[Mdclol]

Hey fellas, long time lurker here. I own a FiiO E7 amp but it's not quite cutting it for me and I'm looking for something much better. After some research I've narrowed it down to 3 portable amps. I'd appreciate any info you guys can provide as to what would give me the most "wow" factor.

I got bored of the E7 only adding bass and not much else. I want this new amp to add to bass, treble, AND midrange with other features as a big plus. So once again, it's between:

Headstage Arrow 12 HE (mostly because I'm really interested in the fact that it has so many little toggles for bass, crossfeed, gain, impedance and whatnot)
Meier Audio Stepdance
RSA P-51 Mustang

Additional info about my gear+music:

Phones-
Westone ES5
Westone UM3X
Sennheiser HD800
Grado SR60
Klipsch Image S4i

Amp-
FiiO E7 USB/DAC

Source-
32gig iPhone 4 though FiiO L3 LOD.

Music-
256+ mostly iTunes 320
Hip-hop (Old school)
House/dance (deadmau5, kaskade, laidback Luke, MSTRKRFT, steve aoki, bloody beetroots, David guetta, etc)
R&B (neyo, usher, Trey songs, etc)
Classical (Beethoven, J.S. Bach, Mozart, Debussy etc)
Pop (far east movement, Bruno mars, taio etc)

Thank you for your opinions!

Edit: added a thank you. Lol.

 

[Bennyboy71]

Arrow will be perfect, given your music tastes and headphones/iems.  You get all the tweakable bass and impedence flexibility you could wish for, plus gorgeous sleek form factor and build quality.   I sold my first Arrow, only to rebuy another one recently.  It was like falling in love with same woman twice - which is impossible with humans but not with amps, thank Jebus.

 

[violinvirtuoso]

Check this out (Headstage Arrow not in there):
http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/214588/review-portable-amp-roundup-56-portable-amps-reviewed-and-compared-last-update-12-20-10-added-rsa-sr-71b
 
I would say that if you want small form factor, go with the P-51. If you are willing to mess with settings and EQ, go with the Headstage HE. If you just want to plug in (and are OK with a big brick), go with the Meier Stepdance.

 

[Mdclol]

Thanks for the replies guys!
 
I'm really leaning towards the Arrow, given I can adjust impedance/gain when switching from my ES5/UM3X to my HD800. BUT, I'm just curious, what does the Stepdance/P-51 offer me that I don't already get with the Arrow?
 
I've noticed from pictures, that they don't really have any switches to mess around with and boost bass or tweak other settings, it's just in/out, power & volume control. Do they passively add bass/treble that's at the same level as the Arrows with the bass boost?
 
if they're relatively the same as far as sound quality I might just go ahead and purchase the Arrow right now, it's a whopping $100 cheaper, sorta matches my iPhone 4 AND it's TINY!

 

[LevA]

not having heard any of the mentioned amps, if I were to choose one I would go for the stepdance.
looking at the reviews, the amp is said to deliver excellent sound, and power to drive most headphones- as far as portables go..
yeah its bigger than the other two...so if you have a problem with its portability then my next choice would be the arrow..
 

 

[cooperpwc]

Have to part ways with you on the second choice, LevA.