Have your say & ask the experts!

Any recommended battery powered home headphone amps?

5 replies [Last post]
Big Chris
Big Chris's picture
Offline
Joined: 3 Apr 2008
Posts: 5280

Title says it all. No spare mains sockets and I only use my headphones occasionally, but I would like to improve on the headphone output of my A85.

I was wondering about battery powered headphone amps that will accept a pair of phono cables direct from my CDP.

No budget really. Feel free to chime in with anything, bearing in mind my cans are Grado SR125s (circa £150 IIRC).

__________________

Hi-Fi: Arcam A85, P85, CD192. B&W 602S3, PV1, Grado SR125, Atlas Titan, Hyper 2.0.

A/V: Sony KDL-V40A12U, BDP-S760, Humax Youview, Onkyo TX-SR875, B&W MT30 7.1, QED HDMI-P, S.A XT

dalethorn
dalethorn's picture
Offline
Joined: 7 Dec 2011
Posts: 701
RE: Any recommended battery powered home headphone amps?

Don't restrict yourself to amps with internal swappable batteries.  Any amp that runs from a wall-wart which converts AC to DC for the amp can qualify.  Just go to Radio Shack or whatever and get a battery clip that holds the necessary amount of cells and plug that into the amp's DC input.  The advantage besides having a better selection is better sound, with the batteries external to the amp.

__________________

SoundMagic HP200, Final Audio FI-BA-SS, V-Moda M100, Sennheiser IE800, Beyer DT770LE, FiiO E07K/MicroStreamer/Vamp Verza DAC/amps, FiiO E12/Zen Head amps.

matthaskell
matthaskell's picture
Offline
Joined: 8 Nov 2010
Posts: 146
RE: Any recommended battery powered home headphone amps?

How do the batteries outside the unit improve the sound?

matt

__________________

Leema Pulse | Denon 1911 | LG 50" plasma| Marantz CD6003 | Sony 370 bdp | B & W 602 S3 | AE Radience sub | AKG K450 | AKG K44 | Senns 300cx II | iPad2  | Apple TV | Spotify premium. 

Petherick
Petherick's picture
Offline
Joined: 29 Oct 2008
Posts: 337
RE: Any recommended battery powered home headphone amps?

matthaskell wrote:

How do the batteries outside the unit improve the sound?

matt

Maybe the 10kg battery pack makes you walk slower, so you enjoy the music more? ohhh sure

__________________

 

dalethorn
dalethorn's picture
Offline
Joined: 7 Dec 2011
Posts: 701
RE: Any recommended battery powered home headphone amps?

Most battery-powered amps are relatively inexpensive and don't have as much shielding as the better amps. So there is more likelihood of interference having the batteries inside, but less convenient of course having them externally. It probably doesn't make a lot of difference in sound on that issue - the more important issue is that you can choose from a much greater selection of amps if you allow for external batteries.

__________________

SoundMagic HP200, Final Audio FI-BA-SS, V-Moda M100, Sennheiser IE800, Beyer DT770LE, FiiO E07K/MicroStreamer/Vamp Verza DAC/amps, FiiO E12/Zen Head amps.

Big Chris
Big Chris's picture
Offline
Joined: 3 Apr 2008
Posts: 5280
RE: Any recommended battery powered home headphone amps?

I hadn't thought of that Dale.good job

__________________

Hi-Fi: Arcam A85, P85, CD192. B&W 602S3, PV1, Grado SR125, Atlas Titan, Hyper 2.0.

A/V: Sony KDL-V40A12U, BDP-S760, Humax Youview, Onkyo TX-SR875, B&W MT30 7.1, QED HDMI-P, S.A XT