I Have spent some days with the new Algorhythm Solo and felt I could honestly give my impressions. I could probably do it in two words but where is the fun in that? 
 
Starting off I would like to say that I have been on an incredible portable/digital journey since the ipod was released. A huge lover of music has always caused me some trouble with traveling as much as I do. I am a musician/producer & writer. I spend months away from home. Prior to having an iPod I used a CD player with countless cases full of CD’s. I went down the Minidisc route as well. Which I loved but I thought for some reason the SQ was not that exciting. Let me say this is well. I was never a hugh fan of CD’s either. I grew up listening to vinyl and still I love it. The sound, the feel, the experience. For me CD’s were a better alternative to cassettes . After owning an iPod I came to love and appreciate CD’s. . My experience with an ipod is that I was able to carry lots of music with me while traveling but found myself always examining how bad the quality was. I had a hard time enjoying the music I was listening to. My thought was that if I improved my headphones then I would improve the SQ of the ipod. So that journey began and I will not bore you with the details of that. It was not until a few years ago I discovered Headroom. I wanted to try the AKG701 which I was told would require a headphone amp. Hmmm I thought great, that is a brand new direction... So started that journey. On my third or fourth pair of Headphones the guy on the phone asked me if I used a LOD. “No I replied. What’s That?” He sent me one and I thought Wow I have uncovered the secret to having a great portable set up with an ipod. I am finished searching... The next day I went on line to see if I could find a nicer LOD than the one they had sent.... I discovered ALO. Ken has been an unbelievable source of great information and inspiration for me. Many emails, phone calls and the chance meeting at Can Jam when it was in LA. Since then my game was uped for sure. Many cables, Headphone amps, Headphones, Re-cabled Headphones and a couple of iMod’s later here I am and now I am saying my search is over . Remind me I said that next week when I am after a new cable  
 
The Solo:
Opens up whole new sonics for us iPod/idevice users. I want to say before I go on that I am comparing my now set up of Solo>RXMK2> LCD2 (re-cabled with a Silver & Copper 8 Weave ALO from ALO)  & a set of ALO custom Solo interconnects. Prior to the arrival of the Solo I went from an iMod>RX1>LCD2 re-cabled with the flat weave by ALO. 
 
There was about a month that I switched to the ipod Touch>RXMK2 & The LCD-2 re-cabled with the flat weave. I wanted to break in the RXMK2 and see if the iPod Touch would work for me as I had to give up a lot of real estate after having the 240GB iMod. So my ears had adjusted to the iPod with no mod
 
The Solo is without a doubt leaps and bounds ahead of anything out there that any of us have heard of. These guys have hit the nail squarely on the head. The build quality is great and I love that they matched up the RXMK2 to make it a nice little package. The layout is great and still remains very, very portable. The case really is a nice surprise I have to say. I was trying to figure out how to move this all around without banging it up.
 
Starting it up for me was very exciting. Ken had been telling me it was going to kick the iMod’s ass. I had a little trouble getting mine to work at first as the sound kept coming out of the ipod. Once I got the sequence from Ken. It worked perfectly. (ipod on and set for music then solo on). No problem, no worries.
 
My Library of Music is Massive. I have  a good handful of my favorite records (Albums) ripped to Lossless, A majority of my music is ripped at 256 AAC. A very small portion at the old protected 128 from iTunes. I am looking at 44 Thousand+ songs.
 
I started listening to some Pop/Rock stuff from the 70’s ripped at 256. WOW! If you were wondering what the solo would unlock the SQ for a regular old MP3 you will be blown away. The Soundstage is so good. It was like listening to my old Hi-Fi set up in the late 70’s. Smooth, Velvety. The highs were greatly improved and smoothed out. This area is always a thorn in my side. Even the best headphones have had problems here. I think the LCD-2’s hands down are the best thing out there to date. Way ahead of the pack. The Solo just shot them through the Stratosphere! Mids are muscular. Guitars are quite happy here. The Low end is so rich and natural. I am talking about 70’s production on a record that was a one hit wonder. That all said it was very neutral and natural. Not hypey and not colored.
 
I moved on to Electronica, some alternative records. A bit of Classical. All these things were still applying.
 
I made the leap and started listening to the records I have ripped with Lossless. I started with Robert Plant & Alison Krauss Raising Sand. I use this as a reference all the time. It is very natural and organic. I know the process T-Bone goes through to make his records. He still uses tape. He is an a big fan of Analogue. This records sounds like you are in the room with the Musicians. THis is the Solo at work. Once again the Soundstage was huge but appropriate. The EQ on all levels was sweet beyond belief.
I also noticed that I have a little more wiggle room with volume from the RXMK2 using the Solo.
 
The biggest joy of the Solo is that you stop analyzing how the music sounds and you simply enjoy it. There is no better way to put it for me. I could try to get rather technical about all of this but really what I want to get across is that. If you have the desire to listen to better sounding music out of your iDevice. This is the way to go. It is not cheap and it is not expensive. The whole rig yes will cost but the people reading these forums are interested in a higher quality listening experience and that is what the Solo will give you. I do not see how you could be disappointed with this product. It does what it says it will do and then some. We all have different preferences for how we like our music to sound and I think this device allows for that. Which is not an easy thing to do. It simply allows your music to sound as good as it was recorded for better or worse. Everything goes into play and that should be understood. Your Headphones, Your Amp, your cabling. These are all things to experiment with to find what works best for you.
 
