Newbie questions - Portable Amp Recommendations?

[fallraen 0]

Hi, how does a portable amp help in enhancing the sounds of my mp3 player or PC? Besides like pumping up the volume and bass? Why should I get one? I don't mind carrying extra weight sometimes if it really helps to make music sound better

 

Whats the meaning of Pre-Amp? Phone Amp? Portable Amps?

 

Where can I get these amps from (Online or in Singapore)? I see alot of them are like DIY, cool stuff.

 

Many thanks!

 

 

 

 

[afbug 0]

Take time and read these thread. I'm sure they'll answer some of your questions.

 

http://www.sgheadphones.net/index.php?showtopic=4875

http://www.sgheadphones.net/index.php?show...c=4815&hl=pa2v2

http://www.sgheadphones.net/index.php?showtopic=4178&st=0

 

[paingod84 0]

hi, welcome to the club...

basically, i'm a noob as well, so perhaps some of what i'm sayin may be wrong (but i'm sure the other seniors will correct me), so ok:

 

a portable amp uses a better quality amplifier than the typical ones common audio devices are built with, hence the better quality.

 

of course, this also depends on your whole chain. i.e source --> amp (optional) --> phones

 

for mp3 players, generally the built in amps are reasonable (for noobs like us), hence we look into upgrading our cans first (buy an amp first, but if your cans suck it's still good source-->good amp-->trash cans), and then optionally the amp. so mostly for noobs the bottleneck is the cans.

 

cans come with a range of impedance, low ones (up til say 64ohms) you don't really need an additional amp to boost the signal as they can go pretty loud hooked up directly to the source. for higher impedance cans, then you really need an amp to drive 'em.

 

this is where i'm not so sure myself, but i believe amps are not really about eq-ing the bass and trebs and all, they are there because they provide better, more even frequency response. -shrugs- i should shut up tho.

 

[fallraen 0]

ah i see, man is that you in the pictures. thats really freaky.

[theory_87 0]

haha... i need a amp for my 100 ohms iM716...

[aegisofrime 0]

Hey theory, still haven't gotten an amp? I went to Jaben just now, and Wilson has a Total Airhead available. You might want to consider that

[theory_87 0]

wad is the price? how izzit compare to pint? i can only get after 16th and i want to get a very portable amp...

[aegisofrime 0]

He mentioned that it's going for $200 I think... As for comparison to PINT... I'm not sure. To me the PPAv2 is the best DIY amp anyway

[theory_87 0]

wow... $200 is nt cheap.. hee...

[cmk 0]

Hi, how does a portable amp help in enhancing the sounds of my mp3 player or PC? Besides like pumping up the volume and bass? Why should I get one? I don't mind carrying extra weight sometimes if it really helps to make music sound better

 

Whats the meaning of Pre-Amp? Phone Amp? Portable Amps?

 

Where can I get these amps from (Online or in Singapore)? I see alot of them are like DIY, cool stuff.

 

Many thanks!

The outputs of your portable device is generally a very basic circuit which is not high fidelity in the true sense of the word. Hence a portable amp is needed to give your hp a proper amplified signal.

 

Preamp= the device which goes before the power amp, serves 2 purposes of input selection(if you have multiple inputs) and amplification/attenuation (volume control).

 

Phone amp= never heard of it

 

Phono amp = this is like the DAC of LP playback. It basically equalises the LP according to RIAA standard, and amplifies the signal before the preamp input. Sometimes referred to the pre-preamp.

 

Headphone amp= is just that, for headphones

 

Portable amp = self explanatory

 

There are many portable amps, and a good place to start is the PA2V2, up to one of those Ray Samuels amps. Of course there are the other DIY amps too, you can check out the DIY section for these.

[aaron-xp 0]

Isn't the "phone amp" a "'phone amp", or "headphone amplifier"?

[Mackie 0]

Well a headphone amp is either as it is or in short, headamp. I've not come across the term phone amp till now. Another well abused term in speakers forums is audition and audit eg, "I went over to cmk's house to audit his system." The underlined should read audition instead.

[cmk 0]

Ah, headamp can have 2 meanings:

1) headphone amp

2) pre-preamp or phono amp - this term was used in the 70s when phono was popular

[Mackie 0]

Well, this is sgheadphones after all....kekeke.....hmm....now I recall, yeah, we used to call phono amp, headamp, in those early days. Maybe we should call headphones amp as canamp....?? Doesn't really stick, does it?

[fallraen 0]

whao. i think i have to see all these amps and setups to further my understanding of amps and getting audiophiled. this seems to me like rocket science for now. thanks for the many explainations definations of the terms.