ALO Pan Am portable and home valve headphone amp/USB DAC

[shigzeo]

 

Primarily, this forum is dedicated to dedicated PC audio hardware, but I've been finding new lease on portable amps/DAC's recently. This year, I've been pretty interested in what ALO Audio have put out for the headphone world and I hope someday, they implement their tight designs in small power amps.

 

The spec is pretty 'about':

Input: USB, 3,5mm stereo mini, analogue RCA

Output: 6,3mm stereo headphone plug, 3,5mm stereo mini plug

Valves: 61J compatible valves

Battery run time: ~8-10 hours

Compatible impedance range: 8-600Ω (but I found the best match is 50-600Ω)

 

I live in Japan, so a power-hungry power amp and large speakers to go with my music server are right out. In fact, my current home system is none other than the compact CEntrance DACmini PX, which does a more than respectable job of pushing speakers, and is perfect with headphones.

 

Surprisingly, the Pan Am, a mains or battery or wall wart powered amp that comes rings in at less than 800$ with all the necessary bits: battery module (Passport) and Pan Am amp, actually pushes my DT880 600Ω to much much higher levels of performance (output power) than the DACmini does.

 

I've detailed my findings here and am interested in knowing how others are getting on with this amp. Please speak up as I am keen on finding brothers and sisters here.

[HiFiInsider]

I like to get my hands on that.

[burnspbesq]

I like to get my hands on that.

 

Love the form factor, but (a) I'm not really a tube guy and (b) I already have one high-end DAC, with another on order. I wonder if I could persuade Ken to put the guts of an Rx Mk3 in a Pan Am case ...