FireStone Audio Tobby and Bobby beside the FireStone Audio Custom Cute and Fubar HD+
Sound Quality: The FireStone Audio Tobby DAC leans toward a neutral tone that easily shows detail. The DAC is analytical and caters a very airy, fast and detailed presentation. I can say that the sound quality is spacious and smooth as butter. The Tobby maybe neutral and analytical, but it doesn’t go anywhere to having treble spikes. Matching it with the Bobby amp, this stack is one very powerful set-up. The FireStone Audio Bobby has a neutral to warmish sound that perfectly complement the neutral – analytical sound quality of the Tobby DAC. Both of them outputs effortlessly until 600ohms. Running the Sennheiser HD800 and Sennheiser HD650 both showed effortless power and very spacious sound. Power on this set-up is evident with how very minimal I had to push the volume up and how the HD800 showed no signs of lacking any artifact in the sound spectrum. Body on the vocals are superb and really brings out the minute details of vocals while keeping them smooth as butter. Running Japanes Rock music that towered powerful guitar riffs were such an ethereal feel. The grunt and distortion of each guitar cord reverberated in ways that even the Schiit Audio Mjolnir and Gugnir balanced stack could not replicate! Upsampling music through the Tobby was one of my favorite features on sound quality. Changes were evident even through 320kbps files. The Bobby has it’s very own features that are rare to find on other amps on this level, the push to mute was fantastic when I was at my work desk, the screen display was a beauty to look at, the volume knob was very accurate and smooth to manage. To be honest, I have never heard of FireStone Audio and expected much much less. Apparently, it blew me away in my plans of getting the Gugnir and Mjolnir for my balanced set-up.
Final Words: I was doubtful at the start because of the pricing of the products which are; Tobby DAC – $1,099.00 / Bobby desktop amp $599. I was doubtful since the brand isn’t as huge yet like Schiit audio and Burson audio. The stack surprised me on how it easily beats the Schiit Audio Gugnir and Mjolnir set-up and how the FireStone Audio Bobby could surpass the Burson Audio HA-160 by a mile in satisfying me through the Audeze LCD-2. If you’re looking for a high end stack at this price point, I’d heavily suggest the FireStone Audio Tobby DAC + FireStone Audio Bobby desktop headphone amplifier stack!
FireStone Audio Tobby & Bobby: Fully balanced audiophile DAC and headphone amp combo
