Amp Newbie Needs Recommendation for $200 or less

[Riku540]

Hey all,
Broke young college audiophile here, and I need help getting my first amp.

I am looking for something that will bring the best out of my iPod Photo 60GB and my Ultimate Ears super.fi 5 Pro.

I would like something very portable that will be unobtrusive and practical in just about all portable listening environments. This way my portable rig will be complete, and then I can start saving up to build a home rig.

Anyway, I have no idea where to start. I was considering a cMoy for a little, but they seem a little fragile being made out of mint cans.

Can somebody please make a recommendation that will give me the best portable sound quality for my rig for $200 or less? I may be able to stretch to $300 but $200 is really ideal.

[Borat]

Hi,

Unless you already own the iPod dock, you're going to need a method to connect to the line-out of your iPod from the dock connector. There are two popular ways to do this:

Sendstation Pocket Dock

Sik Ram Din

The Sik Ram Din is recommended because you won't need to buy a mini-mini interconnect to use it with your amp.

Now you are down about $28. Not to worry as there are still plenty of options around $170.

JMTAudio Pimeta Portable for $110

Go-Vibe MkIII for $89 or MKII for $69. Tell Norm that you plan on using it with low impedance IEM's and he will set the gain accordingly.

If you can stretch your budget a little, the Portaphile V2² is a good choice. You can adjust the gain low for your Super.fi's.

There are also some new offerings from Xin that I think might fall in this price range as well.

joelongwood recommends the CHA-47 for the Super.fi's, but these are no longer produced. If you're lucky maybe you can find one used.

Good luck.

[Riku540]

So far the smallest amp I’ve seen is the HeadRoom Total AirHead. Is it significantly smaller than the other amps, and is it comparable to the others you listed in terms of sound quality? Also, how do gain settings work and how do I determine the right setting for me?

Also if it helps any to narrow things down any, I listen to dance/electronic/techno/trance and everything else related.

Edit: go-vibe MK III seems to be leaning my way now.

[kman79]

This thread was helpful for me. I'm also new to High End Portable Audio and was thinking of what amp to pair up with Shure E5Cs. I was also looking at the headroom. The Total Airhead model actually. I'm thinking about the other amps that Barat posted. Looking to buy in a week or two. My souce would be a laptop and my W800 phone for now. Trying not to buy a dedicated portable source, that's the reason why I bought the W800 in the first place.

[grawk]

There's a Xin SuperMacro v1 in the fs forum right now for $140. That is a STEAL.

[markkr]

I just got a new Total Airhead from Headroom on Monday. I love this thing. I've had a few Mints and PPA that I sold a while back. I think this TAH sounds better than any of the Mints with my Ety's and iPod. I highly recommend this amp. It dosent seem to get alot of hype here, but I think thats just because of the price.

[Riku540]

Well right now I'm highly considering the go-vibe MK III. Anyone know how it synergizes with the iPod and super.fi's?

[episiarch]

I'll second Borat's recommendation of JMT's portable Pimeta. When I went to upgrade from mine, I couldn't find anything below $300 that beat it for sound quality. Even at $300+, only a couple amps beat it by enough to be worth my while. Highly recommended.