This fell into the "Cheap enough, worth a pop" category so decided to get one to play around with.
It arrived this morning, no power supply just a USB A to Barrel jack cable and the unit itself, thing is tiny. Got it hooked up to a Topping E50 via XLR and powered at the min with a cheap generic 5V USB charger that might just be 1amp can't make out the ratings anymore.
Tested it out (just listening) with my Sennheiser HD565(fitted with 300ohm drivers) via balanced cable both 4.4 and 4 pin XLR via adapter, seems OK so far it can get very loud 11-12 o'clock on the volume knob is just about too loud. If you're after a small footprint balanced headphone amp this may well be a decent budget option, have seen people also feed it unbalanced signal but may pair well with a D10S balanced or something similar.
Price wise I got mine via amazon for £49 but can be sourced from aliexpress / others for cheaper, didn't want to wait on the shipping.
Modifications:
Nothing crazy, all of the 4 8 pin op amps are socketed with the nicer rounded pin sockets, I left them alone for now though need to order some in maybe OPA2134, was going to use NE5532s but ti don't have enough this thing takes 5v in and feeds the op amps 24v (checked with multimeter) the stock op amps are JRC 4850D but i don't know if they are legit or remarked fakes like LM358s or something. OPA2134 seems better spec'd though with lower THD so opinions and options here welcome.
The thing has a bright blue LED, not the most offensive blue LED but still, that had to go, couldn't find my smaller LEDs(didn't look for them tbh) so threw in a 5mm red lighty uppy boi which just about fit and is visible through the hole in the front panel, will tidy later with something that fits better.
Capacitors: there's 4x 100uf 16v 105c electrolytic caps from JWco and 1x 1000uf 10v 105c Chongx branded electrolytic which people don't seem to be too fond of. so they were all replaced with what i had at hand that fit, which were 4 x Panasonic 100uf 25v 105c and 1x 1500uf 16v(might have actually been a 10v too had both out on my desk thinking about it now the 16v might have been a bit too tall) 105c also from Panasonic.
Was there any improvement? I dunno maybe more punch? Probably not makes me feel better with nicer components there though, more listening to do. Pictures:
It arrived this morning, no power supply just a USB A to Barrel jack cable and the unit itself, thing is tiny. Got it hooked up to a Topping E50 via XLR and powered at the min with a cheap generic 5V USB charger that might just be 1amp can't make out the ratings anymore.
Tested it out (just listening) with my Sennheiser HD565(fitted with 300ohm drivers) via balanced cable both 4.4 and 4 pin XLR via adapter, seems OK so far it can get very loud 11-12 o'clock on the volume knob is just about too loud. If you're after a small footprint balanced headphone amp this may well be a decent budget option, have seen people also feed it unbalanced signal but may pair well with a D10S balanced or something similar.
Price wise I got mine via amazon for £49 but can be sourced from aliexpress / others for cheaper, didn't want to wait on the shipping.
Modifications:
Nothing crazy, all of the 4 8 pin op amps are socketed with the nicer rounded pin sockets, I left them alone for now though need to order some in maybe OPA2134, was going to use NE5532s but ti don't have enough this thing takes 5v in and feeds the op amps 24v (checked with multimeter) the stock op amps are JRC 4850D but i don't know if they are legit or remarked fakes like LM358s or something. OPA2134 seems better spec'd though with lower THD so opinions and options here welcome.
The thing has a bright blue LED, not the most offensive blue LED but still, that had to go, couldn't find my smaller LEDs(didn't look for them tbh) so threw in a 5mm red lighty uppy boi which just about fit and is visible through the hole in the front panel, will tidy later with something that fits better.
Capacitors: there's 4x 100uf 16v 105c electrolytic caps from JWco and 1x 1000uf 10v 105c Chongx branded electrolytic which people don't seem to be too fond of. so they were all replaced with what i had at hand that fit, which were 4 x Panasonic 100uf 25v 105c and 1x 1500uf 16v(might have actually been a 10v too had both out on my desk thinking about it now the 16v might have been a bit too tall) 105c also from Panasonic.
Was there any improvement? I dunno maybe more punch? Probably not makes me feel better with nicer components there though, more listening to do. Pictures: