[facethemusic88]

Gentlemen,

So much has changed in recent years as far as balanced amps go. Does the Protector stand a chance in today's market? Would you guys get one to use with your iem? if you do, why? Please drop me your thoughts. Thank you.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

So much has changed in recent years as far as balanced amps go. Does the Protector stand a chance in today's market? Would you guys get one to use with your iem? if you do, why? Please drop me your thoughts. Thank you.

Today's market has a lot of DAPs with a lot of power even in SE mode, and then there's the LG Vx0 phones plus the increased sensitivity and not too low impedance of some IEMs, so most people just use a DAP or a smartphone (the Vx0 series for anything that can use way more than 15mW).

 

[castleofargh]

my memories of it are:
- no usb charging, if you go anywhere you have to carry the transformer thingy with you.
- the non standard plug creates a non trivial cost to make your IEMs/headphones compatible. you could use the single ended plug, but then why purchase a balanced amp? I'm not pro balanced amp(certainly not for portable gears), but if we're getting one, let's use it for what it was made. that's my opinion. ^_^
- with sensitive IEMs, EMI/RFI can end up really loud. with my JH13 I could tell that somebody was using his cellphone from the other side of the wall. great for a spy job, not great for music listening.
- if it's old, the battery is probably far from nominal conditions.


+ it did give a special sound to most of my gears, and I did enjoy the result a lot. no idea if it was mainly an impedance issue, or some tuning of sort, at the time I had no idea how to test those stuff or even identify them. so all I have are memories of subjective impressions.

 

[facethemusic88]

Today's market has a lot of DAPs with a lot of power even in SE mode, and then there's the LG Vx0 phones plus the increased sensitivity and not too low impedance of some IEMs, so most people just use a DAP or a smartphone (the Vx0 series for anything that can use way more than 15mW).

thank you.I was with the idea of going with my DAP(Opus #1) w/o any amp. Tried the Alo Rx Amp and found the sound to be richer as in fuller, deeper bass with clearer treble. The 'improved' sound was not astoundingly significant though but it felt somewhat 'cleaner'. I might have to give it a listen or two to make a conclusive remark. What caught my attention was the simplicity of the Protector. Nothing fancy. Was wondering if sonically I will be experiencing an improvement given that this was made back then.and was the first balanced portable amp.

 

[facethemusic88]

my memories of it are:
- no usb charging, if you go anywhere you have to carry the transformer thingy with you.
- the non standard plug creates a non trivial cost to make your IEMs/headphones compatible. you could use the single ended plug, but then why purchase a balanced amp? I'm not pro balanced amp(certainly not for portable gears), but if we're getting one, let's use it for what it was made. that's my opinion. ^_^
- with sensitive IEMs, EMI/RFI can end up really loud. with my JH13 I could tell that somebody was using his cellphone from the other side of the wall. great for a spy job, not great for music listening.
- if it's old, the battery is probably far from nominal conditions.


+ it did give a special sound to most of my gears, and I did enjoy the result a lot. no idea if it was mainly an impedance issue, or some tuning of sort, at the time I had no idea how to test those stuff or even identify them. so all I have are memories of subjective impressions.

Thanks for the +/- opinion. I get where you are coming from with the negative issues. Charging and the re-termination of the cables are something I thought about and was not too bothered as I could get the cables reworked at little cost and I am usually back home to charge my gears. Rarely travel with these away on trips etc.

Was it loud with distortion/harshness or the loudness was more of an amplification of the 'improved' sound?

The battery issue has been a concern all along. I asked Ray whether I can actually replace the batteries myself or would there be a need to send them over to him to get it done. He did mention that he will honour all warranties and repairs as long as he is alive.

More importantly, with the above in mind, my decision is hinged on whether this amp will enhance what I am hearing now when paired with this DAP(Opus #1). I just feel that with a little more juice with an added amp, this pairing with a 5-BA DM6 can be set I can enjoy for a fair bit of time.

