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Today's Featured Head-Fi Blog: A Japanese headfier's monologue (Sasaki)
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I have used this little amp from Head-direct for the last 10 days and I am amazed by how good it is.
I have compared it with the following amps:
GoVibe 7
Tomahawk
Supermicro III
Larocco PRII Mark II
I have used it mainly with Yuin PK1 and Ety 4P/S
Using this amp with the bass boost option on, the Etys are a total different IEM. They maintain their detail with more body. I have also used them with the P/S converter. Amazing.
The PK1s really shine with this amplifier.
The switches for increasing the scenario, the bass boost and the gain are really nice an work fine.
The battery last for a very long time. Head-direct claims 60 hours and it must be that long.
The sound stage is really wide and detailed.
I have also tried with it bigger headphones such as Senns 650, AKG 701s and Grado RS-1 and they work. I have to make a direct comparison with a more powerful amp such as the PRII or a Millet Hybrid Max but it does move them and the volume was at the middle of teh scale.
I can only agree with rodaballo, no hype. IMHO this is a very good portable headphone amp. It has all the sound stage, dynamics, detail, bass impact and quantity of my Slee Solo 2007 with 1000+ hours on it, but is just perceptibly a little less smooth or refined. Otherwise it seems to concede virtually nothing to the much larger and more expensive mains driven unit (which is thought to be an ideal partner to the HD650).
It measures well too:
MiniBox E and E+ both with about 100 hours on them tested with a Lindos MS10 laptop driven audio analyser. The output load being a pair of Sennheiser HD650s (300 Ohm impedance) at a nominal listening level of 0.75 Volt. A pair of Grado SR125s (30 Ohm? impedance) gave essentially the same results.
Frequency Response plus or minus 0.2dB 25 to 30 kHz
Distortion at 1kHz 0.075% (nominal listening level)
0.085% (+18 dB = good headroom)
Noise as per ITU-486 -78 dB (un-weighted typically 20dB less)
2 degree phase shift at 15 kHz
The bass boost function gives an increase of just under + 5dBs at 30 Hz.
The non-+ version produced very similar figures but did not quite have the headroom of the later version '+'.
Perhaps I will write this up in more detail sometime (I have no connections with MiniBox etc).
I just can't sing enough good praises for the MiniBox E+/Yuin PK1 combo. And it's a powerful lil' sucker. Gobbles up the bigger phones. One Great Little AMP!!!! It is bettered buy only a few portable amps. And so much better than most.
Last edited by achristilaw; 01-17-2008 at 09:59 PM..
Mine is on the way. It's back-ordered till next week, which is fine because my new 5.5G iPod is currently with Vinnie getting iMod love and will be shipped next week and my new ALO iMod Jumbo Cryo X AuAg cable is on its way as I type.
While I really enjoy my Portaphile V2^2maxxed amp, I was looking for an amp that would work well in terms of size with the 5.5G iPod and this amp fits the bill (It seems to be about the same dimensions as the 5.5G iPod from what I've seen in Pictures), and it also helps that MRARROYO gave it a good review. The fact that it doesn't have to have batteries changed out will also be nice.
I am looking forward to hearing it and comparing it to the V2^2maxxed.
I enjoyed the MiniBox-E tremendously and IMO it beats amps costing not only more but amps which many think of highly. If you look at the comparison I made of 33 portable amps you will see this baby ranked quite high.
Mini Box e+
Linear Mode
