Wolfie's Travels

Like any good dog, I take my favorite human with me. Now they get bored easily so I find making sure they have good music to listen to keeps them in line. My human loves 80′s Music and this stuff called Classical music. In fact I am named after a very famous classical guy Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. When we walk my human has these things that go in his ears. He is always complaining about how bad and not very loud the audio is. Which is surprising as he actually is an audio gooroo (they say it is spelled guru but that makes no sense to me). So for Christmas I got him this:

Breathmints you say? Oh No not just breath mints – though he needs them – this is a inexepensive homemade audio amplifier. Now my human can make these himself, but he likes to spend time with me and so I found this from a guy in Kansas. This is called a CMOY headphone amp. It runs on two nine volt batteries and WOAH the audio is fantastic now (or so my human says).

Now CMOY is a funny name, but it is a device named after a guy (Chu Moy) who decided he could build the same audiophile amp others charged hundreds of dollars for, for cheap – and he did. You can build one yourself for about $15-20, or buy this one for under $50 (including fast shipping).

Here is the link to buy one on ETSY - http://www.etsy.com/shop/Ampedup?ref=top_trail

He also sells on ebay. There are more expensive ones (not much more) that are nice as well like this one that has an extra feature or two - http://www.jdslabs.com/

Or if you want to build one for about $20 in parts and shipping - http://www.electricsumo.com/shop/new-banzai-v2-cmoy-hi-fi-audiophile-headphone-amplifier-kit/ (takes time to ship this is in Thailand). You have to supply your own tin of course. If my human has time away from me I may get him one to build.

Personally I think I made the right choice in using AmpedUp as the builder, it was less money and my smart human likes the Op-Amp used (audio gooroo term for part that makes the audio louder) and says it sounds the best over the Op-Amp used in jdslabs CMOY tin. The Kit in Thailand uses a similar Op-Amp to the one my human likes.

He likes it so much he uses it between his iPhone and Stereo in the car too!!

By the way he uses two types of headphones – those that go in your ears and those that go over your ears. My human is kind of cheap, but like I said he is an audio gooroo (I know I know its guru but that doesn’t look right). So he found these that go in your ears for under $100 and sound great!!  They are Grado iGi ear buds

http://www.amazon.com/Grado-iGi-In-Ear-Headphones/dp/B002QL1KRS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1324831854&sr=8-1

And for over your ears he likes these (also) Grado SR80i headphones.

http://www.amazon.com/Grado-Prestige-SR80i-Stereo-Headphone/dp/B000G3LCQC/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1324832015&sr=1-1

He says for under $100 it is like being in a concert hall – and my bonus is they are open ear so when he blasts them I get to hear too – however my other human he calls The Wife doesn’t like that much at night so he uses the in your ear ones when she is around.

He says that’s why he loves the little CMOY amp I got him because the Op-Amp it is the same chip in the Grado RA-1 battery headphone amp ($350) I saved $300!!! Plus the Tin looks way cooler!

So be nice to your human and treat his ears to a treat – and keep him from getting bored and in trouble. I know whenever I am bored I get in deep trouble!