Portable Headphone and Amp

O

oceancyc

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 9, 2004
Messages
497
I'm currently going through a bad case of upgradicitis (love my Paradigm Monitor 7's!!) and had a question of portable headphones and amps. I'm on the road for the better part of a week for work so I bring both my pc and monitor with me on the road. PC and clothes in one large suitcase and monitor in its own container. Needless to say even with the PC in a Qpack there is very little room for much of anything. Will I be able to buy a nice set of headphones and an amp that will take up very little room?

I'm pretty new to the audio scene. I'm using a shit pair of Logitechs right now that hurt my ears after extended periods of time. Any suggestions for around $400 would be great to. I figure $200 each for an amp and headphone sounds good. Music is mostly Indie (Bright Eyes, Arcade fire...), Hip-hop (Ghostface, Cam'ron...) and alternative (Gorillaz, Bjork...).
 
Closed or Open HeadPhones?
Maybe one of the XP amps with a Alien Dac >?
Open Phones
Grado SR 225..If you like that sound
Senns 580's..If you like that sound

Closed
My bad
 
I'm a fan of open anyways so I'll have to try these out. I used to own a pair of senns, wich worked great for the price (I think about $60). I'm just having trouble finding anyone who sells any of these in my area. I'm outside of Sacramento.

And whats the brand of amp and dac you recommended? Do they have a web page?
 
I have never really tried any amps in your price range, so I wouldn't know. That said, how often are you able to upgrade your equipment?

I was thinking, you'd be able to go the path of a soundcard + HD650, and then sometime in the near future, add a capable amplifier.

I started with a soundcard + DT880 (which is said to be fairly difficult to drive), not DT770 as most people recommend here. Then, I added in an M^3 along the way (meaning about few months later) for around the $400 pricepoint. The reason why I would recommend the HD650, is because I really liked it, auditioning it on my setup. That said, YMMV.
 
I could probably upgrade in a month or two. I've just been purchasing a lot of audio gear for my HT and PC. Onkyo receiver and Paradigm speakers for living room and another Onkyo receiver and x-ls speakers for PC. Headphones and their related amps has me confused though. Checked headfi but my head about exploded with all the technical jargon. I've also been eyeing the x-meridian as a replacement for my PC.
 
If you're looking for a portable setup, I've got to say minibox-D for the amp. It has the profile of like 10 credit cards stacked on top of each other. Yeah, it's that small.

OR

If you want to splurge for a higher end ultra portable, the Tomahawk or the Xin SuperMicro
 
HD650s and HD595s are open cans. Don't use them as portables unless you want everyone to hear your music everywhere you go.

Too add, with that amount of money available for headphones, you'd be hard pressed to find good cans for that money that aren't large heh. If you're really concerned about size, look into some earbuds. There are VERY good ones out there, and ones that can use amps.

I know Shure has some upwards of $500 or something. They'll have what you need.
 
Noise is not a factor because I only use them in my hotel room. And now that I think about it any amp will work as long as its not a tube amp, concerning size. Same with the headphones. Most are already pretty thin. Cyrilix had a great idea that I should buy a good $400 pair of "cans" now and get a nice amp later.
 
Senn HD580's are a great headphone for the $. I got mine for about $125, they're discontinued now so you'll have to search a bit to find a place online that sells them or you can probably pick up a used pair on the head-fi FS. I've seen a couple pairs in the last couple days.

for an amp I do agree that for the price Mister X's XP goes very well with a pair of HD580's. You can get an Alien DAC to pair with the XP if you would like for when you use your PC as source.


Mister X can hook you up with both an Alien DAC and an XP amp. (he'll make them for you) the XP is his own design, and the Alien DAC is a USB powered DAC that i'm pretty sure he'll build for you. I have a couple boards and could build you one, but Mister X is better at that kind of stuff than I am (which is to say he is one of the best there is) and if you could get a combo from him that'd be the way to go. Just shoot him a PM, he's a Hardforum member
 
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