[Skylab]

Honestly, I'm not planning to do much more with this thread. I'm really not interested much in portable amps anymore. I have been reviewing the amps I've been asked to, but I plan to start declining. I want to focus my reviewing time on higher end stuff

 

[Zuqi]

That's understandable, its boring to keep on make reviews on amps at the same level, that's just a suggestion, I do appriciated you spend your own time to share your review to us.

 
Quote:

Honestly, I'm not planning to do much more with this thread. I'm really not interested much in portable amps anymore. I have been reviewing the amps I've been asked to, but I plan to start declining. I want to focus my reviewing time on higher end stuff

 

[Guidostrunk]

You cant leave us hangin Rob.Your detailed reviews had a great deal of influence on what i bought. I dont think theirs anyone capable of doing what you do IMO. Sad to see this thread go

.I guess i have to go high end then.

Thanks for all you have done for us. Cheers

 

[Skylab]

Thanks for the kind words, fellas. Portable amps were responsible for turning me on to even higher end headphone gear. I was once just a speaker-hifi guy when I came here almost six years ago!

I still love writing reviews, but most of what you will read from me on head-fi will be more home tube amps

 

[Guidostrunk]

Well can you recommend a novice tube amp ...say... around the 3 to 400 dollar range. I'm going to have the LCD-2 by the end of this month and wondering if a tube amp would have nice synergy with them. In the future once i re-cooperate from the recent money spent i will contact you on a higher end tube amp, but for now I'm looking at max 400 USD.Thanks in advance and sorry for high jacking the thread temporarily.
Quote:

Thanks for the kind words, fellas. Portable amps were responsible for turning me on to even higher end headphone gear. I was once just a speaker-hifi guy when I came here almost six years ago!

I still love writing reviews, but most of what you will read from me on head-fi will be more home tube amps

 

[GeorgeGoodman]

Thanks for all you have done in this thread, it is so long there is a disconnect between the older gen portable amps and the new stuff which is better, smaller, or just different. Ibasso seems to have really upped their game in the past year. Color me impressed. Ray Samuels, who has been here from the beginning, has been a great innovator, too.
 
I can see you getting sick of doing the same thing over and over again, especially on things that are trying to imitate other things (fullsize desktop stuff) and not coming close in many cases. Even though I have never owned a portable amp, I am now pretty much sick of thinking of them except in regards to something good enough to be my only main amp, possibly something balanced and from ibasso or some other pioneer. Portable amps are fun toys and have a place if you want good sound on the go, but an argument could be made for their extinction right now with the better DAPs that have what equates to a small portable amp inside. If you want to stop fooling around with these toys or take a break and review some better  stuff with much greater unrestrained capabilities, be my guest. Your contribution will always be remembered. 
 
P.S. I am not putting down portable amps, I am just giving myself and anyone else open to it a little perspective. Sometimes obsessing over something makes that something no fun.

 

[swbf2cheater]

 
[size=medium]

Recently I purchased and tested an RSA Tomahawk to be used with my Sansa Clip+, Grado 325i and a few other low ohm cans,  I found it to be heavily lacking due to the sansa clips high output, I really hoped it would provide a justified sound and push increase for the price.  After heavy testing for days using it and just the clip+ alone, I was not happy.
 
Im not an amp expert so I thought I would ask you.  Was the lack of the RSA tomahawks driving ability with the sansa clip+ due to the low ohmage headphones I was using?  Both were 32ohm and under.  Ive been looking at the new sunrise Charm earbuds which are 150ohm and wanted to know if the Tommy would show significant difference with the clip+ than just the clip by itself.  The Sansa lineup has such a great output level, I've found a lot of my headphones did not befit enough from the Tomahawk enough to keep it.  My problem was I was in need of ultraportability.  The tomahawk is the smallest I know of and it had fantastic quality all around, but just didn't push anything I owned enough when I used it with a sansa clip :[
 
any help or advice you can offer is appreciated.  I am perfectly fine with rebuying it used again, but only if you would think it would show significant difference and pushing or driving 150ohm earbuds with the clip+
 
 
​

[/size]

 

[Skylab]

 
Quote:

Well can you recommend a novice tube amp ...say... around the 3 to 400 dollar range. I'm going to have the LCD-2 by the end of this month and wondering if a tube amp would have nice synergy with them. In the future once i re-cooperate from the recent money spent i will contact you on a higher end tube amp, but for now I'm looking at max 400 USD.Thanks in advance and sorry for high jacking the thread temporarily.

 
With the LCD-2, which are a little more demanding than some headphones, it's tricky.  Please head on over to the "Amp Recommendations for the LCD-2" folder, and I will answer your question there, to the best of my ability.
 
 


Quote:

 

Recently I purchased and tested an RSA Tomahawk to be used with my Sansa Clip+, Grado 325i and a few other low ohm cans,  I found it to be heavily lacking due to the sansa clips high output, I really hoped it would provide a justified sound and push increase for the price.  After heavy testing for days using it and just the clip+ alone, I was not happy.
 
Im not an amp expert so I thought I would ask you.  Was the lack of the RSA tomahawks driving ability with the sansa clip+ due to the low ohmage headphones I was using?  Both were 32ohm and under.  Ive been looking at the new sunrise Charm earbuds which are 150ohm and wanted to know if the Tommy would show significant difference with the clip+ than just the clip by itself.  The Sansa lineup has such a great output level, I've found a lot of my headphones did not befit enough from the Tomahawk enough to keep it.  My problem was I was in need of ultraportability.  The tomahawk is the smallest I know of and it had fantastic quality all around, but just didn't push anything I owned enough when I used it with a sansa clip :[
 
any help or advice you can offer is appreciated.  I am perfectly fine with rebuying it used again, but only if you would think it would show significant difference and pushing or driving 150ohm earbuds with the clip+
 
 
​

The Tomahawk was made for IEM's, so it's not low impedance that is the issue.  But the Tomahawk also assumes the very high sensitivity of an IEM - it's RSA's least powerful portable amp, and isn't likely to do well with 325i's.  You should get a P-51 mustang.  Still very small, but FAR more powerful.

