CMOY, should I even bother getting one?

Out of curiosity, I bought two Cmoy amps from Ebay. Well, for $34.00 I would not expect much but it does what an amp is supposed to do. It amplifies the incoming signal if that what you want.

All I can say is my units are dead quiet, no pops, no hum, no buzz. They look pretty nice too ( i have the black penguin tin cans) . I pair them up with the FiiO D3 Dac using Toslink out from my old DVD players that have been forgotten in the attic for several years. At first, all I can say is the Cmoy amps I have are not bad but they sound kind of raw. Mid range is warm and clear  but at certain high notes, Diana Krall voice on certain track is kind of shouting. The high is not too offensive. My units have no bass boost which is not something I desire anyway.  

All in all, the Cmoy amps I bought is definitely an entry level amp. Not quite up to my E7/E9 level but heck they only cost $34.00 a piece and probably will last a long time. If you want refined sound, look for something around $100.00 and up. Yes, money do buy happiness and better SQ. That's not to say the Cmoy amps are bad. The word " raw" power is first come to my mind whenever I toy around with my Cmoy amps. YMMV.

If you have the skills to DIY an amp, why not make a discrete one.
It costs less and most discrete amp will be at the high-end quality compared to what's being commercially sold.
The main problem is the case, which will probably no look as good.

Have a look at my profile pics. I have Cmoy Royal (the one with the

two big gold op amps). It is a great sounding amp-a step up from

the standard Cmoy. Could be a worthwhile home project.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mozu 

Those Penguin CMoys are in a different class than even the JDSLabs. Such a shame they're so hard to find these days.

I don't know..  Fixed up a penguin caffeine amp for a friend..  I wasn't overly impressed by the components or solder job inside. I understood why it was mounted pcb bottom up - looks nice that way.

Quote:

Originally Posted by b1o2r3i4s5 

If you have the skills to DIY an amp, why not make a discrete one.
It costs less and most discrete amp will be at the high-end quality compared to what's being commercially sold.
The main problem is the case, which will probably no look as good.

What do you mean by discrete? Normally, a Cmoy is a single opamp with a little bit of support circuitry. All ebay cmoys are also this way.

Discrete normally refers to something built with individual transistors/FETs/caps, etc. Kind of like building an opamp from scratch.

I would agree with the first part of your first sentence, and advise the OP to just build his own. Doesn't cost much, and taking an Altoids tin and casing a Cmoy isn't really that difficult and might prove to be fun!

This is my Cmoy (Penguin made a similar one  http://www.penguinamp.com/The-Royal-Amp:::2001.html  ) a bit different to the standard basic model. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pars 

What do you mean by discrete? Normally, a Cmoy is a single opamp with a little bit of support circuitry. All ebay cmoys are also this way.

 

Discrete normally refers to something built with individual transistors/FETs/caps, etc. Kind of like building an opamp from scratch.

 

I would agree with the first part of your first sentence, and advise the OP to just build his own. Doesn't cost much, and taking an Altoids tin and casing a Cmoy isn't really that difficult and might prove to be fun!

Sorry for not clarifying properly, by a discrete amp i mean one that has nothing to do with the Cmoy design and make a entirely discrete amp.