hate it's a clean and utilitarian steel

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box with a curved front and some ventilation holes applied as needed if i

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had to complain i guess i wish that they stacked a little more gracefully rather

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than just having one sit on top of the other with little rubber feet on the

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bottom but the subdued white led illumination that they've got is a nice

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touch the units each come packed in environmentally responsible boxes that

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are pretty much all cardboard that include just rubber feet a little

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pamphlet and in the case of the magne and ac power adapter that's it i would

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have liked a usb cable with the modi and maybe a short rca cable with the magni

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but i understand that to hit these prices with almost all manufacturing

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including the pcb and production in the us they needed to

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keep costs down besides while i don't care many audio snobs will prefer to buy

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their own fancy cables anyway so when it came to listening tests the main

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competitor i compared to was an objective 2 and odac combo unit from

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mayflower electronics a more compact but

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slightly more expensive solution to the combined stack on paper their specs are

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i mean pretty similar at least they look like it to me and while i threw pretty

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much everything in my arsenal at them from my hd 600s which i happen to have

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handy right here all the way down to random gaming headphones and my ie80

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in-ears when i was done there wasn't much to say they both sound great to me

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so great that i just couldn't tell the difference with my wife switching them

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back and forth on me while i wasn't looking i don't have any orthodynamic

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headphones yet so i wasn't really pushing either of them to their limits

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and my conclusion is just going to have to come down to features

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both solutions are entirely driverless on your pc and tick all the right boxes

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in terms of specs with their low output impedance making them suitable for

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everything from very difficult to drive 300 plus ohm headphones down to iems the

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o2 standalone can be run off of 9 volt batteries but is more expensive than the

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magni the o2 has a gain switch to toggle

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between quieter and louder output while [ __ ] basically says

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i don't know use pc volume control or exercise caution with the volume dial

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when you use your iems the wall wart for the price equivalent o2 from mayflower

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at least plugs into the front of the unit which is kind of unsightly but [ __ ]

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uses an unusual ac wall warts so it actually goes from 120

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volt to 16 volt ac so you can't easily replace it so they

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both kind of have some trade-offs with the only simple solution to get more

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features or not deal with the trade-offs being pay more

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this is a value solution that sounds great let's love it for what it is and

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quit complaining all right i get that speaking of paying more i really like

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the style of the [ __ ] guys they've got expensive stuff but with all the usual

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nonsense in the audio world they take a surprisingly down to earth no [ __ ]

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approach to their marketing for example right on the hundred dollar magnes

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product page it says it may be the only amp you'll ever need and their 350

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valhalla tube amp product page doesn't wax philosophical about the superiority

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of tubes it just says and i'm paraphrasing a bit here it's a tube amp

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if you like tubes you might like this and if you don't like it then you can

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swap the tubes out for something else enjoy love it love that approach another thing

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i liked about them is something i usually can't test but i bought the

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stack so i was just another customer to them i emailed in about an issue with my

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hd 280s that was causing some interference in the left channel

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whenever i adjusted volume on the magni they promptly replied and offered to

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cover shipping for me to send the unit back gave me some sensible

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troubleshooting steps and explained that some headphones can act as an rf antenna

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in certain cases it was isolated to my hd 280s out of 10 plus pairs and only

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while turning the volume knob so i didn't bother exchanging it overall

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solid product solid folks over there making it and highly recommended if you

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like their particular flavor of trade-offs versus the objective 2 and

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odac guys like and share this video if

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you liked it dislike it if you disliked it and leave a comment on the Linus tech

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tips forum linked in the video description if you want to discuss this product or you have any constructive

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criticism for me and my team also linked in the video description is our support

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link with options to buy t-shirts give us a monthly contribution so we can keep

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making these videos or give us a kickback whenever you buy random junk on

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as always guys thank you for watching and don't forget to subscribe