Portable headphone amps, anyone?

Bob Boyer

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#1
Looking at the iFi nana iDSD headphone amp/DAC combo to try putting a little more umph behind my Beyer cans than the built-in amp in the Astell & Kern player. Looks decent for $200. Need a battery powered amp so it can travel with the A&K. Anyone using it or something similar? Let me know your thoughts, please.

Thanks in advance.
 

mr_rye89

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Bump! Did ya ever find anything? I know nothing about portable headphone amps of the solid state variety. I did build this portable tube headphone amp though……

A.N.T. May have something, he designs amps
 

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mr_rye89

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3S4 x2, power pentode (lol) 1.5 volt filament (100ma) 90 volts on the plate max. you cant see em glowing unless its real dark. they're tied to some 70 volt speaker transformers to match to the outputs. I have some little battery operated tube radios from the 1940s around that use the same tube for the outputs which drive a little speaker to where you can hear it pretty loud so I thought it would work for headphones too! output transformers aren't really optimal though and I don't want to wreck my little radios....
 

J!m

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I’m building a non-portable one now, but I suspect it could be modified to run on batteries…. Designed by Wyn Palmer who designed the works beater phono preamp I’m also building.
 

Bob Boyer

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Bump! Did ya ever find anything? I know nothing about portable headphone amps of the solid state variety. I did build this portable tube headphone amp though……

A.N.T. May have something, he designs amps
Nah, been spending too much on the Suburban and trailer getting them ready for this desert SW trip next month and January. This thing will roll out of Chattanooga with 250,000 miles on the odometer; I'd prefer that nothing break down in the middle of nowhere, west Texas.

I may be in the market after we recover from it sucking gas for 4500 or so miles. Maybe around March or so. It's tough having champagne tastes and a beer budget.


Edit: I'll check with Alex - that's a good idea.
 
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