Thank you very much for your thoughts.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

thank you.I was with the idea of going with my DAP(Opus #1) w/o any amp. Tried the Alo Rx Amp and found the sound to be richer as in fuller, deeper bass with clearer treble. The 'improved' sound was not astoundingly significant though but it felt somewhat 'cleaner'. I might have to give it a listen or two to make a conclusive remark. What caught my attention was the simplicity of the Protector. Nothing fancy. Was wondering if sonically I will be experiencing an improvement given that this was made back then.and was the first balanced portable amp.

Amps tend to always improve everything even on IEMs over smartphones since even 15mW with 0.05% THD out of a smartphone with relatively higher output impedance is still audibly worse than getting a higher current amp that can deliver 150mW with 0.001% THD and lower noise.

The thing is though it's a lot less a matter of necessity given that "audibly worse" up there isn't absolute: ambient noise, attention span dedication (ie there's a difference between being able to focus sitting in a room vs walking around), etc can affect how audible that is, and then on top of "not sitting still somewhere," portability comes into play.

With a dedicated DAP, presumably a good one (ie we're not talking about a 5mW iPod), that gap between player and dedicated portable amp narrows even more considering the performance of most DAPs isn't even smack in the middle between smartphone and portable amp or DAC-HPamp, but is closer to the latter, barring really powerful, low noise, low distortion, and bigger portable amps.

 

[castleofargh]

Thanks for the +/- opinion. I get where you are coming from with the negative issues. Charging and the re-termination of the cables are something I thought about and was not too bothered as I could get the cables reworked at little cost and I am usually back home to charge my gears. Rarely travel with these away on trips etc.

Was it loud with distortion/harshness or the loudness was more of an amplification of the 'improved' sound?

The battery issue has been a concern all along. I asked Ray whether I can actually replace the batteries myself or would there be a need to send them over to him to get it done. He did mention that he will honour all warranties and repairs as long as he is alive.

More importantly, with the above in mind, my decision is hinged on whether this amp will enhance what I am hearing now when paired with this DAP(Opus #1). I just feel that with a little more juice with an added amp, this pairing with a 5-BA DM6 can be set I can enjoy for a fair bit of time.

Thank you very much for your thoughts.

sorry but I'm not big on making objective claims about sound based only on old anecdotal subjective impressions. I really have no idea if it was improved fidelity or a colored sound I happened to enjoy on the IEMs I used at the time. and so, no idea how you would feel about it.
personally my use of this amp was ruined by the noises from nearby cellphones(including mine). most portable amplifiers are, to different degrees, picking up those signals and somehow making them audible. but the Protector was really making loud noises into my rather sensitive IEMs.

 

[facethemusic88]

castleofargh,

sorry but I'm not big on making objective claims about sound based only on old anecdotal subjective impressions. I really have no idea if it was improved fidelity or a colored sound I happened to enjoy on the IEMs I used at the time. and so, no idea how you would feel about it.
personally my use of this amp was ruined by the noises from nearby cellphones(including mine). most portable amplifiers are, to different degrees, picking up those signals and somehow making them audible. but the Protector was really making loud noises into my rather sensitive IEMs.

Thank you. Well, the EMI/RFI issue has got me thinking. This was not something I gave much attention to when searching for an amp. Would it be correct to say that the amps currently being produced come 'shielded'(for the lack of the right term)?

 

[castleofargh]

I've encountered various degrees of "sensitivity" from portable gears, but I don't really know what causes the problem or how it's solved. some actual electrical engineers who have tackled this specific issue, or at least people who got to try a vast number of portable amps would certainly have more to tell you. I sadly don't belong to either groups, I'm only a guy who complains a lot about noises ^_^.

 

[Rhamnetin]

No, RSA amps are proven to be abysmal.

https://www.head-case.org/forums/topic/2078-rsa-predator/

 

[facethemusic88]

No, RSA amps are proven to be abysmal.

https://www.head-case.org/forums/topic/2078-rsa-predator/

Wow. Ok. I am reading the posts as I write this. Thank you.