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Most powerful *truly* portable amp?

post #1 of 21
5/11/12 at 9:18am
Thread Starter 

*By truly portable I mean it hardly adds any additional weight/bulk to the MP3 player at all...

 

Is there anything that is that small and can push full sized headphones easily and...sounds good?

 

Thanks a lot in advance.

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post #2 of 21
5/11/12 at 9:21am
cheap and super powerful is the Fiio E11
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post #3 of 21
5/11/12 at 9:25am
Thread Starter 

Thanks. Unfortunately the E11 adds double the weight and bulk to an MP3 player!!

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post #4 of 21
5/11/12 at 10:39am

Don't buy portable amplifier. Instead buy IEMs that don't need amp.

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post #5 of 21
5/11/12 at 10:46am
Quote:
Originally Posted by cactus_farmer View Post

Thanks. Unfortunately the E11 adds double the weight and bulk to an MP3 player!!

 

Your wants aren't realistic then. You could try the E6 but I'm not so sure how well that will work with your phones. If you want an all in one solution get a Powerful MP3 player instead.

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post #6 of 21
5/11/12 at 4:29pm

Well theres the pico slim and p-51 mustang rsa both small,strong,and sound good.Your requests are a bit unrealistic.

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post #7 of 21
5/11/12 at 4:44pm

What about a Headstage Arrow or a Pico Slim?  I don't know what their power outputs are rated at, mind you, or how well they drive full-sized cans.

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post #8 of 21
5/11/12 at 5:49pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by cactus_farmer View Post

Thanks. Unfortunately the E11 adds double the weight and bulk to an MP3 player!!

A separate amp also needs a separate battery - an E11 is mostly that, as are most portable amps. What distindguishes the E11 is its slim Nokia battery - others are bulky because they use a 9v or several AA's, but most of their circuit boards are comparable in terms of size.

Others suggest getting a more powerful player to begin with, but it will end up at the same size and weight range, the only benefit being that these Hi-Fi players have a better DAC section and they aren't strapped or taped together - so if they fit in any space, like a jacket pocket, then they fit and you don't need to worry about the interconnect cable breaking, or the player an amp scraping each other, etc.

If you really want 'portable,' don't just ditch the amp - ditch the headphone. Find an IEM that your protable player has enough juice for in terms of power (volume) and current (dynamics). It will help if the cans are a little coloured, like a bit warmer than neutral, since what electronic measurements take as close neutral might be perceived as sharper with an IEM than a headphone.
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post #9 of 21
5/11/12 at 10:07pm

SR71 is your best choice

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post #10 of 21
5/11/12 at 11:57pm

UHA4 is also a great amp.

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post #11 of 21
5/12/12 at 12:49am

They don't really get much smaller than the E11 aside from the E6. A lot of amps are slimmer but usually longer too.

 

It kind of sounds like you are looking for the Rocoo P DAP which boasts an extremely good amp built right in the player. Only downside is a 10 hour battery life I think.

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post #12 of 21
5/12/12 at 7:51am
Thread Starter 

Is the Rocoo P DAP able to sufficiently power AKG K702/HD 650 type full sized open headphones with good authority? Howabout even LCD2's?

 

Or should I go for a Headstage Arrow which seems to be very powerful and smaller and thinner than the iPod Classic?

 

Of course ideally I'd take one unit rather than two units (though I might superglue the ipod tp the headstage amp) - but how much worse would the Rocoo DAP be?

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by DNZGamer View Post

They don't really get much smaller than the E11 aside from the E6. A lot of amps are slimmer but usually longer too.

 

It kind of sounds like you are looking for the Rocoo P DAP which boasts an extremely good amp built right in the player. Only downside is a 10 hour battery life I think.

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post #13 of 21
5/12/12 at 7:56am
Triad L3

Lol. Just trollin you.
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post #14 of 21
5/12/12 at 8:03am
I agree with others that the E11 is perhaps the best portable one. The E6 is pretty good as well, smaller but just not as many features.
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post #15 of 21
5/12/12 at 11:40am

@Cactus.

 

From what I've read the Rocoo P will not be any good for those headphones. If that is the case you should get the Headstage, they probably aren't comparable in terms of amp quality.

 

I just use double sided tape. Easy to remove later on.

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