[zestinger]

After about a week of use, I am thoroughly enjoying my e5+akgk271. I've tested out to other higher-end amps (and DAC combos) from headroom and nuforce, but in all honesty, for a fifth of the price of the nuforce and almost a tenth of the price of the bithead, this one has far exceeded my expectations.

The dynamics are more pronounced, the bass boost providing just a little extra reinforcement, and the staging of the instruments a little more clear. For 20 dollars, it seems to me that unless you have a 100+ ohm 'phone or absolutely need a DAC, this is the model to turn to.

The only downside in my view is that it seems a little more 'closed' sounding. I can't really describe it better than that except to say it has a little more of that 'in the head' feeling that many people complain about closed headphones in the first place. But I didn't really see an improvement in the openness from any of the other models I tried either, so no harm lost in my opinion.