Thanks SO Much for all of the wonderful comments and reccomendations. Again, my first impedance, is my diminished hearing from firing too many 12 ga. shotguns, with no hearing protection...stupid - but by the time you notice that maybe you should have listened to others, and something is wrong with your hearing, it's too late, your hearing doesnt' come back, and the ringing in your ears only varies in intensity...luckily I started wearing hearing protection before it got too bad...I have a variety of headphones, Grados Hi-FiMan 400 M50's the list is like a dozen or so. I listen to a variety of music styles and am not particularly sensitive to sound stage, warmth, sibliance and all of the other minute intricacies...I just know good headphones when I hear them. I feel I shouldn't have to turn up the output of the sound source volume past 4 or 5, and same with the amp...to receive more than satisfactory listening satisfaction. Like I just said, I listen to a variety of music genres from clasical to jaz, to classic rock, to heavi-metal....but my measuring stick of performance, is by how the headphone + amp/dac performs with the most demanding of any genre I listen to....the one that brings out the greatest levels of bass trebble and NEED for PUNCHING POWER....Many headphones / amps can hit deep bass lows, or the highest notes of any violin....but can't do it with PUNCHING POWER of my " BAR " wich is the music style know as Epic Trance....Go to DI.FM, type in style Epic Trance and listen to the streaming content....Manny / Most headphones just can't keep up with the PUNCH required to keep up....I've compared doezens of different headphones, costing upwards of $1K, and the one that pairs best with this style of music, is a low price pedestrian brand SOL Republic...varying models....but nothing puches with the power of their headphones with this style of music.....I wanted to like a more expensive brand/model....but I think to bring up the punch of " higher end headphones "....you would really need a good amp....Like my Lake People VA200 - but thats a beast of a desktop model, that costs a fortune, and I simply can't spend that much money on something portable that can fall out of your pocket, get crushed, something spilled on, or a million other hazards I don't want to run the risk of loosing out on my ultra high end investment in the highest reaches of portable amps...that's why I'd like to keep the cost of the amp under $ 250....If I crushed/lost/drenched it, it wouldn't be the end of the world.
Great reccomendations like the iFi Micro iCAN SE at $ 299 are tempting...what the hell - it's only $ 49 more - right, but then why not the iFI Micro iDSD for another $ 100, your already investing $ 300, so why not the extra $ 100.....but it all becomes a matter of more wants more, and before you know it the term " keeping it within a certain budget " is totally blown....I spend some huge chunk of cash, then the third day I have it out on the streets, a freak rain storm comes along, it gets wet in my pockes, and fries, and I'm kicking myself for spending so much on something that has such potential exposure to dammage or loss....So as tempting as it may seem, I have to keep some kind of fiscal responsibility.
Thanks for all of the great reccomendations and comments, and I'd like to pull the trigger on an amp by the end of the week.....Love Ya All Lotts, Grazzi
Dodgercat
