[Myren]

I'm looking to build an amp for my Grado SR-80's. My electronics are finding them quite challenging. They definately need an amp.

I've seen a good number of designs, but their reported battery lives are always absolutely attrocious! Criminal numbers! 8 AA's and maybe 10 hours battery life! For-sooth. I figure my mp3 player can put out tolerable volumes of a single aaa battery for over 6 hours, expecting some reasonable battery life from an amp shouldnt be a big problem.

My question is, why do all these amps drink power like there's no tomorrow? What needs to be different to make a portable headphone amp which can run on two 2200 mah double a's for 6 - 7 hours? Is it design, or is it the chips these people are using? Are there any chips which will give me a clear advantage for power consumption (with reasonably clear fidelity)?

Thank you all for your advice,
Myren

 

[beamrider]

Not sure about other amps, but I average about ~45 hours of runtime in my stock MINT, with 2 9V batteries.

 

[Lisa]

My MINT runs 15-20 hours on a 170mah 9.6v rechargeble. So yes, what you're looking for is defenitely possible.

Maybe you should take a look in the DIY forum here. And look into the tutorials on Tangents site for a CMoy or MINT amp. http://tangentsoft.net/audio/