newbie intro, amp decesion? down to 3

[Danielj]

Greetings all
This is my first post...I have learned a great deal by reading the forum, esp grateful to Skylab and others for the comparison of port. head amps.

I am a poor guy on fixed SSI income ,so the amp I get has to be the right one for me I have narrowed it to 3
Xenos 1HA-EPC
Meier Audio Porta Corda III
Dr. Xin SuperMicro IV 4.

My particulars are:
musician, retired flutemaker

source sony hiMD mz900 minidisc, two sony port. cd players, hoping to get a Iaudio 5x at some point.
Minidisc is my main source now; has line out (not true line out) I find the SQ to be rather sterile, and lacking body, but clean and detailed.

phones grado sr80 I am sticking with these, so an amp would need to match them and open them up

Do have mid level main stereo system with no phone outs, but not sure I would do phones with it old Crown preamp, Integra CD (Denon?) parasound amp,

music:
indian classsical, western classical, classical guitar, native american/japan/chinese flute
vintage acustics (windham hill etc) vintage rock, some jazz and bluegrass

thougths: Dr. Zin is just down the street ( I live in Oregon) so the wait would be even more taxing)
Porta is in Germany, so shippingand or return is out of country....
Xenos is most expensive, but has more options esp if one can remove the battery and power by a larger line source.

I guress most important is what matches my players and phones best your exp. thoughts would be greatly appreciated

sincerely
Daniel J

 

[ChickenGod]

SuperMicro IV

Gets great reviews around here. Umm I hope you can handle the wait!

I'm ordering mine on Saturday.

 

[Wildcard30]

I would go for the Supermicro IV heard nothing but good things about it.

 

[Shurado]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChickenGod /img/forum/go_quote.gif SuperMicro IV Gets great reviews around here. Umm I hope you can handle the wait! I'm ordering mine on Saturday.

On Saturday? Someone could be ordering now, getting ahead of you in the waiting line, and it's not like your CC will be charged either!

 

[Happy Camper]

Wait is between 3-4 months for a Dr. Xin amp. He is a one man operation. The Dr. Xin amp was my first and the wait can be agonizing. I am very happy with mine and would buy another one.

Since you are close by, email him to see if he has a return or trade-in unit you could pick up over lunch. No paperwork, might be faster and less expensive. I understand he has been "in development" lately. The man is a perfectionist.

http://www.fixup.net/talk/topic.asp?...92&whichpage=3

Good luck!

 

[Filburt]

See if you can get someone to build you a "CMOY" with the AD8397 for cheap. That would be a more economical solution than any of the options you listed.

 

[jinp6301]

People are way too eager to recommend things that they havent heard.

What do you feel like you're missing with the 80s? If you know what you want, its much easier to find a piece of equipment that fixes whatever the problem is

 

[GreatDane]

I can offer that the Porta Corda can use an external power supply also and is powerful enough to drive HD 650 cleanly..oh yeah, sounds great too. The crossfeed is excellent. I have the USB DAC version but I'll assume that the $160 version performs the same.

 

[Danielj]

Hello again Thanks to all who have responded so far.

jinp6301 asked what I feel is lacking in the grado 80. to clarify...
I dont feel the grados are lacking, but rather the phone preamp in my minidisc .
I have felt this for awhile but could not put my finger on it... just felt unsatisfied after a listening session and sometime would end my session early.

what brought it into focus for me was I recently started converting lps to wav on my laptop which I have a Echo indigo IO card bus soundcard. the grado 80 sounded better thru the soundcard than thru my minidisc player.

This started me ABing identical wav files between computer and MD. The sony phone amp just sounds lacking by comparison , tho clean and detailed has no depth or weight may be a better word. sounds thin and fatiquing after ahile.

So I started wondering if a dedicated phone amp connected to the quasi line out of the md player would help.

the sony ouput to line is 194mV at 10 k ohms
the batery ni mh is 1.2V 900mAh min.
ac output charger is 3 v

So, will a phone amp that outputs more than 3v open up the SQ on my grados?
thanks to all
Danielj

 

[ChickenGod]

I like to order my stuff on the weekends

 

[jinp6301]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Danielj /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hello again Thanks to all who have responded so far. jinp6301 asked what I feel is lacking in the grado 80. to clarify... I dont feel the grados are lacking, but rather the phone preamp in my minidisc . I have felt this for awhile but could not put my finger on it... just felt unsatisfied after a listening session and sometime would end my session early. what brought it into focus for me was I recently started converting lps to wav on my laptop which I have a Echo indigo IO card bus soundcard. the grado 80 sounded better thru the soundcard than thru my minidisc player. This started me ABing identical wav files between computer and MD. The sony phone amp just sounds lacking by comparison , tho clean and detailed has no depth or weight may be a better word. sounds thin and fatiquing after ahile. So I started wondering if a dedicated phone amp connected to the quasi line out of the md player would help. the sony ouput to line is 194mV at 10 k ohms the batery ni mh is 1.2V 900mAh min. ac output charger is 3 v So, will a phone amp that outputs more than 3v open up the SQ on my grados? thanks to all Danielj

instead of getting an amp, maybe you should get a better MD player?

 

[Danielj]

there are no significantly better portable md players than the one I have.

I guess my question is twofold
1. does a more powerful external amp (5-24v) really help SQ of a portable device ( this is not an issue of gain, but of quality)

2 which of the three i mentioned is best suited to the grado sr 80 using a portable device?

thanks Danielj

 

[apnk]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Danielj /img/forum/go_quote.gif Porta is in Germany, so shippingand or return is out of country....

You can buy the Porta from http://www.ttvj.com/ . Todd is in Montana, so the shipping isn't to bad.

 

[Danielj]

I went ahead and ordered a Xenos 1HA-EPC will report back when I get it and try it out...now am looking for a good, inexpensive 3.5 mm interconnect

regards
Danielj