Really ? The E9 sitting on my bedside table is uglier than the wallwart that powers it, and thats quite an accomplishment ! Trust me, you will be happy to hide it behind your monitor and just enjoy the sonic sledgehammer that Fiio have somehow squeezed into such a tiny box.
To see what I could do cheaply I built a dual mono LM3886 power amp circuit with low gain and built it into my DIY pre-amp chassis. I only used parts I had lying around. It works fine and can drive my HD600s as loud as you can cope with. Well it would with something like 10+ watts available and the 'phones needing a mere fraction of that to max out. It sounds good too, if not quite as refined as the better dedicated headphone amps.
Another good choice for your AKGs is the Fiio E9, I got mine today eariler today and it does a good job doing it too.It uses machine op-amp sockets so in the future you can change out the op-amps as long you have the special Screw driver for the screws that it uses.
For HD650, Try the tripath headphone amps, price rangging for 35-60dolars at ebay, if you know a little electronics you can upgrade some critical passive components latter.
TA2024 gives sweet sound that I think everyone will like it, for the price.
I also think it would be hard to go wrong with the e9. I have 2 other amps at 8x and 20x this price but still have to the e9. Also the e11 which I think may have the same power is portable and should be available within a matter of days and its even cheaper. (I think some poeple have them already but I haven't seen them for sale yet.)
Also the E9 has machine op-amp sockets so you can always put in your favorite op-amps or even OPA-Earth etc op-amps, if you can even fit those in there some how. Only one OPA2134 is used when the headphone outs are used, when the RCA out or pre-amp out is used Two Op-2134s are used.
I also think it would be hard to go wrong with the e9. I have 2 other amps at 8x and 20x this price but still have to the e9. Also the e11 which I think may have the same power is portable and should be available within a matter of days and its even cheaper. (I think some poeple have them already but I haven't seen them for sale yet.)
The E11 has the same power as the E9 ? Surely you jest, sir !
I am tempted to buy this E11 simply to crush it with my uHA-4, but then I made similar pronouncements about the E9 being no match for other entry-level amps. I guess some of us live to regret things typed in haste.
Yea, I should have known that was wrong - it didn't sound right. The Fiio guy did say that but he also said the e11 had the same power as the e17 so he probably typo-ed the model number. It still has a good amount of power.
Yea, I should have known that was wrong - it didn't sound right. The Fiio guy did say that but he also said the e11 had the same power as the e17 so he probably typo-ed the model number. It still has a good amount of power.
Fair enough, but you have to be mindful of the fact that there are folk on other boards who skim read these threads then post a single 'outcome' as fact. Its no accident that moldy oldies like 'Grados dont benefit from amping' are repeated ad nauseam all over the place.
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