[LuckyKarma]

First of all, I'm a complete noob at headphones. I'd like to learn a little more about electronics and was planning on building a CMoy pocket amp. How much of a difference do these make? I've got some Sennheiser HD497s on the way (my first good quality headphones) and read a few reviews on epinions.com that said you really need an amp to get the best quality sound. I was planning on using the CMoy when listening to music from my computer. How big of a difference do these amps make? I'm sure it is better than running it straight through the sound card, but is it worth the $25 or so in parts to build one? Thanks

 

[Oink1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LuckyKarma is it worth the $25 or so in parts to build one? Thanks

Hell yes! - even a humble Cmoy will reward you with an increase in sound quality... Don't delay - Build today!

 

[jerb]

they help some (better than nothing) but the fun is in making it (more so than listening to it

)

 

[Clutz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LuckyKarma First of all, I'm a complete noob at headphones. I'd like to learn a little more about electronics and was planning on building a CMoy pocket amp. How much of a difference do these make? I've got some Sennheiser HD497s on the way (my first good quality headphones) and read a few reviews on epinions.com that said you really need an amp to get the best quality sound. I was planning on using the CMoy when listening to music from my computer. How big of a difference do these amps make? I'm sure it is better than running it straight through the sound card, but is it worth the $25 or so in parts to build one? Thanks

Yes- I was sort of skeptical about how much difference having a headphone amp would make out of my G4 PowerMac- but it has made a pretty noticable improvement.

 

[CedMan]

Oh yes, there are big differences.

Enough that I built 2 extra CMOY afterward to play around with my skills, a Mint afterward, 1 Pimeta just finished 2 days ago and 1 more Pimeta coming soon to be maxed out ... all in about a month ... lol

Go for it, you can't go wrong with a CMOY really.

 

[JWFokker]

What's the battery life on a Cmoy on average?

 

[tangent]

Quote:

What's the battery life on a Cmoy on average?

It depends on many variables:

- Which op-amp you use
- How much voltage you give the amp
- How badly shifted the virtual ground is
- Which headphones you use
- How loud you drive those headphones

 

[robbneu]

I think that the C-Moy is kind of seen as the "gateway drug" in this hobby and a lot of the posts hint at the fact that you'll only use it for a while, until you upgrade to something bigger and better. There are certainly better amps out there and many of them are quite affordable, but I built my first C-Moy more than a year ago and it still gets a lot of use with my modest, mobile setup, especially when the wife and baby are sleeping and I want to listen to music. It's a solid little amp and I've really enjoyed mine.

Frankly, I don't think the difference is very overt, but it's more refined and smooth. Since the "amp" in your source is likely fairly poor quality, pushing it with a louder volume is going to introduce a bit of distortion... which can be pretty fatiguing.

For what it's worth, I think it's worth it.

Robb

 

[Wyloch]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JWFokker What's the battery life on a Cmoy on average?

About two days continuous play. Long.