Overall: If you are an mp3/AAC listener you will hear great improvements. The Solo removes some of the graininess you used to hear. It smooths out the highs that are often harsh coming off these kinds of files. As for Lossless I noticed great openness, putting the air back in the recordings, reverbs became open and with liquid effect.
The overall tone of the machine is like unplugging your ears. You will want to re-listen to everything you own, well almost everything . 
 
Hats off to all at Cypher and those before and after that take the time to enrich all our lives by returning the sound quality to the iPod Generation!
 
Michael Lockwood
 

This is truly a great little portable amp.  I went from all the Headroom portable amps to the RSA 71-a. A huge improvement. For a while I used the little Micro3 I think it was called that ken was making. because I love all Ken's stuff at ALO. I tried the RX. WOW! It sounds very even and natural out of the box. The big surprise was after a month or so it started sounding better than my Ray Samuel's. I am alway a little shy on the Burn in thing. Sometimes it seems to be true and sometimes it does not. I suppose it really depends on the product. Damn it! The RX really burned in nicely. The highs and silky. Great Low end! At first I had my iMod w/ SR71a and listen through the Edition 8's. I also had a non imod with the RX. I started reaching for that one more often. I liked the sound of it more. I decided to get a second RX as a back up. (You never know). I put that one with the imod and put my Ray Samuel's in the drawer. I have never pulled it back out. In fact I am going to sell it. The RX top end is much softer and sweeter to my ears. I am a fan. I am super picky. I just got my LCD-2's and Wow! They sound amazing through this set up! If you can drop by Ken's store 32omh Audio or send him an email. This Amp deserves to be ranked much higher.
Try it!!!!!!
M

I have been reading these forums for over a year now. I feel like I should give back. They have helped me quite a lot. I thank Ken Ball for steering me here. He has been my guru on this quest for digital/personal/audio heaven. 

I record and make music for a living. I love great sounding records. There is nothing more frustrating than listening to a great sounding record on a wretched sounding rig. You know it sounds good. It sounded good on your CD player in your car? Ugh. The iPod has been a savior and a demon in one swoop.

The search begins. A lot of you came here looking for it. I imagine a lot of you have been Hi-Fi fanatics since you can remember. This is all a set up just tell you my impressions of the LCD-2's...

It took me years to get to my Ultrasone Edition 8's & my HD800's. I won't go into my rant on the 800's but if you read the reviews you will see why people love or wish they could love them. I think they are a lot of work to listen to. The high end wears me out. The Edition 8's are excellent. They are great when I am flying because they offer some isolation.

For reference I have a AOL RX & The SR71-a. 240gb mod. The cabling is all Ken Ball at ALO Audio.

Ken owns a pair of the LCD-2's and sent them to me for a night to put them up against my cans and The T1 as well.

I pulled the LCD-2's out of the box and grinned ear to ear. Ok these are the coolest retro, vintage, steam punk, DIY Mad Max phones I had ever seen. Like something my Dad would have had in '71 sitting next to his new cassette player. I told Ken in an email. Looks do matter. If we are going to walk around with these big clunky things on our heads we want to look as cool as possible. Ok, that's a small part of it but I bring it up because I pulled the T1's out right after it and was really underwhelmed.

I am a portable guy. I travel constantly. I like to have a lot of different music to listen to & I want it to sound as good as humanly possible.

I plugged the LCD-2's in and I was blown away. Out of the box, the first time ever I just listened to the music. I did not have my attention on the top end or were they bass shy? No, just no. They sounded great!

I listened to the Robert Plant & Allison Krauss record. Warm, lush, defined. I was in it. I felt like I was there in the room with the musicians. I listened to records I had produced. Nothing jumped out at me like so many times before. I seem to always have issues with EQ or the stereo field. Not so here. These phones love electric guitars & vocals. This is where so many phones fail. I went on to listen to Classical, Jazz, World, House you name it. It was all ear candy.

I know this is not a technical review. I will leave that to to the guys who can better explain it. This is for the guys that are turning up to find a way to get those files on their little devices to sound better. Do yourself a favor, do your homework. Get the best that you can get. No scratch that go one more than that. You will save in the long run. I have a drawer of road kill. Pre amps, cables & headphones. 

I could say get this amp, get that cable. (Ok, go to ALO & look at Ken's cables) Everyone has different preferences. I bet it will be hard to find people who once have heard these headphones can't all agree that they are some of the best ones out there. For my money the buck stops here.

Funny thing is I don't even own a pair yet but it is not for lack of trying. I am bugging everyone. I want no scratch that I need these headphones.

If you are in the music business I think this is the perfect reference headphone. I think these days a bigger majority of people listen to music on headphones. The people in the business have to start mastering & mixing things with that in mind. Walk down the street. Most the kids you see have a pair of white ear buds sticking out of their head Times have changed. For us bigger kids we have gone past the funky ear bud. We are on to bigger and better things and so are Audez'e.

Line up everyone. These guys are on to something.

Monotune
 
I have to amend this review. By some Miracle Alex got me a pair. I had to send Ken's back but here I am right now listening to my own pair. The customer service alone is worth the price. These cans are every bit as good as the ones I had borrowed. Actually better. They are mine all mine.The pair I was sent was a lot lighter than Ken's for whatever reason. So I amend this review they are not heavy in fact quite comfortable. Also I bought ken's modified cable for these and it is genius. Really to my liking. It is a bit more open than the stock cable. Excellent!