[elliottwilliams]

after much research on portable speakers, i've decided all suck. im trying to fit everything for a 3 month trip for work into one military duffle, and the travel speakers made for ipods and the like, all seem terrible, so i started looking into nearfield and super small bookshelf speakers, and i've decided on gallo micro speakers (little balls about 4" in diameter).

so a few questions:
1. how do you put a stereo signal into one speaker? i loved my tivoli pal and never missed stereo separation, so im thinking a super small, still good sounding system would be my laptop to an amp to one gallo micro.

2. suggest super tiny amps that pair well with the gallos. right now im leaning towards a sonic impact gen2 or a chinese aune/hifidiy/muse t amp from ebay.

 

[Armaegis]

1) You'll need a mixer/amp which can switch things to mono.

2) There's both a Travagan's Red and Green in the sale forums right now. The red is purely an amp, the green has a usb dac.

 

[frozenice]

How about something like this:

soundmatters | foxL - The first pocket-sized music system good enough for audio purists

A few of the members here have bought the above unit and seem happy enough with it. I'm assuming that bass is what you would find lacking in what I own which is the JBL Onstage 2 which is good enough for my needs and a small battery powered Sony unit.

 

[elliottwilliams]

yeah, not so much interested in the foxl. im pretty sure i just want the sound from a big driver. 1 reason why tivoli pals sound so good in my opinion is because they have a 2.5" which is pretty big by portable speaker comparisons.

armaegis, do you think the 5watt power would work for gallos?

 

[Bones13]

I don't think they are very efficient. I have a set up in a video system 3.1, and it does require some wattage. 5 might work for nearfield, but I would doubt it will be great. I would look for 15-25 watts if you can find a small enough unit.

 

[Armaegis]

Here's Larry's reviews of the Travagan red/green/white... http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f5/rev...-black-321463/

The green has 10-15W, and the Red I believe has more but I'm not sure what the numbers are. I've never played with the Gallos, so I can't comment there.

Other small amps to look at: Nuforce Icon, Nuforce Amp, Firestone Big Joe

 

[elliottwilliams]

thanks. im leaning towards a nuforce icon, since it could drive my HF2s and small speakers on the go, and it has 12watts as compared to travagans 5 (?). do you think i would notice a difference between an amp and a dac pushing through to the gallos from my mbp? i'm wondering if the dac feature and the lower wattage of the nuforce icon is worth it.

 

[Armaegis]

The nuforce icon has generally gotten very good reviews from what I've read. There's a rather lengthy one at 6moons if you can find it that has it go through the paces with several larger speakers.

 

[jim1274]

The Nuforce Icon is a little short on the power end. When looking for an amp with a sub out to drive my JohnBlue JB3's, did not find many options. Nuforce customer support themselves told me the Icon did not have enough power to drive the relatively inefficient JB3's. I ended-up ordering an Audio Virtue ONE.2, for not that much more bucks than the Icon, but that does not have a USB DAC. I see the Anthony Gallo Micro is 3db more efficient than the JB3's, so you might be OK with the Icon. Maybe the KingRex T20U as an option?

6moons audio reviews: KingRex T20U & Pre-Amp

 

[elliottwilliams]

thanks for the info. my main issue is portability, so the kingrex set is out, unless i just get an amp. im thinking of going nuforce udac plus a speaker amp, which might eleviate some pressure from one device, but i'm really against having all these gadgets cluttering up my desk.

 

[jim1274]

That Kingrex model has the USB DAC and amp in one chassis, I believe. Unless you go with the optional power supply, I think you are looking at one relatively compact chassis to take care of everything.

The T20U includes an integrated DAC for USB input that uses the Burr-Brown OPA2604AP for low pass filter and Texas Instruments' low-noise JFET-input TL072CP as a DC servo . The op-amps are socketed which makes them easy to swap out or replace.

Included is an AC/DC universal auto-switching type adapter that adapts to worldwide voltages (100 to 240v). DC output ranges from 12.17v to to 12.37v.

 

[triodesteve]

Have you looked at the Swans SW3? About the same size as the micro I think. They have 3" drivers and include a class D amp built into the volume control. I've used them at my computer for a few years...very good value...I think only available from Parts Express.

 

[Armaegis]

Maybe also check out the amps from Trends Audio. I believe some of them have usb dacs as well.