[xtine]

When I'm at home or work (which is most of the time!) I use my Macbook Pro to listen to music. At work I either use my Shure e3c or Beyerdynamic DT770s. I'm looking into portable amps. I listened to a friend's Headamp Pico with DAC and it was amazing, but I don't know if I'm quite ready to shell out that money yet.

Anyone know the sound specs for a MBP and recommend a decent portable setup to compliment my Shures or Beyers? When I'm at home I use my Grado SR-60s more.

 

[TSi]

apogee duet

 

[Bones13]

The Apogee Duet, as mentioned above is a great, Macintosh only device that will both run a headphone fine, and have outputs to run to an outboard amp (or your stereo system). It runs on a firewire out on your MAC. It will not work on a windows based PC.

You can also consider the HOST of USB devices out there. A lot of combo USB DAC/AMP which are all tailored for headphone listening. Do a search of these in the amp and dedicated source and computer as source threads.

One thing to consider. The Duet is a very nice sounding piece of equipment, I have one. It is powered by the MAC, but it is a good bit bigger than the Predator device, or most of the other portable offerings. If you want to take your DAC/AMP on the road, take that into consideration.

I take my Duet to the beach, but use smaller amps to travel with.

 

[orkney]

Duet here also. It's dead easy to set up and use, sounds excellent as a DAC and surprisingly good as a headphone amp too, driving both my RS1s and HD650s satisfyingly. For a MacBook it's a wonderful fit.

best,

o

 

[Captain Reverb]

I use my MB Pro's optical out into a TC Electronics Konnekt 24D and plug both my 325i's and my wife's Ultrasones into the the 24d's headphone jacks (there are two of them) and it has plenty of power. It sounds excellent to these ears.

 

[blessingx]

xtine, can you give us a budget you may be more comfortable with?

 

[xtine]

Well I just acquired a mini3 amb amp, so now at home i'm using that with grado sr-60s. Sounds good enough, but I may switch up to a ak701 since I hear praise about them.

I only want to spend up to 150ish on something, since I think my grados fit well with the mini3 so far. Any other suggestions?

 

[tfarney]

The Duet won't save you any money. It's $500. For $150, look at the HeadRoom Total Airhead. And look carefully before you pick up a pair of K701s, they have a rep for being very hard to drive and demanding of amps, and they have a sound signature that is 180 degrees off of Grados.

Tim

 

[Currawong]

I personally wont be buying a pair of 701's again unless I win the lottery and get a balanced set-up. If you get a portable amp of any kind, pick something more drivable than AKG's.

 

[tosh1000]

A mini3 will easily drive ANY dynamic headphones.

 

[dgbiker1]

I personally prefer a DAC with an optical input to the Duet since I don't know for a fact that I'll stick with a Mac forever (I try to be platform agnostic

), and you can plug any source with optical out into a DAC w/ optical. The Duet also has many recording options that I don't need. For ~$150, I would look at the Zhaolu and Zero DACs. The cost of entry is pretty low for good sound, and they are easily upgradeable as you save up money.

If you're interested in the K701, I think it's a GREAT partner for the Grados. My Grados handle all the rock, pop, and hip-hop while the K701s handle the acoustic, jazz, and electronic. The Mini^3 is absolutely capable of driving them. They sound a bit less lush and detailed than with my desktop amp, but they are still exceptionally good given the price and convenience of the Mini. Just don't expect a better Grado, the K701 is completely different.

 

[third_eye]

Another vote for the Duet as long as you don't need portability and have a Mac. The Duet drove my 701 better than the Predator I previously owned.

 

[Uncle Erik]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tosh1000 /img/forum/go_quote.gif A mini3 will easily drive ANY dynamic headphones.

The Mini3 puts out around 30mW into 330 ohms. From my listening, a 300 ohm Sennheiser is best with 500mW or more. Most AKG models need about that much to really open up and sound their best, as well.

To the OP, why not move up the chain with Grados? Sell the SR-60 and get a SR-225. Or a used RS-1, if you can swing it. I like my Grados just fine out of a MacBook - no portable amp necessary.