By far the worst sounding amp *I own. If you can afford this, you can afford the FiiO amps, starting with the E10K and above.
At first I couldn't figure out how this could be (what I will describe later), but it's as if (possibly actually the case that) nwavguy cheated in how he designed the circuit to result in such low output distortion and generally such high specs/benchmarks. What I mean is, to achieve such low distortion (on paper), it's not just the integrity of the circuit that was maintained through careful design and component selection, but the actual source coming in is also affected where whatever effects of the circuit are attempted to be negated (having not analyzed the circuit myself, I couldn't exactly tell you whether it's messing with phase/polarity or what it could be). I get this idea from the fact that the sound is like that of no other low, mid, or high-end amp I've ever experienced. In a word, it literally just sucks the life out of the music going through it. As an audio engineer, I can tell you that when the sound is coming in and getting recorded (by whatever means), at no stage does it EVER sound like that. This is particularly more evident/noticeable is using transparent, neutral, and otherwise sensitive headphones (like the Brainwavz HM5's for instance) and with full-range frequency content like Metal music.
In his fight against tube amps, against "audiophile" perspectives on all types of audio gear/technologies, and perhaps against whatever other forms of overpriced snakeoil (which I side with him on, even if not entirely what he actually builds from in his conclusions), he unfortunately actually managed to prove those people right. I have heard plenty of horrible sounding solid state amps which create this unpleasant kind of odd-ordered harmonic distortion, particularly in the higher frequencies, forcing you to keep the music at clinically low levels, as instead of getting fuller, it gets more unpleasant as it gets louder, but this isn't exactly what people would typically comment on this. People would often say that solid state amps have a "cold" or "digital" sound to them - no liveliness to them. Well, whatever that means, the O2 amp would actually be what would fit such a description. I am quite honestly embarrassed for having fallen into the hype myself and used this amp as an example of greatness in debates in the past, prior to even having heard it myself.
While I am highly analytical and into objective measurements of things (not just in audio), I don't think we're there yet in our tools to accurately reflect the psychoacoustic phenomenon and other aspects of human hearing - what or how a piece of equipment functions relative to our real-world perception. I can definitely say that this amp is not neutral and imprints a definite signature on most any song, adding almost like an inverse distortion in - removing certain harmonics and other characteristics which is largely what actually places you in the context of what you're listening to. Nothing in nature or in the recording process I've ever heard has otherwise ever had this sort of characteristic or left this kind of sonic imprint. I was able to easily AB test the O2 against any other amp and easily identify it - unfortunately, not of course in a good way.
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