You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions, articles and access our other FREE features. By joining our free community you will have access to post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), respond to polls, download files, upload your own photos and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join our community today!
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact contact us.
Our friends over at Pocket PC tools have found a little portable amp that you can use for high-end headphones with your Pocket PC. The Boostaroo Revolution is a pocket sized amplifier to provide support for high-end headphones (with greater than 60 ohm impedance). So if you're a high-end audiophile, this looks like it might be a good solution for use with your Pocket PC device. ''The Revolution has been scaled down to about the size of a disposable lighter to match the size of the new, smaller MP3 players and features the same durable, high-gloss white plastic housing as today's popular iPods.' The Boostaroo Revolution easily adapts to the PocketPC audio outs, as well as iPods, and other MP3 players, due to its simple 'in-line' design.'
Any audiophiles want to chime in with their opinions?
Audiophiles will spend big money on some little things sometimes.I've seen little 3 inch component feet made of brass the retail for $75 apiece and other seemingly small items the retail for hundreds of dollars. Does it all make a difference? Possibly... but oftentimes I can't hear it.
Sometimes "audiophiles" buy things because they are expensive. I knew a guy who tested all his systems on an oscilloscope but still had a tin ear and couldn't mix pancakes let alone a room.
I have seen speaker wall mounts that are $100 per pair and they are more trouble and no more efficient than the ones at Wal-mart for $20 a pair. Belkin makes a set of FM transmitters that are "Ipod white" and they cost exactly twice as much as the grey ones, Thats not to say this item is not nice sounding. Just out of my range for testing experience.
Processors, memory cards, they can be pretty spensive and small. Some things are expensive because they are small, even non electronics like jewels and coins can be expensive.
Hey, hey . . . Let's get off audiophiles.
This little thing looks pretty cool for headphone users, and should provide much better sound than your standard PC or device into headphones.
For those who have small, unamlified speakers, there is a much better solution, and you can get it right at your local Target. http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html...sin=B00009W44B
This is an absolutely incredible amplifier for those who can use 15 watts. I know there are a LOT of speakers that will play very loud with 15 watts, but this thing is fascinating. I'd say that the first watt is on par with many amplifiers costing several hundred dollars. When you drive it really hard, it will break up a bit, but it never sounds unpleasant.
This is the next revolution in audio, and soon we will all be audiophiles. The digital amplifier revolution has gone from a $25,000 Sharp, which was the first, to this little $29 job. Heck, one can buy an amplifier that is 2x as good as that Sharp for $75 now days, and get a good 40+ watts from it. I have been into audio for a dozen years, and those little $75 Sharps at Overstock.com are as good as my $1,000 tubed integrated was 5 years ago.
Ok. He did say he wanted opinions from audiophiles not about audophiles. After 40 years in music, I probably am one but I never met anyone who immediately claimed to be one that could hear the difference so please disregard my above opinions and one of you deep pocket audiophiles get this baby and test it for the rest of us.
So if I understand you guys, you are saying that the trend for high-end audio is going towards something that can be pocketed? In the past, running a small device such as the MiniDisc player meant I had to take a hit as far as sound quality. Same thing with the Pocket PC. But it sounds like what you are saying is that we can have our cake and eat it too!
So if I understand you guys, you are saying that the trend for high-end audio is going towards something that can be pocketed?
It's an interesting sort of unintended consequence in my opinion. The trend is toward digital because you can get many more clean watts per dollar, and some digital gear can sound remarkably tube-like and lush. The trend toward digital means that power supplies can be dramatically reduced in size. With analog amplifiers, the biggest space hog is the power supply. I had a 100 watt class A amplifier several months ago that weighed 110 pounds. I'll bet that 75+ was just power supply.
With digital amplifiers, one can run switching power supplies, meaning that they are running at a very fast frequency. The faster the frequency, the smaller the supply can be.
The best example in this world that I can think of is the Linn Klimax Solo 500 watt monoblock amplifier. It's one of the top 3 amplifiers I have ever heard in the world, and was really the first to use a switching power supply.
This thing is just over an inch thick, and weighs about 20 pounds. The only reason it weighs 20 pounds is because the chassis is machined from a block of solid aluminum. It puts out 500 of the nicest watts I have ever heard. The only problem is, to be the first, you have to spend the money on the research. And that's why a pair of these is $20,000. It takes a lot of work, and a lot of research to use a fast switched mode power supply and make it quiet enough for use in a high-end product.
They have done it, and their research has spawned many more digital switching amplifiers these days that can be had for just a few bucks, and are really quite surprising.
Jeff Rowland Design Group is famous for making gorilla 400+ pound amplifiers. Their latest is a digital amplifier that weighs 20 pounds, and is about 7" deep, 2.5" thick and 5" wide. And the only reason it weighs 20 pounds is Jeff's fetish for hogging out big blocks of aluminum for his chassis work.
So the trend is toward digital because of watts per dollar, but this also means things are getting smaller because small power supplies generate virtually NO heat versus their non-switching, linear counterparts.
Linear Mode
