[plonter]

Hi all. sorry if there is a similar thread, but I am interested to know if there are any of you that use portable amps for serious home use.
I know that generally most portable should perform much lower than any desktop amps,but I layed my eyes on ray samuels' amps for a long time now,and while I don't want to shell the expence for a full size head amp I will be glad to get one of his portable in order to taste the ray samuel sound.

from his site information,he seem to use the same parts for his full size amps and the portables,which from what he indicated are from the best quality. he also has the pretector which can operate on balance mode and can save a lot of money for a full size balanced amp.
besides the fact that they operate on batteries,they also have an dc connection to electricity.
I still want to know what can make them sound worse than regular desktop amps and of any of you use them despite.

 

[nikongod]

All of my home amps can be comfortably carried several hundred yards by an average adult (or about 100 yards by me). They are quite portable.

On a serious note, if your just getting the portable to try out the "ray sound" why not just do it? If you like it awesome, sell the portable (or keep it for portable use) and get the genuine article. If you dont like the sound just sell it and move on.

 

[plonter]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nikongod /img/forum/go_quote.gif All of my home amps can be comfortably carried several hundred yards by an average adult (or about 100 yards by me). They are quite portable. On a serious note, if your just getting the portable to try out the "ray sound" why not just do it? If you like it awesome, sell the portable (or keep it for portable use) and get the genuine article. If you dont like the sound just sell it and move on.

there is a good change I will grab the hornet or something...but I will still would like to know if there is a significant difference in SQ between his portables and full size amps. I want to know about rays' amps in particular,
also how many head fiers DO use portables for serious listening?

 

[burnspbesq]

I am currently using the Predator as my desktop system (waiting for an Ayre QB-9 with the new 192/24 board and a Raptor, and my Benchmark sold faster than I expected), with Senn HD800s.

And I am falling in love with that little sucker all over again. It is astoundingly good for $475. It may be all you ever need.

 

[GreatDane]

I use my SR-71A for DX1000...and just sold HD650 but that also sounded sweet. Sometimes with iPod or i9 as source, other times a USB DAC. I've never owned any of Ray's desktops.

 

[Spareribs]

I own the Hornet and I have on several occasions tested it against my Marantz 2270 (1971 vintage) reciever and the Marantz easily beat it. The Marantz sounded fuller, thicker and more 3D sounding, The Hornet in comparison sounded thin and brittle.

But that being said, the Marantz is huge with quite a massive power supply and weighs about the same as my bedroom TV. So you really can't compare it to a portable amp. I still use the Hornet though for portable situations because it smoothes out the thin digital sound from iPods a little bit.

 

[Signal2Noise]

I use the Decware for 'serious' home use (whatever that means) and it handles everything quite well for a 9 volt powered unit. I would like to try one of Ray's amps but at the time price and wait times for order completion turned me to other vendors.

 

[plonter]

some of ray's portables also cost as much as some other mid level desktop amps so unless they are overly expensive,it makes sense that they perform better than other cheaper portable amps. I know that money is not always a reference for quality,but sometimes it is.
the headroom total airhead i have is really excellent sound for its size and price,but it seem like ray's portable are better, but I guess o won't know till' i hear one myself.

 

[Mayzei]

I use a iBasso D2+ for my Grado SR80 listening, but have recently aquired some HD600's and a Marantz PM6003. I find portable amps are fine to listen to, if you think they sound good, they are! I will be investing in a home amp, but until then, i'm satisfied with my portable, it's listenable.

Tom.

 

[moogman]

I use a Graham Slee Voyager as my home amp and it works very well with HD600s. I use it with the mains adaptor rather than batteries.

 

[leveller1642]

I use a Pico amp with a 7th gen classic iPod and HD-600s sometimes. Compared to a Burson ha-160 it sounds smaller and to use an analogy does not fill the page. It is as if the music has fairly wide border around it. I still quite like the sound though.

 

[aisnikkor]

I am using an SR-71A with my K702's and Denon 2900 player - very happy with the combo. The SR-71/SR-71A amps use two 9V batteries; not sure if this ups the 'power' of the amp or not, but I am getting very satisfactory listening with my K702's, which are a hard to drive headphone.

Using rechargeable 9V's (Tysonic low discharge type), I get about 10-14 hours of listening time depending on volume levels. Given I am listening for a couple hours at a time max, this works out just fine for my situation.

Having said that, I am looking for a full size amp (but that is the K702's fault - these headphones make you want to see how much more you can get out of them...

)
Tom

 

[majid]

I use my Pico with DAC and a HD800 for gaming on my game consoleWindows PC (nods head in shame). Otherwise, the HD800 is hooked up to the DAC1 connected to my Mac Pro.

 

[nycdoi]

i've been using jh13+rsa protector only, plus whatever source is closer to me. i guess you can say i use portable rigs for home use

 

[AudioHi]

I use headroom micro dac & amp at home. It sounds good with Denon D7000 at low gain. For K701, I have to set it at mid gain..