Portaphile?

oliverstoned wrote: The good side of the Ipod coming is the explosion of the HP market (as well as the HP amp market in the USA mainly). So now there are a lot of new HP models and some are great for portable use. http://www.headphone.com/headphones/

What I am finding a little frustrating is the complete lack of technical specifications available on all these headphone amps. I know it's all about how loud they are when driving your favourite headphones, but without actual numbers it is very difficult to judge how loud these are likely to be, or even if they stand any chance of being louder than a bog-standard iPlod or Zune or whatever. Those with rechargable lithium batteries or 3 or 4 AAA cells a HP amp cannot produce a voltage swing capable of producing better than a standard portable mp3 player with the same batteries driving the same headphones - namely somewhere between 100mW and 150mW. The Headroom Airhead can potentially produce twice that much power (I'm guessing - HeadRoom don't specify the output power, but 4 AAA cells can potentially produce a pk-pk signal of a little under 6 volts, which equates to 300mW into 16 ohms) - but twice the power is only a 3dB increase. As I stated earlier, the Emmeline Shadow can potentially supply 1W into 16ohms, but again, they don't actually state that, it is my deduction based upon it being powered by 4 lithium batteries.

Dean wrote: Reducing HP output power does increase battery life, but I suspect it's something to do with the 1996 French law (proposed EU law) to limit mp3 players to 100dB (or 80dB as proposed) - rather than make one for each market, they are building to the lowest volume standard for everyone.

My last word - as i said

Actually in-ear HP may do the trick (only in portable, at home you can do a lot better), but to get good bass from in ear headphones it is CRITICAL that you have a tight ear-tip seal in your ear canal.
And that's why your ear doesn't "breathe" well and it can be quite
uncomfortable, as you get a sensation of excessive moisture;
At least that's what i experienced.

The good side of the Ipod coming is the explosion of the HP market (as well as the HP amp market in the USA mainly). So now there are a lot of new HP models and some are great for portable use.

Besides the Headfi forum, I can advice the following website, which is actually the Headroom shop
Their HP reviews are quite trustable, but the best is to listen prior to buying:

http://www.headphone.com/headphones/

Edited by oliverstoned - February 24 2011 at 12:27

My old Shure headphones died, so I just ordered myself a pair of these, they should arrive today.  

Awesome!!! Thanks oliverstoned and Dean.......'sounds' like I need one of these new fangled headphone amps!! My Monster plugs just don't sound as well as I think they can......and if I get a higher end pair of cans then its a must. I seriously doubt the ZuneHD will have the output to power them efficiently.

^ the Shadow is underpowered for anything chunky like cans or any high-impedance headphones - it's designed for 16ohm lightweight headphones. Looking at the cct board I'm guessing it's Class-D - Samuels' doesn't seem to have a spec on the thing, but doing the maths suggests it can kick out 1W into 16ohms.

Yes head amp work!

I don't recommend noise cancelling HP, most of the time they sound bad (like the Senn ones). But the Senn HD 25 is perfectly isolated and it's a very solid pair of HP...

There are small HP amps, i recommend the RSA Mustang P51 or, even smaller, the Shadow:





Edited by oliverstoned - February 24 2011 at 01:43

^ Oh sure, the audiophile gear looks very cool. And I'm sure that it sounds perfect, too. I would also say that my suggestion (iPad + Nokia BH-505) doesn't sound as good. 

Edited by Mr ProgFreak - February 19 2011 at 10:42

Mr ProgFreak wrote: And one last thing about speaker wire from wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-end_audio_cables "Roger Russell—a former engineer and speaker designer for McIntosh Labs—details how expensive speaker wire brand marketing misinforms consumers in his online essay called Speaker Wire - A History. He writes, "The industry has now reached the point where [wire] resistance and listening quality are not the issues any more, although listening claims may still be made....The strategy in selling these products is, in part, to appeal to those who are looking to impress others with something unique and expensive."[2]" I liked that because IMO it really perfectly characterizes the audiophile movement.

the other one I like is from the Speaker Cable section:

And one last thing about speaker wire from wikipedia:

Edited by Mr ProgFreak - February 19 2011 at 05:29