[firefox360]

Quote:

Originally Posted by daveip /img/forum/go_quote.gif you're not really going to get an amp much smaller than a Mini^3 or the XP amp or something like the XM4. only thing that i can think of that might be possible to make smaller is a MINT/PINT. but you can't get them anymore. the hammond case for the Mini^3 is pretty much the smallest and sleekest case for a portable.

There's always the SMD Cmoy that's around here somewhere...

 

[balou]

but that would also require at least an altoids-tin sized enclosure. Well, maybe a bit smaller. I made a board design for a really tiny (37x19mm including alps pot and 2 jacks) SMD Cmoy -> single sided SMD CMoy PCB

But it has many compromises, one of them being that it really is crammed beyond all good board designing practices. And the other being that it only accepts docile opamps like the opa2132 or ad823.

the mini^3 really has a nicely sized enclosure, about the size of the rsa hornet. but pics are no longer available, I crossposted it and then it got deleted, sorry everyone

(I will try to make up for it). I agree that it's about the smallest case you can get a decent amp in.

 

[drizek]

What about just getting the ibasso T1. It is around $70 shipped, is smaller than any of the amps here and has 35 hour battery life. Then you can stretch your budget a bit and build a SOHA.

 

[MusicallySilent]

I heard that the ibasso t1 isnt the best maybe minibox-d?

I could probably make a m^3 for the same price as a portable instead...

 

[drizek]

My reasoning is that when you use your amp portably, it isnt in the greatest conditions. WHen people review them they do it in a wuiet room hooked up to a high end dac and their best pair of headphones. When you are on the go, you have a relatively crappy headphone/line out, it is noisy, you are constantly distracted, you are not using headphones that are all that great and you cant really pay attention to your music in the first place. With all that in mind, you might as well get the thinnest and lightest amp you can get. I actually havent heard anything one way or the other with regards to the minibox d and the ibasso, but I do know that the ibasso is shinier.

 

[MusicallySilent]

Ill probably forget the portable for now and go for just a soha and a pair of low impedence iems for portable