Headphone amp reccomendations

[OneZero]

There are some early reports that the SR MBPs have a lot of (unresolvable) interference over the headphone-out jack.

Before I drop the cash on one of these, wouldn't using the optical-out to a headphone amp solve the problem? Apparently, the optical-out's sound quality is flawless, and not subject to the headphone interference. I'd prefer the optical-out solution b/c there's no additional CPU or I/O processing that I'd imagine a USB solution might impose (however, if you have a good USB sound device solution, post it!).

Now the question is, do you have any recommendations for such an amp? Also, do you know of any that might be battery powered, since one advantage of a laptop is to break the power-cord tether?

[zimv20]

this guy (http://benchmarkmedia.com/dac1/) sounds really good. i've got the black one.

[OneZero]

Thanks for the info. Spec-wise, that's nearly perfect. Not terribly portable (no battery power), and OUCH on the price (but, I know that's about par for the course ... I hate the idea of paying to fix Apple's problem).

I stumbled across this combo:

http://www.headphone.com/products/headphone-amps/the-micro-line/headroom-micro-amp.php
http://www.headphone.com/products/headphone-amps/the-micro-line/headroom-micro-dac.php

I suppose the DAC on its own would solve the problem.

[PecanEater]

I've read good things about this guy - http://www.electric-avenues.com/

I was thinking about buying a pair of mid range Grados awhile back and heard about this amp on some of the headphone forums.

He sells on ebay.

I'd love to hear what you think if you buy one.