DIY products are becoming increasingly popular within the audio realm.  Now, if you’re in desperate need of a headphone amp but don’t have at least $100-$200 to dish out, you can rest easy knowing you could simply scope the web, pull up a DIY site loaded with instructions and build your own for under 20 bucks.  That’s pretty sweet.

DIY headphone amps are popping up all over eBay.  Often referred to as CMoys after the original designer Chu Moy, these homemade amps are pocket-sized and commonly built inside an Altoids tin box.  Normally, the design is based on either a single or dual-channel op-amp like the OPA2132PA or OPA134 by Burr-Brown.  Amazingly, one 9 volt battery can run the mini amp for hours.  Moreover, many who have built or purchased one will agree that these little CMoys are alarmingly powerful, so much so that they can drive headphones like the Sennheiser HD600s or even Grados.

Interested in building your own CMoy but worried you might not have the required knowledge base to do so?  Don’t worry.  Simply Google CMoy and you’ll find a number of websites that go into great detail about what to purchase and how exactly to put it all together.  Nevertheless, you could also save yourself the time and hassle by simply purchasing one from eBay (after all, that’s what we did).