I am not the best person to answer you, in that comparing gear does not much interest me. I use a portable amp more or less everyday, and I have owned only two in the last several years. One was a Ray Samuels, which I used until the battery would not hold a charge. I think it was a P51, the little one. That was about the time the C5 came to market. There was a huge, positive reception--several threads, as I recall. You should be able to find those. It was cheap compared to a replacement from Ray Samuels, and it was said to be quiet and had enough power to drive HD800. Both of these turned out to be true. I use it mostly with Westone 4r. May only complaint is that it is quite large and heavy, but I will probably use it until something goes wrong with it. It seems relatively neutral to me, but, as I said, I do not have a significant sample. I sometimes like that I can drive HD800 with it when I am away the big system in the house.
