[336952]

I just purchased a set of Beyerdynamic T70 (250 ohm). I have a Fiio E6 portable amp already. I will be using a Galaxy Nexus as my source. Question is will it be worth it to upgrade to a Fiio 11 or similar priced amp. I have read the Galaxy Nexus has a decent DAC in it. I would have bought the T70p's (32 ohm) but the 280 usd price tag on the T70 model was to good to pass up. Also, some other suggestion on portable amps would be great. I will be listening at my desk at work so the smaller the better on the portable amp
 
Thanks.

 

[ianmedium]

Personally with the quality of your headphones and assuming you are listening (hopefully) to high bit rates I would save up a bit more and get something like the Stepdance2, Sr71-B or ALO rx3.

I promise you that if you hang around here you will eventually want to get something like those three as you will be trying to get the best sound so you might as well bypass the medium range stuff and go right to the good stuff. If I was doing this all again and knew what I know now that is what I would do!

 

[336952]

Quote:

Personally with the quality of your headphones and assuming you are listening (hopefully) to high bit rates I would save up a bit more and get something like the Stepdance2, Sr71-B or ALO rx3.
I promise you that if you hang around here you will eventually want to get something like those three as you will be trying to get the best sound so you might as well bypass the medium range stuff and go right to the good stuff. If I was doing this all again and knew what I know now that is what I would do!

Wow, those are a little out of my price range. Most I will be willing to go would be around 120.0 USD for a portable amp.So, I would have around 400 bucks into my setup. Would like it portable because I travel a lot to and would like to use in that instance as well. Yes, my quality on my audio files are all pretty high.

 

[ianmedium]

Ahh, fair enough, I was just thinking that I started like you and ended up where I am now and if you could get one of the higher end ones it would save quite a bit of time and money in the long run. But fair enough, it is prudent to budget as well and I admire you for that. If you could go another hundred I hear great things about Just Audio from the UK.

I think the thing is you have really excellent headphones and from experience headphones perform to the level of the Amp, seems a shame to have such wonderful headphones and not the amp to match if that makes sense.

You might want to look at the classifieds here. I just had a quick look and there are some really nice amps for sale for a little over your budget, advantage of course is that they have been burned in and you save a bundle on the new price. I noticed there is a Jan Meier Amp there for not much above your budget and I love his amps and they would drive your beyers nicely there is also a nice Ibasso D3

There is also a cracking deal on a Graham slee voyager which I would jump all over as it certainly is an excellent amp and is a great bargain compared to new price!

BTW, I don't know the sellers, just scanned the classifieds quickly!

 

[Mutnat]

I agree with ianmedium, why don't you wait and save up a bit more money and get something that's a bigger step up from the E6 than an E11.  For $200 you could get a Leckerton Audio UHA-4, or a JDSLabs C421, something like that. 

 

[336952]

Ya, I just don't want to be invested that much into portable audio. I have over around a 3k setup for my home audio already. However, I am a complete noob when it comes to headphone stuff. I really have no use for a DAC since all the listening will be done at my work desk. My home computer already have a top of the line xonar soundcard.. I guess the question is will the E11 power the Beyers at low/mid volume? I hate extremely loud music and loathe pounding bass. Will the sound be that degraded if I don't get a better amp? What about some nice portable amps with no DAC in the 75-150 price range?
 
Thanks.

 

[ianmedium]

Yeah, it is not about just powering though, if it were I would just go for cheaper phones. It just seems such a shame to have a ford escort engine powering an AMG if you get what I mean. It is not about degrading it is about matching components. And seeing as you have such a good headphone it really is a shame not to get the best out of it. In all honesty you might as well stay with the amp you have as the one your looking at is still just not good enough for the phones you have.

 

[336952]

Ya, definitely understood. I might refuse shipment and wait for the T70p to drop in price so I don't have to worry about an amp. I was going to drop the savings I got from purchashing the T70's into an amp. Which was around 100-120 bucks. Sigh, I just loved the T70's I listened to for a bit. Might need to look at a different pair too.

 

[ianmedium]

Just sent you a PM!

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

Ya, definitely understood. I might refuse shipment and wait for the T70p to drop in price so I don't have to worry about an amp. I was going to drop the savings I got from purchasing the T70's into an amp. Which was around 100-120 bucks. Sigh, I just loved the T70's I listened to for a bit. Might need to look at a different pair too.

My Beyerdynamic T70 (used, Amazon, $293) will be arriving on Thursday and I do have the Fiio E6 and Fiio E11.
So I'll test them both with the T70.
Now an O2 (Objective 2) portable headphone amplifier can work as a portable and a desktop amplifier and should easily drive the T70s.

 

[336952]

Quote:

My Beyerdynamic T70 (used, Amazon, $293) will be arriving on Thursday and I do have the Fiio E6 and Fiio E11.
So I'll test them both with the T70.
Now an O2 (Objective 2) portable headphone amplifier can work as a portable and a desktop amplifier and should easily drive the T70s.

Sweet. Let me know. I was looking at the O2 as well. But it doesnt look much like a portable amp. I think I might settle on the Ibasso T3 but the 22 usd shipping is hard to swallow. Would rather drop that into the amp. Ya, the T70's at that price was to hard to pass in relation to everything else at that price point.

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

 Ya, the T70's at that price was to hard to pass in relation to everything else at that price point.

Same for me,
I passed on the Squaredeal warranty, to many negative feedbacks and the positive ones looks like they were written by a Squaredeal sales rep.

 

[jaydome]

http://www.head-fi.org/t/505970/the-deals-thread/3285#post_8385643 Sounds like it'd be worth trying, I'd wait for PurpleAngel to compare the two though as it's generally not a good idea to match $500 cans with a $56 amp

 

[336952]

Settled on a P4 warbler as my amp. Thanks all for the help.

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

http://www.head-fi.org/t/505970/the-deals-thread/3285#post_8385643 Sounds like it'd be worth trying, I'd wait for PurpleAngel to compare the two though as it's generally not a good idea to match $500 cans with a $56 amp

The T70s arrived about 4 hours ago, nice sound, they are now my #1 headphones.
The E6 can power them decently, the E11 a little better, the Essence STX & O2 easily drive the T70s