[donor]

Should a home amplifier be significantly better and more enjoyable than a portable amp?

I know IT SHOULD, but is it ever possible that a higher end portable amp can outperform these bigger home amplifiers? Specs aside, is it possible the portable amp can be more enjoyable to listen too?

I've owned a good amount of portable amplifiers, from the bottom up, but I am about to purchase my first amplifier for the home. There's a good chance I'll be getting the Little Dot MKIV. Before this I've never had any experience listening to a head amp of this size. Should I expect to be blown away with the Little Dot after listening to portable amps for the last few years?

I ask these questions because I am so adapted to the portable side of things. There are a couple portable amps that I can just listen too forever I love there sound so much.

 

[GreatDane]

There are some very good portables these days. It depends on which portable amp is your reference I guess, but I'll say no.

My best portable amp is the AE-2. Going from it to my only tube amp (Woo Audio 3) I am NOT blown away, not a huge difference for sure...but I'm easy.

 

[evilking]

Really depends on your headphones/source.

What portable amps/headphones/source have you been using?

EDIT: Ok, I've looked through your post history briefly. Seems you have some Proline 750s and Beyer DT880s (I'll assume standard 250ohm). For amps, I saw an X-1 (which was described as "smoky") and a GoVibe 5 (described as "grainy"). I found no mention of source.

As long as your source is upto scratch (but would most likely need upgrading in the future) you will be blown away by a home amp, no doubt at all. Both of your headphones require premium amplification, they thrive on it.

Post your source.

 

[Azure]

Hello everybody

My advice would be to go in without having your expectations too high. Assuming you aren't using really high impedance headphones. Don't expect night and day differences or to be "BLOWN away." Expect a bit more refinement and a different take on sound reproduction. From my experience, the night and day differences and "BLOWN away" experiences occur going from crap, cd-player included headphone to ~$100 headphones. For me, every upgrade after that has been just a bit more refinement here and there and varying sound signatures.

 

[justhavingfun]

X2 what Azure said.

For me, what type of music that I am listening makes HUGE difference rather than what equipments I am using. If I am listening to the music that I like very much, I can enjoy them even with not so-so equipments if I listen to them past few minutes. As long as equipments are half way decent level, you are not going to be blown away going from portable to home amps. Having said that, I prefer home amps much better than portable amps for sound quality as long as both are competently designed and made.

 

[manhattanproj]

i wonder why so many ppl have this notion of home amp being 100x better than portable amp. me personally, i would think a 300-400 portable will be on par with a home amp in the same price range. unless you are buying an opera, rsa home amps, etc, those 1000+ home amps, performance btw home and portable amps should be similar. and many of the so called portable can be plugged into an outlet, as a "home" amp.

i dont have much experience with amps, this is just my thinking.

 

[d-cee]

in a nutshell, no.

first impressions you may even be dissapointed, unless you get a world class amp and a source and phones to boot.

in time you will grow in your appreciation for it though

 

[BIG POPPA]

Quote:

Originally Posted by d-cee /img/forum/go_quote.gif in a nutshell, no. first impressions you may even be dissapointed, unless you get a world class amp and a source and phones to boot. in time you will grow in your appreciation for it though

EXACTLY

 

[Asr]

Quote:

Originally Posted by manhattanproj /img/forum/go_quote.gif i wonder why so many ppl have this notion of home amp being 100x better than portable amp. me personally, i would think a 300-400 portable will be on par with a home amp in the same price range. unless you are buying an opera, rsa home amps, etc, those 1000+ home amps, performance btw home and portable amps should be similar. and many of the so called portable can be plugged into an outlet, as a "home" amp. i dont have much experience with amps, this is just my thinking.

This depends at what level you deem "on par" equates to. In my experience, portables do not compete with AC-powered home amps. I took HeadAmp's AE-2 and Gilmore Lite (w/ DPS) and found a variety of differences between the two, in the Gilmore Lite's favor.

Based on my cumulative experience with battery-powered portables and AC-powered home amps, I can say without reservation there is an improvement when making the jump, and it can be pretty noticeable too.

Not all portables and home amps are equally made though, it's all in the implementation. 100X may be a big exaggeration but in general home amps are better than portables.

