Hi guys...

I have had my iRiver hd340 for about a year now, and used it with Sennheiser mx500 headphones up 'till now.

Recently, I went and ordered a set of Shure e4 buds (normally they're 300EUR or more, but I could get them for 200). Now I'm in doubt as to whether the combination of those two would be good in itself, or whether I would profit greatly of having a (cheapish) headphone amp to go with them...

The headphone amp would set me back 269$ or more, (I'd take the headroom total bithead), but otherwise I could use some of that money on beer, and spend +-120EUR on an audigy2 zs notebook card... for its EAX capability (read: I play games. a lot.)

Both is not an option and I think that even though the bithead can be used as a soundcard, it won't support EAX

Your ideas, please...

d.

Hmm if my experience with Shure's and Ety's are anything to go by, you won't need a headphone amp unless you intend to have your brain leak out your ears after being squished to mash by the sound waves
If anyone begs to differ, let the flames begin, this is nothing more than my opnion.
But DAP with isolating earphones do not, should not, need amps, no matter what.
I used to have the MX500, and switched to Ety's ER6, but I have tried the Shure e3c's as well, all of this for my iRiver H120.

Volume readings on board a UK commuter train during rush hour: (the max. is 40, default 20)
MX500: 18
Shure e3c: 10
Ety ER6: 9

So I would check the E4's *before* deciding to buy an amp. Chances are you'll end up spending it on booze and the Audigy

hope this helps

Ok...

I wasn't really looking to buy an amp for the extra volume though (I tend to listen on volume setting 5-15 even with my mx500's, I don't need music to be loud)... I thought sound quality would be improved with an amp, and that's the reason I might consider buying one. But if you think sound quality is already very good, the booze and audigy combo is music in my ears

More thoughts, anyone?

d.

Many posters on http://www.head-fi.org/ are fans of amps with portables and good headphones. You might browse that site.

If you pick a pair of phones with a low-ish impedance (E2C, ER6i or one of the ER4s, I can't remember which is which) you shouldn't need an amp,

Most DAPs are intended to work with phones of around 16 Ohms, but some phone models are much higher and these might benefit from an amp.

The improvement it would make on lower impedance phones would be marginal if the DAP is of a reasonable quailty, IMO. The main purpose of an amp is to "buffer" the phones rather than produce high outputs (or at least it should be!). The thoery is that the lower load on the DAP output allows lower distortion. High-impedance phones do need higher voltages though, and there's a better case for using an amp then. For low-impedance phones and a properly designed DAP the case is dubious at best.

Well, the e4's are 29 ohms... does that qualify as a 'high' impedance, being about double the impedance of normal 16 ohms phones, or is that still a lowish number, being about one fourth of the impedance of Shure's e5 model?

I guess I'll just keep the money, and decide when I have the phones whether they need higher quality sound... Also, for the price i'd pay for a nice little headphone amp, I might as well buy a better DAP but let's see first whether my trusty old 340 is up to the task...