Quote:
Originally Posted by
guerillaw 
I am currently breaking in and getting to know a DacPort and new pair of AKG 702. For the music you listed, the pair should work perfectly. The inherent lack of power reserves and the notorius bass-lighteness of the 702 are showing through so far on bass heavy music, but in every other area the combo is stellar. A highly portable high quality rig. For the music you listed, this bass shyness should not be an issue, so it might be a good fit. You certainly cannot beat the convenience.
That is a similar issue with the HD800 - listening to some jazz and classical, and especially stuff like my 24/96 recordings by Carla Lother or Nancy Bryan, the DACport and HD800 sounds wonderful and can even play fairly loud at 100% volume. Normal listening for me is with the volume at 75-80%. But with rock the HD800 demand more power and they tend to get bright and fatiguing at higher volumes. If you push it too hard at 100% the soundstage closes in and the dynamics get a little softer. With some of my electronic music it does better than with rock, and with Infected Mushroom or Bella Sonus it will drive the HD800 to moderately loud levels with tight snappy bass, good dynamics and no clipping - but it wont make your ears vibrate like other amps driven by AC power.
NEW INFO - the DACport drives the new HiFiMan HE-5 LE to sound very good, and possibly drives them better than the HD800, although not louder than HD800. Nevertheless, the bass is a bit stronger and the HE-5 LE are not fatiguing at max volume with the DACport like the HD800 can be with some music. I like these HE-5 LE much better with rock on the DACport. The DACport had a bit of difficulty driving the original HE-5 because they demanded a lot of current. While the HE-5 LE are still very inefficient, the higher impedance is a better match with the DACport and I can turn it to max volume with moderately loud sound, and not over-drive the DACport's amp section. (note - HE-5 LE with stock cable but grill clothe removed)
And, I'm still using the DACport as a 24/96 DAC/pre-amp to feed my Audioengine A2, because it's easy to hear the improvement in sound over driving the A2 directly from the Macbook Pro headphone out. So you could easily use it as a source to feed a more powerful portable amp too, like the RSA Protector in balanced mode.
