Best battery powered headphone amp (NO DAC)?

[peatsmoke]

Hey guys, I've been lurking for years and I finally have a question I haven't seen answered recently...

I want a transportable battery powered headphone amp with enough juice to comfortably drive Hd650 and Fostex T50rp. I don't want it to have a DAC and I don't want extra features beyond basic amping. Budget is up-to $300ish, but cheaper, the better. My searches have turned up the Fiio A5 and the Objective2 (with batteries) - are these still good options?

In regard to preferences I do tend to prefer amps on the warmer side of neutral... (I realise this is probably sacrilege on here, sorry!)

 

[peatsmoke]

I'm based in the UK btw!

 

[staticV3]

Hi @peatsmoke ! Welcome to ASR.

Fiio A5 and the Objective2 (with batteries) - are these still good options?

meh
Best option currently is the Topping NX7 for $180. Measurements are here.
It'll comfortably drive most headphones.

 

[peatsmoke]

Best option currently is the Topping NX7 for $180

Thanks @staticV3. It looks very capable. Having read reviews now though there seems to be a trend around terms like punchy, dynamic, forward, THX similar etc. I don't really want anything that's going to tighten up my warmer sources... As I say, I'd prefer my amp to be on the warm side of neutral all things considered. Any edginess in the top end, especially the upper-mids is fatiguing to my sensitive ears

 

[staticV3]

Any edginess in the top end, especially the upper-mids is fatiguing to my sensitive ears

The NX7 has neither top end, nor upper-mids edginess. Any edginess that you might hear with it, comes from your tracks or from your headphones.
The NX7 is just a wire with gain. It neither adds, nor subtracts from the sound. It just uniformly amplifies what is already there.

 

[Phorize]

Thanks @staticV3. It looks very capable. Having read reviews now though there seems to be a trend around terms like punchy, dynamic, forward, THX similar etc. I don't really want anything that's going to tighten up my warmer sources... As I say, I'd prefer my amp to be on the warm side of neutral all things considered. Any edginess in the top end, especially the upper-mids is fatiguing to my sensitive ears

As NX7 will be transparent to your source, it has decent power too so can deal with most headphones.

 

[juliangst]

I'm using the NX7 for months now and it can easily drive anything from sensitive IEMs to power hungry planars like my Aeon Noires. It will drive your T50rp easily

 

[TomW]

I like the Meier Audio Corda Quickstep. Fantastic volume control and build quality. 4mm aluminium front and backplate and thick aluminium case. It works with 9V batteries or separate psu. Enough volume for HD650/dt880, at least for my usecase.
Rechargeable batteries give you 5 hours of use but since you can swap you never run out of power.
It has unbalanced output so it saves the cost of fancy cables.
Lovely unit.

 

[xeizo]

I still have the Topping NX-1, it's superb, any of it's successors down the line will surely suffice. Don't use it anymore though, as my Sony Xperia 5 Mark IV drives the cans I use to full satisfaction from it's built in headphone jack.

 

[Oztayls]

I second the Topping NX-7, but there are lots of people who like the NX-1 too. If you can solder, why not try the ZKIT3 from Decware? https://www.decware.com/newsite/zkit3.htm

 

[AnalogSteph]

If you can solder, why not try the ZKIT3 from Decware? https://www.decware.com/newsite/zkit3.htm

That's a 15-year-old design (suffice it to say a lot has changed since then) with several design decisions that leave me scratching my head. Who wires up a volume pot like that? Why does IC1 need a 100 ohm current limiting resistor? Why is the LoZ output AC-coupled and the HiZ one is DC-coupled? ...