[AVU]

Q for SoupRKnowva, Jamato8, and others-
 
proud owner of JH13.  Tossed my other phones, so that's all I need to worry about now.  I had a hi-flight upgraded D4 and bought a Audio-Gd Sparrow to compare it to.  After lots and lots and lots of testing, I decided that they were very similar, yet the D4 had a tiny bit more harsh detail, and a bit of a upper bass lift that began to grate on me, while the Sparrow seemed to have an effortless power which resulted in beautiful soft yet detailed highs, and incredibly deep and authoritative lows.  
 
I kept the latter, but since they recently upgraded the DAC, I'm thinking of buying the new model in full grade A mode.  But now I'm also thinking of going balanced and getting either the Matrix mini-i, the Protector, or the new Toucan.  (obviously with the last two, I'd need a new dac as well, but leave that out of the equation.)  I don't have much to spend, and recabling will already be $100+, the mini is $300, Toucan $240 - I've already heard reviews of the Toucan over the Protector, and I've been very impressed by both Ibasso and AudioGD, so there's little chance of paying more for the RSA.  I want to keep everything around $400-500.  Because once I get too far over that, we're into the territory of selling my JH13s and buying JH-3As and possibly just blowing everybody's $4000+ amp/dac systems away.

 
What do you think?  Can you give me some advice based both from what you've heard, and what you can make of an educated guess?
 

 

[The Larch]

I have the arrow 12HE. It is wonderful with my jh13 and jh16. I also think the lowly fiio E5 sounds pretty good with the 16s especially.

 

[matthewh133]

Bumping. What's the thoughts on the best portable amp for the newer freqphaze JH13s these days? I want balanced only.

 

[nb2rock]

Expecting a pair of JH13pro's with freqphase hopefully by next month! 

 
I know there are a lot of new portable amps out right now and am having a hard time deciding which to get. Main music influences are Radiohead, Pink Floyd, Arcade Fire, Death Cab For Cutie, Clapton, John Mayer, Metric, etc.
 
Any recommendations on something portable to be paired with an iPhone 5 and under $300-400 USD???

 

[Tedman]

  Bumping. What's the thoughts on the best portable amp for the newer freqphaze JH13s these days? I want balanced only.

 
 

  Expecting a pair of JH13pro's with freqphase hopefully by next month! 

 
I know there are a lot of new portable amps out right now and am having a hard time deciding which to get. Main music influences are Radiohead, Pink Floyd, Arcade Fire, Death Cab For Cutie, Clapton, John Mayer, Metric, etc.
 
Any recommendations on something portable to be paired with an iPhone 5 and under $300-400 USD???I'

 
 
I'm expecting a pair shortly too.  What did you guys end up doing on the amplification?  Anyone know if the Protector with balanced twag has been significantly dethroned as a portable?

 

[gearofwar]

bumping...currently interested, would anyone help with getting an amp other than pico slim lower than 400?.

 

[fkrieger]

I use the Sony PHA-2, but not sure how much this would be in the US (picked it up in Japan). It's been a nice amp so far- paired with iphone 4S and the Onkyo HF player app. I can load DSD files into the app and play them via the Apple CCK into the PHA-2. 
 
Sound:
I think ultimately it depends on the type of music played and preference of the listener as to how well the amp is received. For the PHA-2 (IMHO) older music (Beatles, etc. remastered) produces a sound stage that is almost too much. Instruments are clearly on the left side and the vocals are clearly on the right... making me want the album in mono rather than stereo simply to be able to adjust my focus on the music rather than constantly separating it in my mind (does that make sense?). However, this same soundstage from the PHA-2 is great for classical music, jazz, large band formats, etc.

 

[gearofwar]

  I use the Sony PHA-2, but not sure how much this would be in the US (picked it up in Japan). It's been a nice amp so far- paired with iphone 4S and the Onkyo HF player app. I can load DSD files into the app and play them via the Apple CCK into the PHA-2. 
 
Sound:
I think ultimately it depends on the type of music played and preference of the listener as to how well the amp is received. For the PHA-2 (IMHO) older music (Beatles, etc. remastered) produces a sound stage that is almost too much. Instruments are clearly on the left side and the vocals are clearly on the right... making me want the album in mono rather than stereo simply to be able to adjust my focus on the music rather than constantly separating it in my mind (does that make sense?). However, this same soundstage from the PHA-2 is great for classical music, jazz, large band formats, etc.
 

PHA-2 is 650$ according to winter guide and that is currently above my intentional budget for iem amp. I'm looking at fiio e12 now maybe for the start but not sure

 

[Tedman]

I think I understand why this thread hasn't very much action.  The JH13pros sound so darn good out of a low impedance source like an Iphone or the Galaxy note 3 etc. that it seems far less necessary than with the full size cans.

 

[gearofwar]

the reason i'm interested because my last klipsch x11i didn't sound good enough with my iphone but when i amped it with BSG cmoy with lower gain setting. Somehow the amp transformed its sound the next level. The sound stage, the high, the instrument separation were leveled up, i could hear more micro details in record that i couldn't hear before.

 

[Garry]

Single ended, however I'm using JH 13 freq phase with RSA 71A. It's simply wonderful.
I'd love to hear something that's better, I'm sure it's out there.