Have anybody experienced any of three mentioned?
1) From Cypherus Audio. Info from official site:
CAX SS Portable Amplifier (the cost is between 120 and 200$, if I'm not mistaken - just do not remember exact number)
A True Organic Linear Dual Mono Discrete Solid State
Description:
2) The twin brothers from ABnormal Sound: Rhesus (189$) & Zenith (169$)
1) From Cypherus Audio. Info from official site:
CAX SS Portable Amplifier (the cost is between 120 and 200$, if I'm not mistaken - just do not remember exact number)
A True Organic Linear Dual Mono Discrete Solid State
CAX - Portable SS Amplifier
Cypherus Audio amp is a fruit of my long research of portable headphone amplifier. It adopts an "old school" design with Discrete components configuration. It uses double-layered PCB with silver-coated soldering pads. It is designed using "Hand-Picked" matched sets of Triodes in Class A bias. No Op amps are used. Old School means Analog and Musical sounding.
Background is silently black which makes it suitable for sensitive IEMs. As it uses a direct amplification design, it also powerful enough to drive large and hard-to-drive Headphones.
It has single-ended input and output. It uses Lithium-Ion 3.7V battery. Charging is by 5v micro USB, very convenient. Charging is through a built-in separate PCB circuit to ensure no interference to the amp section.
Proper discrete components selection are a long and tedious manual process. Most components are precisely matched to get good sounding. It is hand-picked and required a lot of time for the testing and matching. Better quality components are also a must. Design is harder in portable circuit as it requires more space than Op amp-based designs. Each amp is hand- and ear-tuned.
The end products, however, are well-worth the effort. They have high resolution sound quality, clean but powerful sound with minimal interference.
Specs:
Size: 110mm x 64mm x 23mm
Weight: 143 grams
Output: 32 to 600 ohms
Less than 3 ohms output impedance
Built in rechargeable Lithium Ion battery
Playing time > 8 hours
Charging time 2 hours (using 1A Charger)
Made in Indonesia 100%
Cypherus Audio amp is a fruit of my long research of portable headphone amplifier. It adopts an "old school" design with Discrete components configuration. It uses double-layered PCB with silver-coated soldering pads. It is designed using "Hand-Picked" matched sets of Triodes in Class A bias. No Op amps are used. Old School means Analog and Musical sounding.
Background is silently black which makes it suitable for sensitive IEMs. As it uses a direct amplification design, it also powerful enough to drive large and hard-to-drive Headphones.
It has single-ended input and output. It uses Lithium-Ion 3.7V battery. Charging is by 5v micro USB, very convenient. Charging is through a built-in separate PCB circuit to ensure no interference to the amp section.
Proper discrete components selection are a long and tedious manual process. Most components are precisely matched to get good sounding. It is hand-picked and required a lot of time for the testing and matching. Better quality components are also a must. Design is harder in portable circuit as it requires more space than Op amp-based designs. Each amp is hand- and ear-tuned.
The end products, however, are well-worth the effort. They have high resolution sound quality, clean but powerful sound with minimal interference.
Specs:
Size: 110mm x 64mm x 23mm
Weight: 143 grams
Output: 32 to 600 ohms
Less than 3 ohms output impedance
Built in rechargeable Lithium Ion battery
Playing time > 8 hours
Charging time 2 hours (using 1A Charger)
Made in Indonesia 100%
2) The twin brothers from ABnormal Sound: Rhesus (189$) & Zenith (169$)
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Material specifications :
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* Rhesus - Full Discrete Amp
- Dual layer FR4-TG140 / 1.6mm / 1 oz Cu / Through hole PCB board
- Vishay 0204 Resistor
- Siemens Tantalum SMD capacitors
- Nichicon Muse BP & Fine gold coupling capacitor
- Toshiba transistors
- Alps potensio
- Foxconn 3.5mm connector
- Selectable Gain switch - 3 mode
- Micro USB charging port
- 900mAh Li-ion battery (6 Hours Non-Stop play time)
- Aluminium box
* Zenith - Hybrid amp
- Dual layer FR4-TG140 / 1.6mm / 1 oz Cu / Through hole PCB board
- Vishay 0204 Resistor
- Siemens Tantalum SMD capacitors
- Nichicon Muse BP & Fine gold coupling capacitor
- Toshiba transistors
- Alps potensio
- Foxconn 3.5mm connector
- lm412ACN (Default Opamp, rollable)
- Selectable Gain switch - 3 mode
- Micro USB charging port
- 900mAh Li-ion battery (6 Hours Non-Stop play time)
- Aluminium box
Dimensions :
8 x 5 cm without potensio knob
or
10 x 5 cm with knob
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Technical specifications :
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Ouput power :
@600 ohm = 29mW
@300 ohm = 56mW
@150 ohm = 104mW
@64 ohm = 211mW
@32 ohm = 346mW
@16 ohm = 500mW
- Max Output level = 5.3Vrms (for best performance)
- full power bandwidth limit @ Vout - 7vpp and Rload - 500ohm = 12.2 MHz (rhesus) or depends on opamp installed (zenith)
- power consumption : +-150mA
3 gain selectable :
1st gain for input level more than 2vrms (max 2.5Vrms)
2nd gain for input level 1.5vrms
3rd gain for input level less than 1vrms
Material specifications :
---------------------------------------------------------------------
* Rhesus - Full Discrete Amp
- Dual layer FR4-TG140 / 1.6mm / 1 oz Cu / Through hole PCB board
- Vishay 0204 Resistor
- Siemens Tantalum SMD capacitors
- Nichicon Muse BP & Fine gold coupling capacitor
- Toshiba transistors
- Alps potensio
- Foxconn 3.5mm connector
- Selectable Gain switch - 3 mode
- Micro USB charging port
- 900mAh Li-ion battery (6 Hours Non-Stop play time)
- Aluminium box
* Zenith - Hybrid amp
- Dual layer FR4-TG140 / 1.6mm / 1 oz Cu / Through hole PCB board
- Vishay 0204 Resistor
- Siemens Tantalum SMD capacitors
- Nichicon Muse BP & Fine gold coupling capacitor
- Toshiba transistors
- Alps potensio
- Foxconn 3.5mm connector
- lm412ACN (Default Opamp, rollable)
- Selectable Gain switch - 3 mode
- Micro USB charging port
- 900mAh Li-ion battery (6 Hours Non-Stop play time)
- Aluminium box
Dimensions :
8 x 5 cm without potensio knob
or
10 x 5 cm with knob
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Technical specifications :
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Ouput power :
@600 ohm = 29mW
@300 ohm = 56mW
@150 ohm = 104mW
@64 ohm = 211mW
@32 ohm = 346mW
@16 ohm = 500mW
- Max Output level = 5.3Vrms (for best performance)
- full power bandwidth limit @ Vout - 7vpp and Rload - 500ohm = 12.2 MHz (rhesus) or depends on opamp installed (zenith)
- power consumption : +-150mA
3 gain selectable :
1st gain for input level more than 2vrms (max 2.5Vrms)
2nd gain for input level 1.5vrms
3rd gain for input level less than 1vrms
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