[Thundernuts]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blackbird Audio /img/forum/go_quote.gif Whenever possible, advantage lies in listening for yourself. I take their writings as an opinion... And whenever I have opportunity to, I'll listen for myself.

Yeh, that's basically what i was trying to say.

That said, the CanAmp is a pretty simple piece of kit, maybe a bit too simple, for $400.

I think the CanAmp would make a great portable amp, if it could be made a fraction of the size (and cost!) by junking that unneccessary power supply transformer and replacing it with a quality 12VDC Sub-C NiMH battery pack.

I use a 4000mA-Hour NiMH battery pack with my PIMETA, which is also class 'A', and currently i'm getting 100 hours out of each charge.

These Sub-C NiMH battery packs are no slouches when it comes to power - they are ULTRA QUIET, are PERFECT voltage sources and they have MASSIVE current draw capabilities (upto 45Amps!).

A good Sub-C NiMH battery pack will almost always outperform any complex AC power source costing twice as much and taking up 5 times as much component space.

Such a portable option for the CanAmp, in a smaller package, I would buy.

 

[oqvist]

I would not buy that amp it would probably melt and have extremely short battery time

. I doubt it will perform as well either. I have no interest in the Compass either I am quite sure it´s quite a downgrade if you are just after an amp. Probably good bang for the buck if you are after a relatively cheap DAC/AMP combo though.

 

[El Cucuy]

The CanAmp is not trying to be a portable device. It was brought to market as-is. It's nothing more and nothing less.

It does not have a DAC in it. - They never said or insinuated it would have one.
It's not a portable. It's based on a "simple design" that happens to work well.

What you are stating in your post has nothing to do with what this particular thread's topic is about. What you seem to be shopping for is nothing like what the CanAmp is ... and you know what? That's fine... really.

The Audio D-G , I'm sure, is a fine product. If you own one, I hope it's giving you all the satisfaction you expected and more.

I can appreciate your viewpoint and suggestion/recommendation of the Audio D-G or the Pimeta.

"That said, the CanAmp is a pretty simple piece of kit, maybe a bit too simple, for $400."

Many manufacturers adhere to a simple circuit so as not to clutter the signal path any more than necessary. In that, the less is more design still works. Please don't fault them for that. Just find a product that lines up with what you feel meets your perceived value standards and run with it.

 

[Thundernuts]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blackbird Audio /img/forum/go_quote.gif Many manufacturers adhere to a simple circuit so as not to clutter the signal path any more than necessary. In that, the less is more design still works. Please don't fault them for that. Just find a product that lines up with what you feel meets your perceived value standards and run with it.

That's exactly the point i'm trying to make. I see the benefits of a 'less is more' design and I am trying to take that idea to it's logical conclusion.

Less would INDEED be more if an AC power supply could be avoided completely.

However, less is NOT more when it comes to designing AC-DC power supply conversion units. Trying to compete with a pure DC voltage source like a NiMH battery pack is impossible without a highly sophisticated AC-DC power supply, which is not possible in mid-fi designs due to cost and complexity. But with NiMH DC, it is.

Not only would a pure DC voltage source be cheaper, more compact and lighter, it would be much simpler and yield better results.

Not only cheaper, simpler and better, but with the weight and space savings, it would be portable, which is one of the main benefits of Headphones!

A design that is more complicated than it needs to be, and can only be used within 10 feet of a wall socket seems to defeat the purpose of headphones when the same, if not better results can be achieved with an even simpler, lighter, cheaper and more compact design.

I'm simply opening up a discussion to what is possible when we start to think outside the square.

If all that is wanted is a mid-fi unit that can do one or two things sorta OK, limited for the sake of worship to an AC wall socket, then i can sorta understand. However, i simply don't think is this is a compromise which is neccessary. Especially when the market is crowded by an entire generation of laptop and portable source users who are looking for a half decent amp that can be moved more than 10 feet from their listening room.

I am not putting down Heed or CanAmp, i am simply pointing out an entire market of opportunity that a nice Amp is missing out on.

Because of it's simplicity and potential compactness of design, it would be easy for CanAmp to capitalise on this market potential, without their units costing any more, but sounding better and providing even better value for less cost.

This is a dilema that many smaller boutique manufacturers face, trying to be different, but not too different for fear of scaring off main-stream buyers.

Sometimes this fear leads to compromise, which i don't think is necessary in this case, and is, if anything, a great opportunity. An opportunity to improve on a good design by incorporating an even more robust 'a lot less is MUCH, MUCH more' philosophy.

 

[Thundernuts]

As a thought to previous post, my suggestions are not entirely without precedence.

Take the Creek OBH 21 SE, a direct competitor to the CanAmp. The Creek 21 uses an external power supply, which can be upgraded, just as with the previous Creek OBH-11. Creek gives customers the option of how much they want to spend getting the power supply right.

This allows customers the flexibility of choice as to which power supply they prefer, or whether an AC power supply is wanted at all.

The CanAmp does not currently give customers this option.


Quote:

Originally Posted by oqvist /img/forum/go_quote.gif I would not buy that amp it would probably melt and have extremely short battery time . I doubt it will perform as well either. I have no interest in the Compass either I am quite sure it´s quite a downgrade if you are just after an amp. Probably good bang for the buck if you are after a relatively cheap DAC/AMP combo though.

I don't know whether this is a serious post, or whether you are confusing Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) with Lithium Polymer (LiPo) batteries found in laptops. They are not the same. Lithium Polymer has a much higher internal resistance (output impedance) than Nickel Metal Hydride, this is why Lithium Polymer batteries get hot and NiMH batteries do not. More on that later.

