Home > Consumer Reviews > NuForce Icon Mobile headphone amplifier and USB DAC (silver color)

I like this amp, mostly because of it's size and value. It straps nicely on to my Sansa Fuze with a rubber band. It is also surprisingly light in weight. The top is some sort of silvery metal or plastic and the back is black plastic. While it isn't rubberized, it helps in keeping the amp in place and not slide around too much.

The sound is good, especially considering the low price. Warning: you really need to burn in this amp for 40 to 80 hours (I think the NuForce site says 20 hours, but you should do more) before it reaches its full potential. By burning in I mean playing for hours at a time. Just hook it up to the radio and a pair of headphones. It sounds OK out of the box, but it is worth delaying gratification to let it burn in.

It charges quickly, about two hours (first charge is about 4.5 hours). I did have a bum battery with my first one but NuForce replaced it quickly. It plays for anywhere from 13 to 18 hours on a charge.

It puts out enough power for most portable headphones/earphones. Warning: It does not have enough power for large headphones or some earphones that are just hard to power, like the Etymotic 4. It does work very well with NuForce's earphones, at least the NE-8.

The amp, unusual in this price range, does have a good DAC converter for listening to music directly from your computer. You use the mini USB port.

I haven't used the microphone option but have heard it works OK with most cellphones.

One somewhat annoying aspect of this amp is that you need to pull out the earphone plug to turn it off. There is no off/on switch.

If you aren't experienced with portable amps, they can be a revelation. Better sound, volume, clarity, etc. While there are many out there, many for more money, the NuForce represents a good value.

Even though I already have the Icon amp working wonderfully on my desktop system, I wanted something else to play with at home, and also something that would work better on the road. The Icon Mobile does just that!

Like the Icon amp, it functions as a USB DAC. Setup could not be easier. Plug it in, change the sound output in your sound settings, and you are good to go. The unit does not have a power switch...rather, it will turn on when you plug in headphones, and turn off when you unplug them. While connected via USB it will charge the unit, so you can use it with an iPod while on the go. Of course, this will give you another "thing" to carry, but the Icon is so small (smaller than an iPod) it really doesn't matter all that much. It also comes with an elastic band that you can use to keep the two together.

A cool function of the Icon Mobile is that it has two headphone outputs that work simultaneously...this is great for plane rides with a friend, as you can both listen to the same source without using splitters or anything like that. It also lets you easily compare two different sets of headphones quickly and easily. You can adjust the gain on the unit to work with either high or low impedance headphones, too.

This really is a wonderful product...should be required equipment in every laptop bag for anyone who even remotely likes music or movies. At the price, you can't lose!

This is my first headphone amp ever and all I can say is wow! I recently purchased a pair of Alessandro MS-1 headphones and this amp brings out a huge depth and improved soundstage. It also really helps the bass come out on the MS-1s. These headphones are very balanced and the amp does not change that. It just makes all the frequencies come out so you can experience the full range and detail--even at very low volumes. I've had the amp running for about 30 hours so far and the sound just keeps getting better! Another plus is this amp is small and thin (nearly 1/4")--truly credit card sized so its great for the gym and on the go. It's very light too and smartly designed. Looks like it could be knocked about and still keep going. And the silver looks great with my macbook pro!

Upfront, I love quality, only the best is good enough. For this review I don't have a differnet amp to compare, but I like this one. I got new headphones Audio Technica ATH-50 to get better sound out of my iPod. I started to rip everything again in lossless to get instruments sound like instruments, away from this poor mp3 sound (even though I had a great codec). The headphones have low impedance where the iPod is known to be weak. This amp really made a big difference. In the end I had to buy the nuforce accessory kid which has the line out adapter. This is another 50 bucks. But it is worth it, the headphone jack of the iPod is very noisy.

In the end, the biggest sound improvement came from the headphones. Second biggest improvement was the amp on par with lossless format. Last improvement came from line out adapter.

Forgot to mention: This amp has also a DAC and can be used to get really good sound out of your computer.

I received mine very quick and it's a good product when used in my computer. I cannot notice a difference w iPod. I tested it using Grado SR60i and BOSE Quiet Comfort II.