My setup needs better sound, please help!

[samwY]

I got my Panasonic SL-CT800 C3 mp3 portable today in Chinatown. I also have SONY D66 Eggos

that I burned in this week. I am not really happy with the sound output from the headphone when I plug it into the Panasonic portable.

Compared to the SONY stereo that I used to burn in my Eggo's, the Panasonic portable sound is less clear, and most importantly-- not as loud! The bass from my stereo used to be really loud and hard thumping from songs like Radiohead - High and Dry and Nas - Mastermind, now its just barely felt. Also, I liked how my stereo had a max volume that would be unbarable to my ears. With my portable, it's not even halfway to what my ears can handle -- know what I mean?

Is there anything I can do to make my portable play something like my stereo?
Amplifiers seem like a common sense solution...but what kind of amp do I need to make my Eggo's play from my portable as if it was from a stereo, if thats even possible?

I don't really have a price range for this, but if you have any recommended amp models for my Eggos and portable Cd/mp3 player, please

Thanks

samwY

 

[nanahachi]

hey sam

HERE is a thread from the amps forum listing a few portable amps. in it i have a few links with pics of portable META42s, which is what I would recommend to you. There are several builders out there who could build one for you.

If you can spend the $100-150 for a basic META (you will have to contact the DIY builders for exact prices, which are usually kept confidential), you will drastically improve the sound coming from your portable.

Do a search over in the Amps Forum for something like "portable amp" and you'll come up with a lot of threads I assume.

Other amps include: PortaCorda, Headroom's Total Airhead, Fixup's mini, and the older generation like the CHA and Cmoy. But really, I think you will hear a ton of well-deserved recommendations for a META42.

hope that helps. enjoy your new CDP and Eggos

 

[lini]

samwY: Yes, most modern pcdp headphone outs only have ~ 2x 5 mW, which is not enough - even for efficient headphones. So you could either follow nanahachi's recommendation and go for a portable headphone amp (I've got the first Porta Corda version myself, and I'm fairly happy with it...). Or you could try to get a more powerful player like the Grundig Mystixx CDP 9100 (with mp3) or the Grundig Squixx CDP 4101 AS10 (no mp3 support), which both have 2x 15 mW but unfortunately aren't available in the US. The amp solution is usually even better in sound quality, whereas a more powerful pcdp would be better for potability and maybe cheaper, too.

Greetings From Munich!

Manfred / lini