What are the best portable amps in different price range to drive high ohm earbuds?

[RuFrost]

Hello everybody,
1) I own zen 2 Black Cardas and eyeing for other earbuds with high impedance. If I understand correctly, high impedance for earbuds, provides less distortions, so they tend to sound better.

2) I own x7 am1 and it shows some serious quality, but have not much something to drive them with high authority.
I want to buy some portable amp to drive earbuds. Fiio x7 is my DAP which I'm going to use as a transport and its Line Out.

3) I own Alo Rx iem edition limited Nickel. It drives amazingly any iems and. for example Monk and Monk+ PE. But somehow, graphene sounds better when they are driven by am1. The same thing with zen 2 - which sounds like cans. As I understand, there are different amps (and different amp\dacs) for different purposes: stereo systems, full size headphones, iems.

4) Two major questions:
A) Are there any amps which specifically dedicated to earbuds?
B) What portable amps are the best in its price range to drive earbuds? Let's say up to 1500$.

5) What is the difference between "opa like", tube, hybrid and fully discrete amps?

P.s: What amp are you using now to drive tough earbuds?

 

[j4100]

I have no experience with any of the gear you have listed, but if there is one thing I have learned about VE Zen earbuds, many owners will recommend the VE Runabout V2.0. I assume you have looked at the impressions thread for this?

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/ve-runabout-impressions-thread.780539/

 

[RuFrost]

Sure, I have looked it up! Just too scared to get expensive thing without its auditioning.

I have got ALO CV5 (tube amp) recently and connect it to fiio x7 through LO. I also got one of the best earbuds on the market ever created: ABnormal Diomnes LV2. The synergy between dap+amp+Diomnes\Zen2 Black (or any other earbuds) is fantastic. I, finally, can hear zen being driven properly.

 

[kukkurovaca]

Any amp that's appropriate to drive medium or high-impedance headphones will also be fine to drive earbuds. Something like the Zen is only hard to drive in comparison to very sensitive IEMs.

If you've got the CV5 and you're enjoying it, I think you're set.

I have a pair of Zen 2 with balanced termination, used with ALO CDM (less powerful than your CV5 even in balanced), directly from Shanling M3s, or with a Walnut F1. (Which is a fantastic and powerful amp for its $30 price.) Balanced definitely provides more flexibility in source selection, in terms of being able to use a DAP without an amp when desired.

If you want some other interesting portable mid- to high-end amps though, maybe look at Portaphile, Vorzuge, or the XRK Pocket Class A? Or get really esoteric with Analog Squared Paper?

 

[musicmaker]

i highly highly recommend the Vorzuge Vorzamp Pure II+. Have gone through a LOT of portable amps over the years. Absolutely love the Pure II+. Very impressive piece of gear and nothing I've heard in its price range can touch it.

 

[Infoseeker]

My LG V20 fully drives my Yuin PK1 so beautifully that it has become my daily driver over my portable headphones.

I highly recommend buying a used LG V20 or V30 or G6+ (notice the plus in the name). And forgoe getting an amp.

 

[RuFrost]

To update the thread. Tried lots of toys, but decided to quite separate portable amp unit, due to the need of portability and absence of desire to play with analogue interconnects which influence sound a lot.

Btw, after Alo Cv5 I bought idsd micro BL. It can play as separate amp. Back then, I spent less money on BL and...it sounded so much better - smoother, cleaner, more precise in all aspects. Signature also was on the side of BL. So, ended up selling CV5.

Also, after auditioning many daps,dacs I recognized many of them sound like dead, lifeless, artificial machine - no soul, no music, no life, just bits, numbers and analytics. X7 and x7-2 were that kind daps. Micro BL's signature is just too boring with earbuds.

All I owned is in my profile. After 10 years circle of swimming in the sea of serious audio equipment, I ended up coming back to Colorfly C4 Pro (my first dap,source) which sounds soo natural, musical and live-like...also I got c10mm (modded by local master) and it sounds even more analogue then cassete's players like walkmans.

Currently, my eros is oriented toward hi-end dongles like Cayin RU6, L&P W2, Colorfly CDA-M1, Fiio KA3 etc.

I have stayed with earbuds and in last couple years the market detonated with many very high quality models which easily beat majority of iems overall.

Also, cables, even digital make the game. You can own very expensive setup, but with cheap,low-quality-souns cables final sound will be ruined. So its better to spend time, forces and money to find right cables through a/b comparisons. When the right one be found - joi and final satisfaction would be achieved.