 LH Labs makes a lot of amazing claims about the Geek Out but I have to take what they say with a grain of salt because they are a division of Light Harmonic the same company that brought us the 10 gigabit light speed USB cable a Thousand dollar USB 2 cable for chumps so welcome to my review of the Geek Out 450 With the purchase of a qualifying Intel processor SSD or NUC you could instantly win an Intel gaming Jersey and be entered in the draw for The ultimate system click now to learn more all right so some of the stuff that they claim is outlandish But that doesn't mean everything that Light Harmonic says is going to be pure rubbish so first up And this is legitimately pretty cool the Geek Out Natively decodes and amplifies pretty much any kind of audio signal that you can throw at it all the way from your cheapo mp3s to high sample rate 384 kilohertz 32-bit PCM and even DSD 128 I mean we're talking individual songs that are 500 megs at the high end there, and it does all that stuff in a very appealing form factor It's actually smaller than my previous Carry around USB amp and DAC the file e10 to which I will be comparing it and it's more feature-laden to boot Inside the fairly robust shipping box you get a handy little carrying bag a USB 2 cable in case your ports are a bit Cramped and the unit itself which has a pleasing subtle brushed finish on the aluminum housing on the front are Led indicators to let you know what the DAC is doing and on the back is a key to help you interpret the aforementioned Led indicators on the top we've got the USB interface on the right are the volume buttons that offer surprisingly granular sound level adjustments Although be sure to turn your system volume down when first firing this baby up since otherwise It'll be really really loud and they have an extra feature called the 3d Awesomeifier that is supposed to make your music sound more like it's surrounding you and less in your head Which can be activated by holding both buttons at the same time for about a second I would have preferred a dial here because it would make adjusting volume by feel easier and Additionally I didn't find the 3d feature made much of a difference with headphones and with some IEMs I actually found that it added a significant background hiss that was extremely distracting Finally on the bottom is where the headphones go up to two pairs of them Which is actually a super cool feature if you sometimes listen with a friend if you're listening alone bear in mind the impedance rating Next to the jacks. That's the output impedance of that output So the point four seven oh one will likely be best for your headphones unless you're driving larger cans with higher impedance LH Labs recommends this model for up to a hundred ohm rated headphones with a higher-end geek out 1000 model available for big guns like the audacy LCD 2s either output will work But pairing your gear correctly will deliver the best results All right, so what's the process of actually using this thing like on Mac and Linux? No drivers are needed But since apparently Windows isn't a hundred percent compliant with devices that support asynchronous USB audio class 2 You need a driver on Windows It's unfortunate But not a complete deal breaker in my mind once you download and install the necessary file All you need to do is for standard listening change your default audio device as usual with that finished We can do listening tests now right not yet I actually added an extra step, and I can't find the bloody thing right now, but we'll overlay it I had an extra step that was missing in my last amp to amp comparison a Sound level meter to help me ensure that the volume was the same between each amp I used a 1 kilohertz test tone and dialed each amp in at 85 decibels With each headphone before doing any side-by-side listening this is really important because pretty much across the board People will report that louder music sounds better if all other things are equal So I started with my usual listening methodology top 40 music from the Google Play Music store on my favorite headphones my HD 8 DJs and then I threw in a pair of DT 770 Pro 80 ohms for variety and Side by side at a reasonable listening volume There's no difference with either of these headphones that I can detect at higher volumes like if we get irresponsible And just crank it till it sounds fun the geek out scales And noticeably better than the e10 without sound getting unbalanced or distorted though So that's a definite point in its favor if you're into that of course this product wasn't designed for your typical Streaming quality music files though it was designed for high definition audio files So after the usual I decided to mix things up a little bit and order this album in four flavors from the 2l music store I went with high quality 320 kilobit per second mp3 44 kilohertz 16-bit CD quality flack 192 kilohertz 24-bit high-res flack and finally the 6 gig mother of all albums DSD 128 quality the highest quality one they provided I then followed this Yamaha guide Combined with this Imgur post to correctly configure FUBAR to even play the super high resolution files Found myself a quiet room to sit in and tried desperately to tell the difference between any of them now to be clear Crummy mp3s are rubbish and easy to pick out of a lineup, but these high bitrate ones I don't know man sometimes I was sure the flax had a little bit more detail and dynamic range But other times I was equally sure that there was no difference at all and for myself if the difference between high-end High definition audio files and high quality mp3s is that difficult to hear then I'll save my hard drive space and money So back to the product itself for the conclusion Subjectively must be my tin ear, but when it comes to amp and DAC upgrades I'm usually pretty hard-pressed to tell the difference compared to changing out headphones So I'll focus here on what you get objectively you get format Compatibility that really is exceptional if you feel like that sort of thing is important you get a compact USB amp that is legitimately better than what your PC or as This amusing image from a headphi user demonstrates other device probably has on board and third you get to feel like one of the cool kids for having a neato device that enables you to get the most out of your high definition music collection and That you can also put in your pocket Just don't do both of those things at the same time because this puppy gets mucho hot when it's running Speaking of mucho hot mass drop has a seriously hot drop right now And I don't know where that mod mic ended up Now there it is There's a speaking of mucho hot mass drop has a seriously hot drop available now the mod mic 4.0 which you can check out my review of here It's a mic that you can attach to any pair of headphones to provide clear voice Communications while still enjoying the sound quality of a proper pair of high-end headphones as opposed to a gaming headset It's pretty affordable as it is but for the next week Massdrop is offering you the insane price of we don't know yet, so there will be a graphic I'm sure most of you have heard of mass drop by now But if you haven't you should definitely check them out They're a site that facilitates group buys for a wide variety of products from clothing to multi tools like the Leatherman wave To computer hardware like the mod mic they work directly with manufacturers and distributors to guarantee you the best price available And they ship to as many countries as the manufacturer will allow they have two options to buy you can buy in at any price Or you can commit to buy and only confirm your order if the drop reaches the lowest price I've used them before my team uses them and I know that many of you probably use them already anyway So I have no issues fully recommending mass drop and to top it off They're actually giving away a few units of the mod mic to some of our lucky viewers Just sign up using the link in the video description, and you will be entered to win But Linus you might say I've already got a mass drop account because they're awesome. How do I enter they've got you covered Just leave a comment below this video mentioning either a product You'd like to see me review next or a product you'd like to see on mass drop And you'll be entered to win winners will be contacted by mass drop September 6 6 6 Anyway guys like this video if you liked it dislike it if you disliked it leave a comment letting me know if you thought it Like sucked so much that a dislike isn't quite enough or whatever else it is you want to leave in the comments check out the video Description for the support us link you can give us a monthly contribution by a sweet t-shirt like this one Or you can just change your Amazon bookmark to one with our affiliate code So we get a small kickback whenever you buy stuff everything helps us out a lot Thanks again for watching and as always don't forget to subscribe