Portable Amp suggestions for a Sony A829 & a Zune 80gig ?

Please see my post in the thread about small amps for the Zune. I am having great success with the Travagans Colors ($59) and I also use UM 2s with it at times.

Vorlon1, I note that you have/use a number of the amps discussed in the large amp review roundup posted by skylab, including several in his top 10. Would you care to provide a bit more detail on what about the Travagans you find so satisfactory?

I'm somewhat concerned at the lack of a volume control; I presume that you don't find that to be an issue. I must say that I love the size and apparent durability of the Travagans dogbone amp, as I travel a lot.

My primary reason for looking into amps is to provide a bit more bass and ultimate resolution for my Zune 80gb. I had considered springing for a John Meier or a Xin, but would of course like to spend as little as possible. I had considered a cMoy Bass Boost mint-tin amp for $65 (search cMoy v2.01 on eBay), but I suspect you'll tell me not to do that.


I'm in a position much like Podtweaker, though I elected to go for UE super.fi 5 pros; at $190 ($160 after the amazon.com card $30 rebate) they seemed to be a heck of a bargain on IEMs some reviewers preferred to the Westones.

I'm pretty impressed with the super.fis with WMA Lossless so far, by the way, but these are my first decent IEMs. In fact, I've long preferred spending my cash on speakers, but since the kids have come along, I find most of my listening is done at work or while travelling. I favor B&Ws for "real" speakers, and I suspect the UM2s might more nearly approach the sound of my beloved CM7s. The UEs are brighter than I'm used to, but I'm kind of enjoying that right now.