[MuppetFace]

Quote:

Now you guys have inspired me to trade in my P-51 Mustang for the best possible little portable amp. The ALO continental caught my eye with its tubes, but reports say it isn't so good with low impedance stuff. And the FAD is the epitome of that. 

 
Earmax Pro / TU-05b probably not as portable as I'd like. Any other suggestions? I know my P-51 is supposed to be pretty great with low impedance stuff as it is. I know Ian, you liked your SR-71, but I am looking for the portable equivalent of yours and Pauls revelations - if possible. 

 
Leckerton UHA-6S (mk1 or mk2) is my first choice. Honestly, you'd be hard pressed to do better. The ALO Rx MK3 is also purportedly very good.
 
Tubes in portable amps are very hit or miss. In my experience, mostly miss. The Analog P^2 stuff seems neat however.

 

[Haidar]

Quote:

 
Leckerton UHA-6S (mk1 or mk2) is my first choice. Honestly, you'd be hard pressed to do better. The ALO Rx MK3 is also purportedly very good.
 
Tubes in portable amps are very hit or miss. In my experience, mostly miss. The Analog P^2 stuff seems neat however.

 
Would the Portaphile 627 be a good match for the Piano Fortes?

 

[SoundFreaq]

Quote:

Here is the link


http://www.analog2p.com/tur06/tur.html


He also hand makes the leather carry case you see in the picture!

 
Thanks, Ian. Geez, what beautiful products they make. 
 
Quote:

 
Leckerton UHA-6S (mk1 or mk2) is my first choice. Honestly, you'd be hard pressed to do better. The ALO Rx MK3 is also purportedly very good.
 
Tubes in portable amps are very hit or miss. In my experience, mostly miss. The Analog P^2 stuff seems neat however.

 
So, you're telling me this $279 DAC/AMP combo will outperform everything else out there? Including my P-51?

 

[MuppetFace]

Quote:

So, you're telling me this $279 DAC/AMP combo will outperform everything else out there? Including my P-51?

 
Everything else? No. However among truly portable amps, it tends to get top billing by a lot of folks. It's certainly one of the best I've heard, but then I haven't heard the ALO Rx MK3 (which according to one UHA-6S fan I know surpasses it).
 
I've used the UHA-6S as my desktop system at the office on occasion, and I preferred it to amps like the Objective^2. It's a truly versatile little thing, able to drive the most sensitive IEMs without hiss all the way up to full-sized monsters like the HD800 and K1000. It sounds lovely with the FI-BA-SS and Piano Fortes alike.
 
While a truly portable tube amp is an awesome idea, I've unfortunately never heard one that sounded particularly good to my ears. The Analog P^2 model looks very promising, but then it's not a portable amp so much as a transportable amp. Getting tubes right in a small package is tricky business.
 
Speaking of Analog^2P, I've been speaking with Di-ma about his creations. At the moment, we're discussing a full-sized headphone amp similar to his 300B preamp, but it would use 6ZP1 tubes which are rather unusual to me. I'd very intrigued by the prospect.

 

[ianmedium]

Though I have now used my amp on the move and it works fine with little of the tinging I experienced ( with no movement there is zero background noise even with my PF's and Heaven S's) when the tubes were new (thanks MF, your comment on the other thread was spot on!) I don't think I would want to walk around much with this one.

It is though perfect for coffee shops and the like and it has elicited more comments than my previous stack of gear ever did!

These tubes though were specifically designed for mobile operations with army radios and such but then again the headsets were probably not as sensitive and the shelling would have not made a slight tinging an issue in the trenches !

Honestly though, tubes are so the way to go with the FAD's both PF's and Heavens, in fact it sweetens the treble on the S's a bit!

 

[MuppetFace]

Awesome Ian, I'm glad the tube noise issue resolved itself.
 
One thing to keep in mind is that not all tube amps are going to be inherently sweet-sounding. It's sort of a generalization (when people say "tubey" to describe something for instance), as solid-state amps can sound warmer / sweeter than tubes at times, and tubes can sound more solid-state at times. It really depends on the implementation.
 
For instance the Leben CS300XS is extremely warm and liquid, pretty much "tubey." The Zana Deux SE on the other hand is fast, dynamic, and analytical. Both are tube amps. The Schiit Asgard is a solid state amp, but it sounds warmer and more "tubey" than the Schiit tube amps.
 
One thing a good tube amp does that few solid-state amps can do as well in my experience is inner dynamics, that sense of drawing you into the depths of a track. However Cavalli Audio's solid-state amps (the Liquid Lightning and Liquid Gold) can do this. The Apex line too.

 

[SoundFreaq]

Ian, I emailed Di-ma about the TUR. We will see how it goes. 

 

[ianmedium]

Great SF, I am interested to see where that leads!

MF, thank you again, Of course your quite right, tube amps are not all the same. I have a friend with a Shanling set up. The tube CD player is sweet and warm where as the Shanling mono blocks are more like what most would say is a solid state sound.

Your bang on about the inner dynamics!

 

[SoundFreaq]

It's certainly the right size!
 
Incidentally, Ian. Never been a big fan of adding a DAC to the transportable setup - not worth the effort and expense. I always felt amps made a much bigger difference. Would you say it's a tragedy that I am not utilizing CLAS with my PF's? 
 
Help me out here and tell me you could take or leave it 

 

[ianmedium]

So funny you say that right now as I am doing some burn in of the amp so am using my old iTouch using a LOD into the amp to play some tunes on repeat to get some hours on the amp.

I have the PF's plugged in as well so thought I would have a listen. There is quite a considerable difference between listening with the CLAS and not. The CLAS brings a greater degree of detail and texture to the music. Without it the music is not as involving, it feels brighter, more edgy.

I hope this does not sound odd but it is the only way i can describe this. Listening with the CLAS brings an emotional maturity to the sound. It feels the music is more learned if that makes more sense. Likewise PRaT is greatly increased with the CLAS in the picture.

 

[SoundFreaq]

Oh no....
 
I guess now the only question is will it be CLAS or Fostex. I like the ability to use the amp on the Fostex, but with the -db, I can connect to computer... or just save a couple hundred and go -r. Too many options my friend. 

 

[ianmedium]

Ain't that the truth!
Here is a thought, how about finding a used original CLAS. They are bullet proof and the sound is organic and wonderful. Unless mine breaks I feel no need to go for the newer models.

 

[SoundFreaq]

Hmmm good idea.

And also, I certainly do know what you mean by a more mature sound. That is how I feel about my LF that the others lacked. A depth. A saturation.

 

[czqdtc]

The best sound stage on portable set up I've ever heard is the DX100, the sound stage depth, separation and imaging is far better than
My old solo+ continental V2 combo, at least twice as deep and u can feel vocals in front of you.
I also like my uha-6a MKII a lot, it's with great detail and great extension on both ends, however it has much shallower and narrower sound stage than the DX100.
One thing made me sell my DX100 is that the vocal is put too far away and the overall sound signature is a lot like the HD800, not very engaging. So too big of a sound stage might some times be a bad thing lol
But I definitely recommend you guys to try it out.

 

[zilch0md]

                            
                     Eva Cassidy's  Wayfaring Stranger 
 
    Another track that makes me think of the PFs I don't have.