iPod Suggestion for Headphone amp

I personally use the FiiO E5 with my iPod Classic, nice and portable looks like a little shuffle, USB Chargable and has a button for extra bass.

It is a hit and miss for me, it makes my Bose Around the Ears sound much better and have better bass response and even my cheap Koss KSC-75s sound better, but my Sennheiser HD485 it completely destroys the sound balance on them.

So your mileage may vary, I mean FiiO and custom made portable ones you find on eBay are the only real options I see out there as far as portable amps go.

Fiio E7, ZO Personal Subwoofer.

If you don't need a usb dac, get the fiio e11 over the e7, it is cheaper too at about 65$. Another option around that price is a cmoy, they are the amps in altoid cans, you can find a bunch on ebay, but I've heard good things about JDS labs cmoyBB.

If you want really good audio advice check out the forums on head-fi.

Oh, and with whatever you get us a lod, so that you bypass the ipods internal amp. Fiio makes some good ones, like the L9.

I've just bought a FiiO E5 a few hours ago in Amazon UK to use with my HD 448. I'll let you know how they work out.

Several people recommend using it with a direct dock-connector to amplifier cable (therefore bypassing the built-in amplifier of the iPhone/iPod), but I'm not using it only with my iPhone, so I didn't splurge for it.

I still have to make my mind

UPDATE: I'll try to put in words my thoughts on the Fiio E5. I don't know If I'll be capable of doing it succesfully.

So, the Fiio E5 arrived today, I've been using it the last few hours on my laptop, and altough I'm not exactly dissapointed, I must say I was overly more excited before getting it than now that it is here.

Comparing the sounds side to side (the sound of different genres of music with and without the amp) I can say that the amp sound is definitively Warmer (Does everyone understand when I say that the mid's have more "punch"?) and gives the soundstage a richer continuity from bass to treble, it is like fuller. You can listen the difference mainly on vocals, and in classical music and acoustic genres.

I don't know if I like it more than the sound of the HD448 connected directly to the laptop. I guess so. I'll keep you posted when I test it with the iPad and the iPhone.

iEvolution said:

... but my Sennheiser HD485 it completely destroys the sound balance on them...

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Could you please elaborate a little more on what you mean by destroying the sound balance? Is it the left-right balance? Or more like a frequency balance?

Thanks. I think I'm getting paranoid.

cdcastillo said:

Could you please elaborate a little more on what you mean by destroying the sound balance? Is it the left-right balance? Or more like a frequency balance?

Thanks. I think I'm getting paranoid.

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Frequency balance, Lows take a front seat to mids and highs when I use it on that particular set.

Jmouse said:

What is Usb Dac , sorry im a newbie in this.

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DAC is digital to analog converter. A USB DAC takes your computer's digital signal and converts it to audio itself, rather than using the computer's own DAC. It should give a better result.