 

[rasmushorn]

Quote:

 
Quote:

 

Recently I purchased and tested an RSA Tomahawk to be used with my Sansa Clip+, Grado 325i and a few other low ohm cans,  I found it to be heavily lacking due to the sansa clips high output, I really hoped it would provide a justified sound and push increase for the price.  After heavy testing for days using it and just the clip+ alone, I was not happy.
 
Im not an amp expert so I thought I would ask you.  Was the lack of the RSA tomahawks driving ability with the sansa clip+ due to the low ohmage headphones I was using?  Both were 32ohm and under.  ..... My problem was I was in need of ultraportability.  The tomahawk is the smallest I know of and it had fantastic quality all around, but just didn't push anything I owned enough when I used it with a sansa clip :[
​

The Tomahawk was made for IEM's, so it's not low impedance that is the issue.  But the Tomahawk also assumes the very high sensitivity of an IEM - it's RSA's least powerful portable amp, and isn't likely to do well with 325i's.  You should get a P-51 mustang.  Still very small, but FAR more powerful.

The  P-51 Mustang certainly sounds great with the SR325i. It adds slam and punch to the bass and the dry sound from the Mustang suits the SR325i's bright and edgy sound. I enjoy that combination VERY much... though the iQube gives the SR325 more goosebump-factor - if you want to pay a little extra for that  

 

[swbf2cheater]

well, I recently sold the 325i's for X reason lol, and was looking to remove all my larger less portable sets. 
 
I was recommended the tommy and told I might enjoy the signature and the added boost it gave.  I loved the signature but it didn't mesh well with the low impedance headphones I currently own.   It seems like serious overkill to use a $300 amp with $80 earbuds to me.   Perhaps a Mustang purchase will come after the holidays or after the next tax return haha.  I will happily rebuy the tomahawk to be used with the new 150 ohm sunrise buds and the sansa clip+  but again, only if it shows significant difference when amped off the clip, I'll need to wait until I can find someone else to test 150ohm headphones with a tomahawk and a clip+ and let me know how it performs.  Of course I want a mustang, I always have lol.  But, my problem is portability and I don't like any other player outside of the Fuze and Clip, but they both have ridiculous output and the Tomahawk made almost no difference at all with them.  If people think the mustang will show significant difference when using a clip and 150ohm earbuds, I will likely try to get one.  
 

 
 

 

[Tinola]

Would be great if you reviewed the new P4, as your last review lol That's fine though since this thread has helped me a lot.

 

[estreeter]

Quote:

Honestly, I'm not planning to do much more with this thread. I'm really not interested much in portable amps anymore. I have been reviewing the amps I've been asked to, but I plan to start declining. I want to focus my reviewing time on higher end stuff

I knew this day would come, Rob, and I can only say that I am surprised that it has taken this long. Common sense dictates that you moved onto 'higher end stuff' some time ago, and I honestly dont know how yourself or Larry field so many questions each week. More generally, I have noticed that many of the perennial 'what DAC/amp/headphones should I buy' questions are getting little response on these forums, and I have to put that down to the fact that many of the old hands are simply burnt out fielding the same questions repeatedly. As you would undoubtedly know, Head-Fi is often dismissed as 'the blind leading the blind' on other fora, and I fear that this will increasingly be the case as folk like yourself migrate to other areas of interest within the hobby.
 
Thank you for the effort you have put into this thread and so many others - its been a privilege to read your reviews.
 
estreeter

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

Quote:

Quote:

Honestly, I'm not planning to do much more with this thread. I'm really not interested much in portable amps anymore. I have been reviewing the amps I've been asked to, but I plan to start declining. I want to focus my reviewing time on higher end stuff

I knew this day would come, Rob, and I can only say that I am surprised that it has taken this long. Common sense dictates that you moved onto 'higher end stuff' some time ago, and I honestly dont know how yourself or Larry field so many questions each week. More generally, I have noticed that many of the perennial 'what DAC/amp/headphones should I buy' questions are getting little response on these forums, and I have to put that down to the fact that many of the old hands are simply burnt out fielding the same questions repeatedly. As you would undoubtedly know, Head-Fi is often dismissed as 'the blind leading the blind' on other fora, and I fear that this will increasingly be the case as folk like yourself migrate to other areas of interest within the hobby.
 
Thank you for the effort you have put into this thread and so many others - its been a privilege to read your reviews.
 
estreeter

Ditto.

 

[swbf2cheater]

Im really on the fence about which to try next.  I really like the  Meier Audio Headsix amp idk really, tough choice, something small, cheap and good enough to show actually do much better than just the clip+ alone

 

[Skylab]

Ditto.

Thanks much, estreeter and Larry. Appreciate that

Im really on the fence about which to try next.  I really like the  Meier Audio Headsix amp idk really, tough choice, something small, cheap and good enough to show actually do much better than just the clip+ alone

The problem is, small and cheap seem to be a little tough to get in one package. I have taken to using the RSA P51 Mustang most of the portable amps I own, due to the small size. But it's not cheap.