Is a Dynalo headphone amp "bad" design in 2024? (schematic inside)

[TheMusicListener]

This is a question I have been having a hard time researching: Just how bad is my DIY Dynalo aka Gilmore Lite clone headphone amp? Is the design considered to be "Head Fi woo-woo garbage" today? Or is it a perfectly fine amp that doesn't need updating unless it breaks or starts making noise? I know the HeadAmp Gilmore Lite Mk2 got panned by Amir but he also seemed to say it's audibly OK when it comes to human ears. I have no real idea how that amp compares to my Dynalo. There's zero THD/SINAD specs to reference and I know there's been a lot of improvement and a lot of real science audio engineering in the 15 years since I "built" mine.

Specifically, I bought a pre-populated DJ Gardner "Gilmore Dynalo Rev C" board and did the final wiring and case work myself. So Gardner himself did 99% of the work and was very helpful for my final 1% effort.

The schematic PDF is attached and is also on the Internet Archive here.

Right now I am feeding the Dynalo from my PC through a Scarlett Solo Gen 2 as a DAC (volume at 50%) and it's powered by a "hospital grade" Elpac IV pump power supply (Head Fi seemed to think these were necessary back in the day). Headphones are Beyer 880s 250 ohm edition but I do sometimes use IEMs like the Truthear Zero and BLON BL-03s. With Prime Days happening, I am temped to move up to something like a SMSL DL200 or Topping E2X2 or equivalent, but I'm also a recovering Head Fi member so I don't trust myself. Would a new amp or amp/DAC (or just a DAC) make any difference at all?

 

[TheMusicListener]

Whoops I guess this should really have gone in the AMP section, sorry. I just have been fixated on amp/DAC combos in my shopping. I'll probably just do an Amazon test drive of the DL200 and see what I hear.

 

[TheMusicListener]

I'll give this thread one bump just in case someone who understands schematics happens to browse through this forum. Hopefully some light bumpage is OK, just not sure how to compare something that was fairly popular and acclaimed from the subjectivist old world (but seemingly never measured by anyone) to the "new" objectivist paradigm. I am too stupid to understand circuit designs but it seems like a dynalo is from a time when people thought class A headphone amps were the ultimate technology (I guess that is false) and that opamps should be avoided (I think there are none in the signal path of a dynalo).

I understand that much but I can't tell if that means something like a SMSL DL200 (or whatever) would be actually audibly better and worth upgrading to over a dynalo.