Please suggest a portable headphone amp to increase volume in professional audio bag

Hi guys.

I would appreciate your help in choosing a headphone amp. Long story short I am recording location movie sound using Sennheiser/Schoeps digital microphones, and I am recording at very very low gain to avoid clipping the converters (there is no issue with noise with digital mics.) This works great except that my recorder's built-in headphone amp is way too quiet to properly monitor what I'm recording.

All I need is a decent headphone amp to dramatically boost the volume of the recorder's headphone output. It should ideally be:

- Have enough power/juice to significantly boost the volume of the signal

- Fairly neutral/uncolored (this is for accurate monitoring not bassy enjoyment)

- Small/portable/fits easily in a sound bag

- Ideally can be powered via hirose connector or some similar power input that I can use with my Remote Audio BDS Battery Distribution Box BDS1/6V4 (link)

- If it can't be powered via hirose/xlr then it should be powered by replaceable NiMH batteries

- Not very expensive, under $300 or under $150 ideally.

I've looked at a Whirlwind PA1 (kind of big, not sure about powering it) and a JK Audio RemoteAmp (kind of heavy, can't be powered.)


Any suggestions would be great!

Thanks,

-Chris

Hmm bump? :D

OK Thanks for the advice.
Professional enough to be supporting myself doing paid location sound work, and tight enough on cash and weight to not want to spend money on a boutique headphone amp when all I need is extra volume. Plus I'm going to need more then one.
But yeah, if I was real pro I'd have a Nagra VI! (drool)

I have looked at Fiio, but it's all battery powered. Still an option I guess.

I have looked at RSA and thought it was a bit pricey, but if it works it works. I'd rather pay $275 extra and have it be convenient and take distributed power then deal with batteries.

But if the Headroom Airhead works about the same (not counting audio fidelity) then I'd rather save the cash.
 

Hmmm......