CONCLUSION

   If there's one thing an headphone amplifier will definitely give you that's plenty of volume, at least much more than what you can get without it so right from start we all expected some degree of audio distortion which even after over 2 full months of testing (4 people used the device in total including myself) we didn't hear. On the contrary the result was superb with plenty of clean and deep bass with surprisingly balanced and exceptionally natural mids and highs. Of course not having used another headphone amplifier is a drawback since i can't really compare the O2+ODAC with other similar devices but i have used many A/V amplifiers (some of which cost way over 2k Euros) with several headphones and i really don't think this little device has much to be jealous of and certainly not in terms of audio quality (features are somewhat limited but that's to be expected from such a tiny device). The only issue some of you may have with the O2+ODAC is with the gain feature since even at 2.5x it just might be too much for your headphones (this also depends on the type of music) so if you happen to own a very sensitive pair you may not be able to use the device at its full potential (you can choose the level of gain however with the custom version). That being said we used the O2+ODAC with a total of 6 headphones from AIAIAI, Ultrasone, Jabra, Sennheiser, Sony and Thinksound without encountering any issues.

   You can purchase the black and silver editions of the O2+ODAC headphone amplifier and DAC directly from JDS Labs for a price of USD279 (plus 10.99 for the power adapter) so although not very cheap still it's many times cheaper than what you'd need to get in order to enjoy the same results. That being said our custom version with the rear mounted power jack, the 6.35mm headphone jack and the dedicated rear RCA line-outputs costs even more and climbs to a grand total of USD329 (plus 10.99 for the power adapter) but it offers extra features that i suspect most people will not have a problem paying something extra for. Bottom line if you seek to get one of the best headphone amplifiers in the market currently then you really should look no further than the superb O2+ODAC device by JDS Labs and that's why it gets our Platinum Award.

PROS

- Excellent Build Quality
- Size
- Exceptional Audio Quality
- Integrated DAC
- Two Way Adjustable Gain
- Ability to Swap Op-Amps

CONS

- Only AC Powered