Entry-Level Headphone Amp?

can i assume that you want a portable amp, and that you'd use it with your zune and computer as well?

PA2V2 for around $50 is what I have and love it. Great little starter amp but works very well for the price and runs on either batteries or a wall plug. 

 

http://www.electric-avenues.com/audio8.html

mini^3 is a very good diy amp. If you choose not to build one, you can always buy from another head-fier or ask misterx or rockhopper to build you one. they should cost roughly $130. 

If a portable amp is not necessarily something you need, look no further than the uDac2

Quote:

 

PA2V2 for around $50 is what I have and love it. 

 

+1.

 

Am looking for a home amp now that will drive mid impedance phones nicely.

If you were willing to buy the mini^3 prebuilt, then it would cost around $130. But I highly recommend you building it yourself if you have soldering and electronic skills. I was able to build it myself, and I'm not an expert at soldering. The kit comes with a pcb board, so you just need to match the components onto the board. This amp is not very hard to build at all. If you are interested in building it yourself, it only cost me approx. 50 bucks to build mine (i chose not to buy the metal face plate). 

 

I think this amp can't be beaten if you were to build this yourself for $50. I notice a very big difference when comparing this to my ipod out and onboard pc out. I've also compared the mini^3 to my nuforce icon mobile; the mini^3 blows the icon mobile out of the water. If you are willing to build the "high performance version" like i did, it will be able to drive mid impedance phones effortlessly. 

Why do you want an amp?  Why not spend the money on buying better headphones first?  That will give you more of an improvement. 

Agreed. The M50 could prove to be your limiting factor in your setup right now. 

If you like the sound of your phones and plan to listen out-and-about a entry portable amp is worth a go, IMHO.

A portable amp can improve how your headphones sound in two ways.

1. Giving power hungry headphones the juice that they need to sound good.

2. Bypassing a substandard built in amp in the MP3 player. This requires an LOD (line out device).

 

The M50s are easy to power, so #1 doesn't really apply in this case. But #2 may. I don't know much about the Zune, but most dedicated amps will be better than anything built into an MP3 player. Getting a good amp now is an investment that will continue to pay off if/when you do upgrade to other headphones. That said, the difference between an amped M50 vs an unamped M50 is much less than an M50 vs an HD600, for example.

 

For PC use, your limiting factor with the M50 is the computer soundcard's DAC. Unless you already have a very good soundcard, you will hear an improvement by getting a DAC/amp unit like the uDac-2 or the Audinst HUD-mx1. These will not be usable with an MP3 player though. If you want that, consider something like the iBasso D10.

If you can solder and have electrical skills, please decamp to the DIY Forum. :)

You might want to kick things off with a CMoy, but there are greater rewards awaiting. If you're up to it, look at the Bottlehead Crack, M^3, Dynalo, CK2III, and the assorted hybrids. You can find some nice kits at Glass Jar Audio, too. I strongly recommend building an amp - you'll save lots of money and pick up a wonderful amp. Forget about the commercial offerings and step up to the good stuff!

I would still go with new headphones first. With cheap headphones, upgrades wont seem to make much, if any difference.  Good headphones will at least reflect other upgrades.