TopPop
Headphoneus Supremus
**I apologize for the double post with the Portable Forum, but this question has to do with both portable and full-size amps.**
Don't ask me why I'm already thinking about this, because I don't know the answer, but I'm going to be teaching abroad in France in a year and a half (2010-2011 school year), and it's just not economical, nor easy, for me to keep things that I own in storage while I'm gone, so I'm going to sell most of everything that I have and rebuy stuff when I return. This means that the home system will have to go at that time, and I'll need something portable to bring with me to power my HD-600s (which I'll be keeping!! )
This means that I'll be selling the following items:
For sure:
-Keces DA-151
-Little Dot MKII
-JVC HA-RX900
Possibly:
-Leckerton UHA-3
-Alessandro MS-1 (would rebuy when I return!)
Selling the "for sure" items would yield me about $450, I'm guessing, and selling the whole of it would get me about $575, more or less.
So here lies my question. I could certainly wait to sell off everything until next year, and get the portable system then, but I'm wondering if something like an RSA Predator or Headroom micro system would sound better than what I have now. If this is the case, there's really no point in me waiting around to get it, and I could have better sound now. But since the Little Dot really does drive the Sennheisers so well (honestly, I have it on the lowest gain setting, and never use more than 20% of the volume control), I'm not sure if going portable would sound better at this point.
Thoughts? Opinions?
I would need a USB DAC and amplifier, which is why the Predator looks so good. But are there other options for this budget? I don't mind going used at all. I'm also interested in the Pico, since its DAC is supposed to be superb. But the RSA amps are voiced to HD-600... hmmm...
Source would be my laptop and external HDD, all uncompressed WAV files. I listen mostly to folk, acoustic rock, blues, general rock, etc.
P.S. If you couldn't tell, sound quality is my absolute top priority. I like the idea of portable, because it means less to pack, and I can get a second, separate 220v power supply to bring with me, but it's got to sound as good (or preferably, better) than what I have now.
Don't ask me why I'm already thinking about this, because I don't know the answer, but I'm going to be teaching abroad in France in a year and a half (2010-2011 school year), and it's just not economical, nor easy, for me to keep things that I own in storage while I'm gone, so I'm going to sell most of everything that I have and rebuy stuff when I return. This means that the home system will have to go at that time, and I'll need something portable to bring with me to power my HD-600s (which I'll be keeping!! )
This means that I'll be selling the following items:
For sure:
-Keces DA-151
-Little Dot MKII
-JVC HA-RX900
Possibly:
-Leckerton UHA-3
-Alessandro MS-1 (would rebuy when I return!)
Selling the "for sure" items would yield me about $450, I'm guessing, and selling the whole of it would get me about $575, more or less.
So here lies my question. I could certainly wait to sell off everything until next year, and get the portable system then, but I'm wondering if something like an RSA Predator or Headroom micro system would sound better than what I have now. If this is the case, there's really no point in me waiting around to get it, and I could have better sound now. But since the Little Dot really does drive the Sennheisers so well (honestly, I have it on the lowest gain setting, and never use more than 20% of the volume control), I'm not sure if going portable would sound better at this point.
Thoughts? Opinions?
I would need a USB DAC and amplifier, which is why the Predator looks so good. But are there other options for this budget? I don't mind going used at all. I'm also interested in the Pico, since its DAC is supposed to be superb. But the RSA amps are voiced to HD-600... hmmm...
Source would be my laptop and external HDD, all uncompressed WAV files. I listen mostly to folk, acoustic rock, blues, general rock, etc.
P.S. If you couldn't tell, sound quality is my absolute top priority. I like the idea of portable, because it means less to pack, and I can get a second, separate 220v power supply to bring with me, but it's got to sound as good (or preferably, better) than what I have now.
