Upgrade from RSA Mustang

[anlinwu]

Hello all. Been lurking head-fi for 4 years now. Dropped in every 6 months or so out of curiousity for new audio gear and usually ended up lightening my wallet. I've gone from the Shure e3c to e5c, then Denon D2000s, some Westone 3s, and most recently a K701.

Around the time I bought the Westone 3s, I also bought my first amp, the Mustang P51, because I wanted to hear how much better my music was with an amp. And it definitely added more impact to my bass and allowed me to up the volume cleanly. It's also worked well with the D2000s and the K701s I got recently. I've been very happy with it.

I've read many posts in the amps forums and I've read a lot about how desktop amps for the same amount of money outdo portable ones (easily?). It makes some sense to me since they can work off a larger power supply whereas the Mustang is only 3.7V I believe. So I'm looking to try one out. I'm currently considering these two:

Gilmore Lite
Compass

I guess I'm wondering exactly what kind of improvements I can expect/hope from a desktop amp. It looks like the Mustang is already considered to be a pretty powerful amp for a portable. Would a desktop amp do better with regards to soundstage or details? Can I expect it to do 1.5x better than the Mustang if it's even possible to attach a number to the improvement?

I plan to run this from my Macbook. I know that with the GL I would need a separate DAC, but I'll deal with that if I decide to get it. If I went the GL route, I would probably just "get by" with my Airport Express until I find a DAC I like.

Thanks for any advice you can provide!

 

[Seamaster]

what's your buget?

 

[anlinwu]

It's flexible, but I'd like to stay under $500.

 

[Seamaster]

GILMORE LITE ,Woo6, Millet minimax, Darkvoice 337 is a very good start point. Darkvoice 337 sould be a giant killer. I sold my RSA SR71 for Fatman/HCT amp at $199 with Ipod dock and speakers. Desktop amp is a clear winner here.

 

[Seamaster]

add Decware CSP-2

 

[anlinwu]

Thanks, I'll look into some of those. I hadn't really considered tube amps because I've read that D2000s prefer SS amps (not sure what K701s like), but I can search head-fi for info regarding tube amps and the current headphones I have.

What kind of improvements did you see going from the SR71 to your current desktop amps?

 

[Seamaster]

More dynamic, more pounch, ease of control the headphone are most noticeble. The reason I like tube amp is no matter what headphone I get, in most case I could always roll the tube to fit my tast. At this point my WA22 has killed Fatman just like Fatman killed the SR71.

 

[thisbenjamin]

there is a meet coming up at the Bellevue library, you'd most likely benefit from this in a big way - lots of things to play with

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f24/so...ibrary-440021/

 

[71877]

RSA XP-7 maybe if you liked the sound of the Mustang?

Dunno about the improvements of a portable -> desktop tho....

 

[anlinwu]

Thanks for the info about the meet. A bit of bad timing as its short notice, but I'll see if I can make it.

I'm happy with the Mustang, but I don't have to have a desktop amp that sounds like it. I don't mind trying out something different (like when I decided to blindly buy the K701, which I initially disliked at first but I'm starting to slowly appreciate some of its strengths).