Review: Portable amp roundup! 56 portable amps reviewed and compared - FINAL update 12-20-10... - Page 183  

Great review Skylab!

Big thanks to Skylab for this impressive roundup! I'm lurking for quite a long time and I've just found this awesome and so useful thread. Can't believe I didn't find it earlier!..

I was wondering, are you planning to add the ALO Rx and the TTVJ slim? They're very well regarded and I (as many other headfiers for sure) would be very interested to see how they compete with the best ones you reviewed.

Another contender would be the new iBasso PB1 Toucan (which seems to be a direct competitor to the RSA Protector), I don't want to ask too much but are you considering to add it?

Thanks again!

That's good news. Headphonia thought it better than the TTVJ Millet portable (which they also liked). I will be curious as to what you think.

Great news, thanks!

It would be cool if you gave an overall grade/rating for each amp. Great thread!

how about ordnance .22 and ordnance .25 ?

Thanks Skylab. I finally picked an amp thanks to you, the Linearossa W1. Hoping they work good with orchestra. They also come with a LOD, yay! Now to pick some $100 headphones...

Better get some efficient phones... the W1 is actually a volume limiter, not an amplifier - it makes any player quieter. Also make sure they're higher impedance, the W1 severely rolls off the bass with low impedance phones.

I'm going to be using a LOD with them. Would that still limit the volume? What do you consider "high impedance"? 60 ohms or 200+ ohms. Nothing in my price range is above 65 ohms. If you know a pair at around 150 bucks or less, could you please tell me. If not do you think i should just get an iBasso T3. In the review Skylab said the W1 works better as an amp than the T3. Could you please help me? FYI, I am a complete noob. I have never had an amp and my first and only pair of headphones were $15 Altec Lansing AHP524s and the only "IEMs" (if you could call them that) were a $10 pair from FRY'S electronics.

Headphones are very important for sound reproduction, so is a decent MP3 player - and amp however is a very minor thing to worry about. It's always a bad idea buying an amp, and then getting headphones after that. An amp won't make anything sound magically "better" - it might or might not fix minor things in the sound (depending on player or phone), but never gives a "huge" difference. Neither does a line-out function - actually some players sound worse over line-out than they do over their headphone-out (Sony A845, Cowon X5, for example).

Since you seem to be just starting in this hobby, my suggestion is: get a good MP3 player and a good pair of phones/IEMs - and worry about the negligible details later. Spending the additional ~$100 an amp costs for a better, upgraded headphone may give you much more enjoyment than buying a lower quality phone and an amp.

By the way, there's a link in my signature below, under "my gear and reviews", to my opinion about the W1, if you like to read that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dfkt 

Headphones are very important for sound reproduction, so is a decent MP3 player - and amp however is a very minor thing to worry about. It's always a bad idea buying an amp, and then getting headphones after that. An amp won't make anything sound magically "better" - it might or might not fix minor things in the sound (depending on player or phone), but never gives a "huge" difference. Neither does a line-out function - actually some players sound worse over line-out than they do over their headphone-out (Sony A845, Cowon X5, for example).

 

Since you seem to be just starting in this hobby, my suggestion is: get a good MP3 player and a good pair of phones/IEMs - and worry about the negligible details later. Spending the additional ~$100 an amp costs for a better, upgraded headphone may give you much more enjoyment than buying a lower quality phone and an amp.

 

By the way, there's a link in my signature below, under "my gear and reviews", to my opinion about the W1, if you like to read that.

x2, choose your 'phones first.

The fact is I have a 160gb iPod with a broken 3.5mm headphone jack. I have no choice, but to buy an amp and use it through the line-out. In-fact, it would be cheaper for me to buy a $200 amp rather than a new mp3 player. It's a disaster trying to find headphones. There are TOO MANY in the 100-150 dollar price range. I've searched and I've searched. For almost any application everyone suggests Alessandro MS-1s. Problem is they have no soundstage and I listen to ALOT of orchestra. It has been a nightmare picking headphones. No wonder everyone has more than one pair. The biggest obstacle is probably that I listen to orchestra and hip-hop mainly and they require totally different style of headphones. I'm looking for something in-between. I'm considering Shure SRH440s or ATH-M50s, although the MS1s are more convenient since I live overseas. The forums are a mixed bag. After looking through your inventory though, you seem like a fan of IEMs so I won't bother you about which headphones I should get. I'm gonna have another go at the audio forums. I can see that you hate the W1 ALOT from your review. Any user who has a ton of headphone reviews that I should look for?