[Lurid]

I'm just curious, looking into some of the CMOY, MINT, PINT, etc... amps and i'm curious what your personal opinions are on the cost vs performance vs difficulty of DIYing some of these designs. I'm a computer builder by hobby, and I just love to DIY things. Looking for something to give my Etymotic ER-6i's alittle more boost (I've read it helps, and i'd just like to make one in general), with decent battery life, and as small as possible.

Any thoughts are appreciated, as i'm just kinda using this as a jumping off point for more research into the topic. Thanks

 

[gtp]

Take a look at the Mini^3 from AMB Labs!

 

[bada bing]

I've built a handful of portables - a pimeta, a pint, a couple mini^3 and a few cmoy configurations.

If you are looking for a fun project for a project's sake, that probably will never be finallized - build a pimeta, get it running and then add discrete buffers and maybe an Alien DAC shoehorned into the case. Then mess with getting a rechargable battery pack with 12v or more shoehorned in. Then think of more stuff to do to it. Very fun and capable of very high performance SQ wise, but not really very practical in the end. A pimeta can be made to match or better any branded amp's SQ after some fiddling, but no two pimetas are spec'd the same.

or

If you just want a very good portable to use and the building experience isn't the big draw, get a mini^3 kit from glass jar audio, put it together in an evening and use it like any name brand amp. It will run away from most of them in SQ for about 1/2 to 1/3 the $$ and cause very little grief or fuss.

 

[TzeYang]

i must say the MINI^3 is currently one of the easiest to build out there atm. You just have to pay a little more for the pre-built panels though. Absolutely no drilling and other hassles. Just solder, slot it in, assemble and you're done.

 

[FallenAngel]

Another vote for a Pimeta, very nice amp, I love it. Consider the discrete buffers if you're really DIY inclined, or just throw in some LMH6321's they're very nice (but at 11mA each, they'll chew up your battery).

Battery pack would be nice, maybe 8x AAA, that'll last you a while. I'm making another Pimeta as a transportable amp, 12x AAA and hopefully some discrete buffers, but I can't seem to get them stable yet. Oh well, more tinkering to do

 

[ruZZ.il]

I've added a charging circuit for 2x9v batteries and a variable bass boost on my PIMETA.. I'll be into discrete buffers next

I still use the mini^3 more though!..
bada bing said it all.. not sure about the matching/bettering any amp though.. but otherwise, yeah..