[rdnkjdi]

I'm trying to find a great amp/dac combo to travel with an lcd-3 / lcd-Xc. I've done some googling and am more confused than when I started.

I was looking at the massdrop m9xx - but noticed the lcd-3 / xc isn't included on the headfi review. I'm getting conflicting info on solid vs tube amps online ...

 

[Rhamnetin]

You can't group all solid state amps together or all tube amps together.  There are stereotypes for each, and then there are exceptions that go against these stereotypes.  The Massdrop m9xx looks very appealing to me as well, although I've never personally tried it.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

This LCD-3 and Pangea HP-101 combo looks interesting according to Audiobot9000.
http://www.audiobot9000.com/match/audeze/lcd-3/with/pangea-audio/hp-101-tube-headphone-amplifier
 
Here's a size perspective on that amp (note that it comes with an external power supply).

 

[rdnkjdi]

Hmmmm - I was looking on Amazon and the reviews seem to be a warning sign (3 / 5 stars on 4 reviews)
 
I did stumble across a few more in poking around more that look interesting
 
Hifiman EF2A
Aune T1 (Some prefer this over the Magni/Modi stack ... )
 
Edit:
 
https://www.massdrop.com/buy/appj-1502a-tube-headphone-amplifier
Woo Audio WA7 ($1,200) - I'm finding a lot of references to th LCD-2 / LCD-3 with this setup - so might be time to keep saving money.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rdnkjdi /img/forum/go_quote.gif

Hmmmm - I was looking on Amazon and the reviews seem to be a warning sign (3 / 5 stars on 4 reviews)

 

Did you actually read them? Because one review was one dealer knocking two stars off because the tube isn't mounted in a manner convenient to tube rolling (ie pull out then push new tube in) , and the rest are basically saying "3 Stars because it's not the most Hi-Fi out there but not bad for $100" (which basically means you can't expect much more for $100) except for one that looks like he bought it when it was still $250. Both the HiFIMan and Aune go for at least $60 more also, and personally the only obvious advantage if you have to buy deaf ("blind") is the aforementioned easy tube-rolling issue.