[OGTL]

I'd just like to shed some light on this great amp. It's a one man deal from Germany and he manufactures and sells on eBay like Gary of PA2V2 fame.

it's my first amp. I am very pleased with it. The highs are sharp and clean, mids right where they should be, the bass tight and not over-imposing. Even the interconnect provided is surprisingly good. (selfmade). I'm only testing with my USB lineout>amp>RH5Ma, and the difference between ampless and straight from the jack is dumb (that's to be expected, but still.) He marked the package a gift to avoid senseless customs fees.And as a bonus, he included an unopened can of the penguin mints! ha! I'm waiting for my Bling Bling lineout from Evil Mango and my Shure E2C's which were paid for on the same date as the amp, and the seller informs me : "oh sorry, your order was skipped. They'll be shipped tomorrow" Two weeks later. I asked for a faster service because of his tardiness and he declined, what an *******.

Anyway, looking for some other experiences with the Pengamp and what people think of it. There's a pretty detailed description here

it comes with a 1 year warranty on labour and parts, not quite as good as gary, but he's pretty much one of a kind.

 

[hyamaiata]

Congrats on your new amp! Take some pictures for us. I read in his page that it's not the original Cmoy circuit but also that it requires some special care to be taken. Do you know of what kind? Overall it looks like a sweet deal and that interconnect looks like one of a kind to be included in the price.

 

[OGTL]

He makes it himself, so I think it's a step up to a regular dollar store IC. Now all I need is a RCA to Mini, which I might buy off Evil Mango once i get some more cash.

And I think the "special care" thing was just regarding the construction of the actual amp and not maintenence, but it does look very neatly built.

Here are some pics:

So far I've rocked out to Sgt. Peppers, and ELP Long beach '72.

Oh yeah, the power switch looks like it might be easy to knock on and off in the pocket, but it requires an amount of force that it likely won't unless you're doing frontflips through heavy traffic while in a scuba diver suit.

 

[steaxauce]

I got one of those for use with the Shure E4 and AKG K701 and my 5G iPod, but I didn't think it sounded any better than the iPod's headphone jack with either 'phone, so I returned it. But, I was the first person to return an amp all year, so that's saying something for it. I just didn't hear any improvement myself. The RSA SR-71, on the other hand, transformed the Shure E4 into an earphone I actually liked.

I believe this amp uses two LM1617 opamps, is that right? I know they're the same opamps as the Corda Aria.

 

[Eokboy]

Err, IIRC its using LM6171, or maybe the dual channel version.

 

[OGTL]

Yeah, he says it uses two.

 

[sevenjohn]

i got one of these last year. I found that it didn't change the charachter of the sound from a portable, made me hate my E2cs even more but found it gave grado sr60s an extra kick.

I really only used to to conserve battery power on my dap whilst driving slightly sluggish phones. But it's not really up to driving a HD650-but then i wouldn't take that out.

 

[mrarroyo]

The amp internals look very tidy and well made. Very nice!

 

[OGTL]

Made you hate your E2C's even more!?

Well, even since after I paid for those E2C's I've been contemplating the e500's. Damned Head-Fi.

And yes, the internals are well secured and neat looking. The battery fits in between the capacitators and the foam padding nicely. (Sorr if they aren't called capacitators )

It says in one of the "testimonials" that it doesn't indeed change the character, but it's very revealing. Which doesn't seem to be a very good matchup between that, the Yamaha monitor headphones, and 40 year old audience tapes.. But I do appreciate the clarity and reproduction of the recordings through this set up much more than through my Sound Dynamics 100w and Teac SA-200.