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Portable tube headphone amplifier

post #1 of 16
10/10/11 at 10:58pm
Thread Starter 

Does such thing exist?. I mean, I know people often talk about having tube outputs for their headphones so I was curious if anyone ever created a portable tube one.

 

Although I can see what kind of concerns would arise.

Size, power consupmtion, tube might shatter from impact / dropping the case.

 

Do any exist out there?

Whats peoples thoughts on said topic.

 

Shroker

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post #2 of 16
10/11/11 at 12:01am

Couple I know of :

 

From ALO - "The Continental"

 

From GoVibe - the "PortaTube"

 

I was actually very impressed with the PortaTube - so I ended up buying it.  It paired wonderfully with my DT880's and even better with my current canss - HD600.  You can find impressions in this thread:

http://www.head-fi.org/t/567716/review-jabens-govibe-porta-tube-amp-review-thread-ex-demo

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post #3 of 16
10/11/11 at 3:33am

The Ubermuzik tiny tube is a portable tube Dac with a solid state amp.

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post #4 of 16
10/11/11 at 5:34am
Quote:
Originally Posted by dyl1dyl View Post

The Ubermuzik tiny tube is a portable tube Dac with a solid state amp.



it's not portable if you cannot run them off the adapter

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post #5 of 16
10/11/11 at 10:24am

Mikhail from SinglePower also had a portable tube amp that he used to bring to audio shows, but I don't think they ever went in to production.

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post #6 of 16
10/11/11 at 11:44am

Ya the Alo continental looks like the best portable tube amp out there right now

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post #7 of 16
10/11/11 at 11:47am
Quote:
Originally Posted by pogglywoggly View Post

Ya the Alo continental looks like the best portable tube amp out there right now



Based on what?  Have you heard the GoVibe PortaTube?  What did you like better about the Continental compared to the PortaTube?  Interested in hearing your comparisons.

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post #8 of 16
10/11/11 at 5:39pm
Thread Starter 

Cool, will look into those. : ).Haha, if you people end up discussing about them that'd be pretty neat. : )

 

Woo. $599 MRSP. Although seems like some people have had some nice impressions for them.


Edited by Shroker - 10/11/11 at 6:01pm
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post #9 of 16
10/11/11 at 6:05pm

I was long curious about these. Is it possible to walk around with one of these amps in your pocket? Preferably without setting yourself on fire, or god forbid microphonics? 

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post #10 of 16
10/11/11 at 7:32pm

My PortaTube is transportable - rather than portable.  I use it a lot at home - mainly if I'm away from the desktop, and still want to listen to the HD600s.  Perfect for lying on the couch on a rainy Sunday afternoon wink.gif.  It's also fantastic if you're going to be away from home, and want to take your 'listening' cans (in my case the HD600) rather than true portable (IEMs or MS1i).

 

If you have a look at the link I left (http://www.head-fi.org/t/567716/review-jabens-govibe-porta-tube-amp-review-thread-ex-demo), there are some photos which will give an idea of size (compared to E9 and also E11).

 

It is relatively heavy compared to the E11 - and not the sort of amp I'd carry around walking.  Mind you I'm not going to be using my HD600 walking either - hence why I mentioned transportable.  It does get warm, but have never found it get overly hot in my time with it so far.

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post #11 of 16
10/12/11 at 2:02am

There are other (trans)portable tube amps

Muse http://www.head-fi.org/t/567872/muse-portable-tube-amplifier

Muiaudio http://www.head-fi.org/t/547251/miuaudio-ih-tube-headphone-amplifier#post_7587506

C&C http://www.audiophilechina.com/cp-show.asp?C_id=174&S_id2=39&s_id=

 

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post #12 of 16
10/12/11 at 6:30am

Though it is kind of cool, 1 dinky little tube will never do the same job that 2, 4, or 13 tubes will do in a desktop amp with a proper power supply.  Battery life and size should be the primary considerations with a portable amp, unless it is your only system.

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post #13 of 16
10/13/11 at 12:10am

There's also the TTVJ millet hybrid portable tube amp, which AFAIK was the first.  Not in production anymore though (I just bought the last one cool.gif ) and I'm not sure how it compares to these new ones. 

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post #14 of 16
11/15/11 at 5:35pm

Has anybody tried this?

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Fanmusic-BL-1-tube-headphone-amplifier-Portable-Headphone-amplifier-tube-AMP-/180730337586

 

It looks like an attractive price (but not much information on the website).......

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post #15 of 16
11/15/11 at 8:17pm

Dont know about the BL-1, but Fiio might be thinking that whole 'intellectual property is someone else's problem' Chinese mindset when they see this:

 

http://www.nextag.com/FiiO-Fanmusic-MKII-MK2-707024862/prices-html

 

Note that I'm not accusing Fiio of anything - just saying that this was inevitable and it is probably already happening all over China. When you click on 'Details', it gives you the details for the E5, so that may simply be a web development screwup, but the original product description remains incorrect.

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