[themystical]

Having trawled through this forum, I am getting mixed messages with regard to improvements to be had by adding a portable amplifier to a pair of UM2 phones. Have any forum members tried these with amplifiers and has there been a significant improvement? Which portable amplifier is the most synergistic with these phones?

 

[uncle b]

I use my UM2's with a variety of amps, and I have to admit, sometimes I don't feel like I HAVE to listen with an amp.

The UM2's are great canalphones IMO and the iAudio X5L is a pretty loud player.

The X5L does benefit from the use of an amp, but sometimes I'm on the go quite a bit, and the amp is sometimes too much weight to bring along.

Certainly when at home, I always use one of my amps, and lately, that has been my new Ray Samuels Audio Hornet.

Though still burning in, the Hornet seems to me to add punch, clarity, forwardness, and a little bit of speed to recordings, and is a great compliment to the X5L and the UM2's.

 

[themystical]

Uncle B.....You seem to imply a "significant" improvement with the Hornet. You do seem to have the most highly rated amps on this forum! Is the improvement also significant with the SR71 and the Xin amp you have? I must say that when I listened to the UM2's in conjunction with the Musical Fidelity XCan V2, (which sounds wonderful with my HD600's), it seemed to "muddy" the sound somewhat! A "clean" and "punchy" amp would probably work more synergistically but I am not sure which portables would give that?

 

[spinali]

Does the UM2 improve with amping? In a word: yes.

If you want to control the bass, the Xenos 3HA, Xin Supermacro, and Larocco 2 Pocket Reference offer options to sculpt the sound to your liking, especially if you want to tame the bass. Other amps have been known to have nice synergy, too.

Because of the UM2's mammoth bass response, not all amps respond equally to the task. For example, while a very good value (with superb customer service), the PA2V2 already has an open bass, and there's little it can do with the UM2.

I routinely amp my UM2 with the 3HA, and it's made me a very happy camper.