There is more chance of a complicated 110/220 Volt AC power supply melting, shorting or bursting into flames than a simple, quality 12VDC NiMH battery.

There is A LOT more that can go wrong with a complicated AC-DC power supply than a NiMH battery. AC-DC power supplies get hot and melt because they're wasting so much power in the conversion process. NiMH batteries don't waste power like this.

The relative power demands of electronic Audio equipment is also so small (compared to the power demands NiMH battery pack are required to deliver for 700 watt heavy duty power tools, air-rifles, Tazers, RC Cars, boats, planes etc) that NiMH battery packs won't even go much above room temperature, even under the most extreme audio conditions.

As to battery life, a 5000mAh NiMH battery will easily run a CanAmp at full power several hours a day, for several weeks, without charging. (and even then, charging only takes 120 minutes!)

The massive current output capabilities of NiMH batteries is complemented by an almost infinitely low internal resistance. NiMH can therefore deliver high current without any ripple voltage in the outputs. Extremely low output impedance (internal resistance) is another reason NiMH batteries are so quiet and can so effortlessly deliver sound with such immediacy, transparency and dynamics.

High capacity NiMH batteries have an output impedance approaching 0.001 ohms, where most AC-DC power supplies would have output impedances struggling to achieve an output impedance at least 10-100 times higher than this.

NiMH can deliver huge amounts of current effortlessly, which means incredible dynamics and liquidity to any output signal. Most mid-fi AC-DC power supplies cannot claim to approach this level of fidelity in DC power delivery.

I could now go on to discuss the many and complicated wave-form filters that AC-DC power supplies need to prevent and filter out AC ripple from it's outputs, if the sound is to be unaffected. It is simply more useful to say that the problems with constructing decent mid-fi AC-DC power supplies are many in number, confounding in resolution and ultimately a blessing if they can be bypassed completely.

 

[mrarroyo]

Thundernuts you could buy a CanAmp and another one of those batteries, then using a new enclosure you could modify the CanAmp to use your battery and off you go.

Frankly I am a bit perplexed at the turn this thread has taken. We found a great sounding amp for the K701 which was relative inexpensive and owners/users started posting their opinions and comparisons w/ other units. As stated earlier unless you have heard a CanAmp side by side w/ another amp (hopefully in the same price range) you can not have an opinion, only an speculation.

 

[Thundernuts]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrarroyo /img/forum/go_quote.gif Thundernuts you could buy a CanAmp and another one of those batteries, then using a new enclosure you could modify the CanAmp to use your battery and off you go. Frankly I am a bit perplexed at the turn this thread has taken. We found a great sounding amp for the K701 which was relative inexpensive and owners/users started posting their opinions and comparisons w/ other units. As stated earlier unless you have heard a CanAmp side by side w/ another amp (hopefully in the same price range) you can not have an opinion, only an speculation.

Why anyone would butcher a very simple yet pricey $400 piece of kit when it could be DIY'd for a less than $50 is beyond me. My suggestions are ways this design could be improved so more customers can benefit and maybe, so the manufacturer can be more competitive in a crowded market place.

Why someone cannnot have an opinion about the versatility, features, uses, value and topology of a competing design is beyond me.

If this forum was only to be resevered for people lucky enough own or by some miracle had found one to listen to in their area, then i would understand. But, as Blackbird Audio has already stated, this is not the case.

I apologise if i don't have a gushing review to share. All i offer are simple observations based on years of researching and searching for effective, versatile and good value equipment.

 

[mrarroyo]

Well I was giving you an option to do as you seem to want to do.

 

[Thundernuts]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrarroyo /img/forum/go_quote.gif Well I was giving you an option to do as you seem to want to do.

don't worry- i've considered that option already- i just can't justify paying for a power supply that is just not needed. Considering the AC power supply would account for about two thirds the price of manufacturing, it would make more sense just to buy a second hand Creek OBH 11 or 21SE.

 

[SemiAudiophile]

thundernuts, maybe you should start another thread for that topic.

 

[oqvist]

For me it´s the performance that matters and this performs way better than the EF1 for example with my K701s and Ultrasones... It´s not even in the same league so even if I pay for research rather then for a combined DAC/AMP unit and such I don´t really care. Seeing how well regarded the EF1 is as an amp and this being better in so many ways and not being that much more expensive. Better dynamics, better speeds, more punch, clearer mid range (though the EF1 is quite funky in that area, much better soundstaging) I don´t understand why anyone would bash it unheard anyway. If you heard it and think it sounds aweful is another story of course. I have had mine for two years now never missed a beat or sounded bad on any headphone I tried.

And I do believe less is more. The cleanest looking DACs, amps have sounded the best for me so far.

 

[SemiAudiophile]

[size=small]FYI[/size]

i've decided to sell my Heed Canamp. If anyone reading is interested in buying it send me a PM.

here's the link in case you guys didn't catch it in my sig:

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f42/fs...e-drop-419333/

 

[Mingo]

I have just bought a CanAmp and am very pleased with it and my AKG K701.
However, when I turn it on and off there is some crackling noise in the headphones. Is that supposed to be all right?

 

[El Cucuy]

There can be. Slight crackle or thud on start up. I tend to leave mine on all the time. Not everyone is up for that though.
On second thought, I'd probably call the dealer that you bought it through, if it was me, so be it. That, of course should be the first step to take.

Dan

 

[lgn]

My k702 arrived in the mail this morning, all this CanAmp talk wants me to get one too..