 

[donor]

Thank you for your advice.

The Hornet, Xenos 1HA-EPC, mSeed Spirit and Dreamwork Xtra X1 are my favorite portables, I own a few others.

I also completely forgot to mention, I've only been using these portable amplifiers with my ipod. When I make the step up to the little dot mkiv, I will be using my powerbook + Aqvox USB2 DAC as source.

The DAC is on it's way to me, I've never used an external DAC before, other than the presonus firebox, I'm not even sure if there is actually a DAC in this though (I would love to know)

So considering I'm upgrading everything other than my headphones, I should be in for a pretty good ride right? I'm not going to have high expectations going in. I'm more interested in finding a setup that is comfortable to listen too and non-fatiguing to listen to rather than finding supreme audiophile fidelity

 

[Dept_of_Alchemy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by manhattanproj /img/forum/go_quote.gif i wonder why so many ppl have this notion of home amp being 100x better than portable amp. me personally, i would think a 300-400 portable will be on par with a home amp in the same price range. unless you are buying an opera, rsa home amps, etc, those 1000+ home amps, performance btw home and portable amps should be similar. and many of the so called portable can be plugged into an outlet, as a "home" amp. i dont have much experience with amps, this is just my thinking.

I wonder why so many ppl have this notion of portable amp being on par with home amps. Portable amps need to be portable, so size and battery life factor significantly into the design, as a result being that portable amps are never class A amps for starters, and other aspects of amp design are similarly affected.

 

[manhattanproj]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Asr /img/forum/go_quote.gif This depends at what level you deem "on par" equates to. In my experience, portables do not compete with AC-powered home amps. I took HeadAmp's AE-2 and Gilmore Lite (w/ DPS) and found a variety of differences between the two, in the Gilmore Lite's favor.

with dps, they arent in the same price bracket. so you arent comparing apple to apple. have you done a comparison btw an ae-2 and g lite without the dps? i'll be interested in how they compare.

 

[razer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Azure /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hello everybody My advice would be to go in without having your expectations too high. Assuming you aren't using really high impedance headphones. Don't expect night and day differences or to be "BLOWN away." Expect a bit more refinement and a different take on sound reproduction. From my experience, the night and day differences and "BLOWN away" experiences occur going from crap, cd-player included headphone to ~$100 headphones. For me, every upgrade after that has been just a bit more refinement here and there and varying sound signatures.

Well can't agree more to that. The reason why i ended with all that headphones and some amps and stuff like that was partly because headfi got me into that BLOWN away through upgrading disease but i realised that up there, things only get refined and more detials are being presented in a slightly better way. And so i kinda stopped....

 

[headphonejunkie]

In my opinion an amp is only a larger volume source. So, the differences will be minimal. On that thought, this is why I like tube amps. With tube amps you can swap different tubes which can change your sound signature to hopefully make that amp that blows you away. This is another reason why I am doing DIY. This way I can build an amp that fits my specs completely and can be tailored to blow me away.With DIY you can play with the components in the circuit and modify until you get just what you want.From my experience over the last couple of years I have found that you need to get a good set of headphones then your source is second most important. Then, lastly a good amp will help transfer your good source to your headphones.I have found with my grados a lot of times an amp is not needed at all and sometimes makes things sound worse.

 

[d-cee]

Quote:

Originally Posted by donor /img/forum/go_quote.gif So considering I'm upgrading everything other than my headphones, I should be in for a pretty good ride right?

well, the hornet is a pretty good portable, depends what home amp you're upgrading to. A better source will help the improvements shine through, but at the end of the day you should let your own ears decide how big the difference is. Some people believe source > amp, some the other way round.
Quote:

Originally Posted by headphonejunkie /img/forum/go_quote.gif On that thought, this is why I like tube amps. With tube amps you can swap different tubes which can change your sound signature to hopefully make that amp that blows you away.

totally agree, the tubes in my amp were a deal breaker. I didn't really enjoy its sound much and wasn't going to keep it but thankfully I held on for a little while because I couldn't be bothered selling it and after toying with different tubes I'm totally in love with it!