Electric Avenues PA2V2 headphone amp review

[dalethorn]

Here's my text and video review of the tiny but great PA2V2 amp:

http://www.hifiheadphones.co.uk/for...-electric-avenues-pocket-amp_2-v2-review.html

 

[cubdog]

How do these portable amps compare in sound to some of the smaller but non portable headphone amps?

cubdog

 

[RamblinE]

Won't have time to read this till Saturday. School > airport > Florida > sleep > drive back to PA > Sleep.

What I'm interested in finding out those is how do these units compare to a $30-$60 Cmoy you can buy off Ebay? Think Grado RA-1 in an Altoids tin

 

[dalethorn]

How do these portable amps compare in sound to some of the smaller but non portable headphone amps? cubdog

My total experience is too limited to judge, but here's a recap:

HeadRoom portable, $400, 1999. OK amp, but very little improvement with my Grado 125 or Sennheiser 600 and 650, compared to running from a Sony portable CD player.

Objective2 by JDS, $140 assembled, 2011. Good amp, improvement depends on headphone and method of connecting. With ipod etc, need to connect with LOD cable. Well worth the money.

Audioengine D1, Headstreamer, Dragonfly DACs with USB power sufficient to drive efficient headphones. These sound better than the Objective2 alone without DAC. I would expect the O2 with DAC might sound better, don't know.

FiiO E17 - not as good as PA2V2 from comparable analog input. Narrower soundstage for one.

PA2V2 - Not as detailed and airy as the 3 mini-DACs listed above. I wish I had the O2 amp on hand to compare, but it's gone. There's a really huge improvement running the Senn Amperior compared to iPod alone, but there are some unknowns that would need more tests - more headphones of different impedances, and direct comparison to (for example) the O2 amp.

EDIT: If I had to guess, I would guess the 30-60 dollar eBay amps would be about as good as the FiiO E17, i.e. not near as good as the PA2V2. But that's just a guess.

 

[gargantua]

Have you tried opening it up and experimenting with the gain settings? I found when I got my PA2V2 it was a little "crusty" sounding on my better headphones (Sennheiser HD598, Alessandro MS-1i). After toning the gain down a bit I found the amp much easier to listen to.

 

[cubdog]

Thanks for the info Dale.

cubdog

 

[dalethorn]

Have you tried opening it up and experimenting with the gain settings? I found when I got my PA2V2 it was a little "crusty" sounding on my better headphones (Sennheiser HD598, Alessandro MS-1i). After toning the gain down a bit I found the amp much easier to listen to.

I know whereof you speak. But mine is on low gain now, since I had to go to 2 o'clock or higher for the 65 ohm Shure 1840. If I'm wrong and it's on high gain (unlikely) then I'm in trouble. But the power specs tell the story, and I'm not running the 1840 from the little amp anyway. So I have two new items on the way - a Soundmagic HP100 and a Beyer DTX501p, which I think is a Soundmagic OEM headphone. Both of those should work perfectly with the current setting.

 

[poppachubby]

I have two of these. Have had them for years now. Look at his archives, they answer the questions on this page. Hundreds of satisfied headphone lovers across the world. Kills a typical Cmoy.

I use mine with my portable SanDisk FLAC player. I have also had them in a few interesting configurations...

running from my Creek OBH18 in a mini analog system for headphones.

running from my Valab DAC/Squeezebox.

also running from my portable DVD player for watching Kung Fu flicks.

Here are my images, proudly displayed in his archives!!!

 

[dalethorn]

That's amazing to see those serious cables coming out of that little amp. It does look exactly like my amp. I have one photo I'll post later. I'm still not believing the sound it produces. Way better than I expected.

http://dalethorn.com/Photos/Nikon9300/Headphone_Amp_Pa2v2_01.jpg

 

[dalethorn]

The PA2V2 finally ran down today after 27 days of use. The past 10 days I was thinking, since I use it daily for at least 3 hours, the battery was never going to run down, so I left it on 24/7 for those 10 days and it finally started breaking up.

So it's very efficient when the power is on but not driving a headphone, yet whatever power conservation tech it uses has no tendency to lag when a signal is applied.

 

[RamblinE]

How serious is this little amp? I'm looking at this and the Objective2 as suitable desktop amps for purchase in the near future. Think it can drive the AKG K701s comfortably?

 

[dalethorn]

How serious is this little amp? I'm looking at this and the Objective2 as suitable desktop amps for purchase in the near future. Think it can drive the AKG K701s comfortably?

I'm driving the Shure 1840, a fairly inefficient 'phone, with my lowest-volume track and it plays with good volume. So with the default settings it should drive the AKG's very well. I think there's also a way to set the volume up internally, but I'd have to look it up. Headfonia probably has that in their review.

I had the O2 for several months and can't compare side by side, but I certainly don't hear anything amiss with the PA2V2. I did compare the PA2V2 side by side to the FiiO E17 and there was extremely little difference.

 

[BmWr75]

How serious is this little amp? I'm looking at this and the Objective2 as suitable desktop amps for purchase in the near future. Think it can drive the AKG K701s comfortably?

The PA2V2 is really a portable amp. That being said, I tested it with my K702s and it did a good job driving them.

 

[RamblinE]

The PA2V2 is really a portable amp. That being said, I tested it with my K702s and it did a good job driving them.

That bit about being a portable amp doesn't bother me much. I'm looking for decent performance on a budget and I just can't get the hum out of the tube amp kit I have been trying to use... I want something that's quiet, and works.

 

[dalethorn]

That bit about being a portable amp doesn't bother me much. I'm looking for decent performance on a budget and I just can't get the hum out of the tube amp kit I have been trying to use... I want something that's quiet, and works.

You'll love it. I use it constantly.

 

[uofmtiger]

I have had one for several years, but don't use it as much now since I bought some desktop amps. However, I had an issue with the power cord (it got torn in half), so I contacted Gary and he sent one to me for no charge (years after I bought it).

I was impressed.