rickcr42
Fully Modded
Rest in peace my good friend.
Posts: 4,514
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Post by rickcr42 on Jan 30, 2007 23:48:04 GMT
I realise everyone's first impulse will be to choose "sound quality" but from where I sit this is NOT the main selling point in choosing a portable amp but more how much stuff can be crammed in to the smallest package and having the lowest battery drain EACH of which comprimises ultimate SQ because of the requirements placed on the power supply,a power supply that must either use a DC/DC converter in order to get enough voltage to drive headphones AND power all the extras or designed with only the lowest current draining parts and both of which are detrimental to the resulting end sonics. more like "it can't sound horrible but needs to be small and light and have a DAC and a crossfeed and rechargable batteries that last and last .................." If you accept that most of the better sounding passives are large and that the better sounding actives are very inefficient the two just don't mix
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lini
Been here a while!
Groanings from Han(g)over
Posts: 191
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Post by lini on Feb 4, 2007 10:23:05 GMT
For myself, a good portable amp should foremost be a good compromise:
- not too expensive (< 200 Euro), 'cause otherwise I'd be afraid of actually using it on the go
- case should be sturdy, tough and insensitive to scratches
- sound quality should be not too far away from an entry-level home headphone amp
- battery life should be > 20 h
- should have an option for external dc power
- standard format battery
- 1/8 " / 3.5 mm stereo mini ports for line-in and phone-out
- size not much bigger than a pack of cigarettes
...and that's about it. What I personally don't need is internal battery charging, crossfeed and bass boost. I haven't missed a gain selector in my PortaCordas (1x I, 2x II) yet, either - but I could imagine some situation, in which that would come in handy...
Greetings from Munich!
Manfred / lini
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Post by PinkFloyd on Feb 4, 2007 14:41:07 GMT
Rick, I truly wish you could listen to Dr. Xin's Supermicro IV. I think you'll be listening to a Dr. Rick one of these days Miguel
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rickcr42
Fully Modded
Rest in peace my good friend.
Posts: 4,514
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Post by rickcr42 on Feb 4, 2007 18:21:27 GMT
Sometimes and with some songs the SR-71 or the LaRocco PRII of all the portable amps i have any real time listening to the Sr-71 is the best of them doing more things right to my taste buds.I also personally LIKE the size and heft of the amp being a person that truly dislikes teeny tiny fumbly audio devices that run on the smallest possible power source. My own portable amp is a BIG MAMMA that runs on a +/- 6VDC 8 AA battery pack ( ) and that also needs to be sizable to squeeze in the passives that are chosen with SQ in mind over size so no girlie 50 VDC caps and no SMD metal film resistor in sight point being there is not much sense in carrying another device to power my headphones if the added "thing" is not much better than the straight headphone output of the portable player so I use home amp voicing in my portable amps and so far no low voltage cap or small resistor can get there to my satisfaction. Works for me but would NEVER sell as an actual product it breaking too many set in stone rules on what is considered the proper direction for a portable amp mine being more of a belt clip device than a pocket amp.If I want small I just drop in a single opamp (AD8066 or AD8397) run off a single nine with a rail splitter and call it a day there being no reason in my mind to complicate the simple just to be different and have a selling point that so many do just to avoid having their amp called a CMOY ripoff even if the basic single stage design blows the doors off the multistage one
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Post by PinkFloyd on Feb 4, 2007 22:39:03 GMT
Portable as in strictly for listening "on the move" or portable as in "compact enough to be transported to another location easily" ?
If portable as in "on the move" listening then looks will probably play as big a part as sound quality I'd imagine. I doubt the mobile phone brigade / ipod poseurs would be happy walking about with a plain old black plastic box strapped onto their ipod... these guys most definitely want something they can show off to the rest of the poseurs travelling on the same train as them. So if for "on the move" usage it would have to look good, be smaller than the rest, have a hefty price tag, maybe a few flashing lights and the ubiquitous "scroll wheel" to make it uber cool. I personally don't listen "on the move" preferring to have my wits about me when I'm out and about and actually "speak" to people so I'm not the best person to ask on this one.......
If portable as in "compact enough to be transported to another location easily" then I don't care what it looks like but I expect it to sound first class. I expect it to be robust, hard wearing and with good quality switchgear, phono sockets and knobs. As long as the fit and finish is half decent "looks" really don't play a major part. It must sound good though.
Two different types of portable one being for use with pretty rudimentary portable sources and the other which will probably be used with high quality source / material. Basically "anything" in a flashy box will complement the former but a bit more thought on the SQ front will be required to complement the latter.
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