I use a Grado headphone amplifier which is relatively compact, gives reasonable battery life with a 9 volt battery and sounds very good with headphones.
Do you wish to carry CDs and a player of some sort or are you willing to use a computer and compressed formats for your listening material?
If you intend to be computer based, I would love to hear from anyone who knows if there are notebook computers available with audiophiley, line level outputs or DACs?
One other tip: I have never tried them, but a company called Monsoon made two little planar speakers for use with computers. Two speakers with a little sub were small, very cheap (<$150) and Stereophile claimed they sounded surprisingly good when listened to in nearfield.
Good luck.
Do you wish to carry CDs and a player of some sort or are you willing to use a computer and compressed formats for your listening material?
If you intend to be computer based, I would love to hear from anyone who knows if there are notebook computers available with audiophiley, line level outputs or DACs?
One other tip: I have never tried them, but a company called Monsoon made two little planar speakers for use with computers. Two speakers with a little sub were small, very cheap (<$150) and Stereophile claimed they sounded surprisingly good when listened to in nearfield.
Good luck.