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Portaphiles get no love? - Page 9

post #121 of 247
4/7/08 at 10:40am
I guess you two don't power the same HP with the PV2^2 to get such different number of hours ?

Quote:
Originally Posted by immtbiker
I don't know about now, but as of August, last year, the iPower had a huge failure rate. Don't buy them.
Got it.
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post #122 of 247
4/7/08 at 3:02pm
I know standard alkalines got 2-2.5 hours when I had my portaphile.
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post #123 of 247
4/7/08 at 6:18pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Romanee View Post
Hmm. Using Ultralife 1200mAh disposable 9V, with Class-A on and Wide Bandwidth off I get about 20 hours - not 7 or 8!?
Wonder why our results differ so much?
Maybe your hours are in "Dog Years"
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post #124 of 247
4/7/08 at 9:00pm
I also get 2-3 hours with my lithium rechargeables and with the ultralife I also get around 7-8 hours with my Portaphile Maxxed.
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post #125 of 247
4/7/08 at 9:57pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by immtbiker View Post
I don't know about now, but as of August, last year, the iPower had a huge failure rate. Don't buy them.
I got them from Thomas Distributing and 2 out of 4 of them were internally shorted (always said fully charged but gave no reading on my voltmeter). The other 2 lasted about 35 minutes.
I called Thomas and they knew of the problem and told me to send the 4 batteries back, along with the charger, and they offered me a full refund including the shipping. I just asked them to send me the equivalent amount of Utralifes for the $90.

With the LT1210, blackgates and the upgraded opamp, after a little over an hour, the amp lets out the long whining yelp that it sounds when the alkaline batteries go below their threshold. This is with the Wide Bandwidth turned off, which Cesar told me yields the best battery results with the least afffect on the overall sound.


First--somewhere deep in the bowels of these threads Romanee has given a fairly extensive review of these batteries including the warning on the Ipowers. I too bought them and they were a disaster. Apparently Romanee got lucky on the ones he bought and they were not defective.

Second--awhile back I had to send my Portaphile back to Cesar to have the on-off switch repaired and asked him about battery life and the use of wide bandwidth. His response was that since mine was one of his newer models with a different Blackgate cap, the difference with bandwidth "on" and "off" was negligible, that the effects were much greater on the older Portaphiles.

So all that said: still use a 9v rechargeable--and I have a 9.6v also but hear no appreciable difference--and don't bother with the lithiums, alkalines or any of them. When the Portaphile is portable, tho, it's the rechargeables
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post #126 of 247
4/8/08 at 12:52am
Quote:
Originally Posted by immtbiker View Post
Maybe your hours are in "Dog Years"
Must be since I always seem to be in the Dog House. The only yelp I hear isn't my amp -- it's me.

sigh.


...well... so I escape once in a while.........




I use the Portaphile -- and my RSA portables -- to drive everything from my Westone ES2 IEMs (very very sensitive) to Senn HD600/650, DT880, K501 and K701.

I haven't really done a power drain test in quite a while, so I'll pay more attention. My iPower 500mAh are getting pretty old, but they seem be holding up. I'll let y'all know if I can find the time to log their longevity with different phones. I'll try to set it up when I get to work and leave it playing all day. Hope I can spot when the light goes out -- I've got too much multitasking at work these days.
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post #127 of 247
4/8/08 at 12:47pm
I should admit something...

I just plugged my pV2^2 on my M5L LOD and on walwart and ...
I no longer want to sell it... I fell in love with it once again...
It makes an hour now that I'm listening music through it and I even forgot I was listening to music... I was dreaming !... floating on another planet, overpowering some Shuttle358-Chessa through my Proline 650.

It's true, it is a great amp !
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post #128 of 247
4/8/08 at 7:18pm
Comparing my V2^2 Maxxed to other portables, I find that the Portaphile has great detail and a wider, fuller soundstage, along with deeper bass and cleaner highs.

Wait a minute...isn't that all there is?

I guess my love for the Portaphile is an unconditional one Who says "Portaphile get no love"?
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post #129 of 247
4/8/08 at 7:55pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ko Nectic Jazz View Post
Thank you tnmike1.

I didn't notice it wasn't rechargeable. A bit to expensive for me...
I looked for i-Power 500mAh and I came across with this:
iPower Li Pol 520 Pro
I read in this thread that some iPower were defective, maybe these one are not...



... no kidding...
... will it be the argument that will make me sell my P2^2 ?...

Okay - now that is new. Sorry I can't budget any now for a test, but those are different from the previous, horribly faulty generation of iPower Li-Po 9v (the generation after mine).

If anyone buys and tries this new version, let us know their success or failure. (They're $19.95 at that site - Trew Audio.)

[ThomasDistributing.com is still showing the older, miserable 500mAh @ $16.97, unless they carry the new ones and haven't updated their site. I'm angry with them anyway for continuing to foist a failed product on the public. Thank goodness we have a forum to warn friends away from it.]

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post #130 of 247
4/8/08 at 8:07pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by immtbiker View Post
Using the Class A and low gain settings (wide bandwidth off):

Standard alkalines ~ 1 hour 15 min.
Lithium Ion Rechargeables ~ 45 minutes
UltraLife non-rechargeable ~ 7-8 hours

All right -- now what gives? You get only 45 minutes from a Lithium Ion rechargeable? What battery is that? My iPower 500mAh 9V are Lithium-Polymer.

So far today my Portaphile has been driving AKG K701 at normally loud levels of Sting "Brand New Day", which has some very deep bass and lots of loud passages - using an iPower 500mAh 9V Li-Po rechargeable - for 4 hours straight with no indications of distress (clean, loud and HQ SQ...). Amp set to Class-A on, Wide Bandwidth off.

So -- Walter M-Itty -- is it possible that: A) you're accidentally reading the DIP Switch settings in reverse and actually have Wide Bandwidth ON? & B) that a reeeeeeely lousy 9V Lithium Rechargeable that's only giving 45 minutes?

...although, judging by your Ultralife time of only 7-8 hrs. and I've gotten about 20 hours -- I'd opt for the Wide Bandth unwittingly ON answer. Once I thought I'd had W-B on for a while -- then had to send the amp to Cesar for a minor fix and was told W-B had been OFF. Oops.

...now 4.5 hours and counting...

edit @ 8:15pm: 5.25 hours and counting...

More later.
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post #131 of 247
4/8/08 at 8:18pm

iPower 500mAh 9V Li-Po rechargeable

iPower 500mAh 9V Li-Po rechargeable = 8 hours with wide bandwidth off, all other features on.

At Romanee's advice, 1 year ago (or so) I bought two of these batteries plus the smart charger from Thomas Dist. The performance has remained the same for at least one of the two batteries. I sanded them down too much though to make them fit so now have to tape them together (the outer plastic casing is cracking apart).
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post #132 of 247
4/8/08 at 8:36pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by tracyrick View Post
iPower 500mAh 9V Li-Po rechargeable = 8 hours with wide bandwidth off, all other features on.

At Romanee's advice, 1 year ago (or so) I bought two of these batteries plus the smart charger from Thomas Dist. The performance has remained the same for at least one of the two batteries. I sanded them down too much though to make them fit so now have to tape them together (the outer plastic casing is cracking apart).

Another boring reminder to latecomers: tracyrick's batteries are the 1st gen 500mAh iPower, which were larger -- and dependable. I guess the mfr was pressured to make a slightly smaller case, and in the process came out with a new and utterly dismal failure 500mAh.

...soooo -- do NOT buy the current 500mAh iPower 9V Li-Po.

I still want to hear how the new 520mAh "Pro" iPower 9V Li-Po is (NOT available from Thomas Distributing, but from the Trew Audio site).

How odd -- the 520mAh "PROFESSIONAL" Ipower 9V Li-Po rechargeables shown on the Trew Audio site do NOT appear on the iPowerUS site.
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post #133 of 247
4/10/08 at 11:37am
I'd also like toremind folks who have never tried these: they require their own special recharger. A recharger for Lithium-Ion batteries ONLY. Thomas had them on their site,don[t know if Trew does or not. Or, read carefully the side of the batteries in the picture and it tells you the same thing.

Just went on their site and they do in fact offer the charger and four batteries for around $100.

Also perusing the site I notice the batteries Romanee's talking about--wonder if they're a newer version or an older, Thomas-type inventory version?? Might call them and ask.
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post #134 of 247
4/10/08 at 1:12pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by tnmike1 View Post
Just went on their site and they do in fact offer the charger and four batteries for around $100.

That's the set that I purchased and received a refund for, from TD.
It was a year ago and I paid approx. $90 for the charger/battery combo.
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post #135 of 247
4/10/08 at 3:16pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by tnmike1 View Post
I'd also like toremind folks who have never tried these: they require their own special recharger. A recharger for Lithium-Ion batteries ONLY. Thomas had them on their site,don[t know if Trew does or not. Or, read carefully the side of the batteries in the picture and it tells you the same thing.

Just went on their site and they do in fact offer the charger and four batteries for around $100.

Also perusing the site I notice the batteries Romanee's talking about--wonder if they're a newer version or an older, Thomas-type inventory version?? Might call them and ask.
The 520mAh Professional is a brand new product. One professional video/cinema/audio site speaks well of them - but that remains to be seen/experienced … and they did note that some had experienced difficulties with some of the 500mAh units.

I've sent very frank e-mails to Trew Audio and to iPowerUS. Trew Audio said they have found them dependable, but I have not yet heard from iPowerUS.

I'll report back.

BTW - it's not surprising that the Lithium-Polymer batteries requires a dedicated charger - though the charger does have a switch that allows charging of NiMH batteries as well. Did you notice that?

It didn't bother me to buy the charger - and it's been working well for well over a year. I've got 4 or 5 different chargers by now … so be it.
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