So,

I put together my first portable headphone amp kit, with a small Samsonite olive drab magnetic flap cell phone case (carbiner clip and belt clip). Case was under $10 at Walmart. I can shake the case and the Tomahawk wont push the magnetic flap open or fall out.

The iPod case clips to the side of the Samsonite phone case. I think the ipod case is a griffin 3-way leather case with magnetic flap/and button snap. This case was under $20 (either radioshack or compusa, I forget). I also have a clear acrylic case that clips to the Samsonite well, but the ipod could slide out of that case with a hard jolt (i.e. short drop and sudden stop).

The interconnect cable runs along the back of the cases, almost between them, using a zip tie to hold the rolled up cable out of the way. Then my E4c pass out of the Samsonite case and head up to my ears.

It's pretty compact, and easy to access the iPod or Tomahawk controls without dropping anything on the ground. I just clip the carabiner to a belt loop, or a safari bag over my shoulder.

I can't stand the volume louder than having both the iPod and RSA turned up to 75% each, and I don't know how many hours are on the amp's batteries. This is with either my 8gb 2nd gen or 2gb 1st gen iPod with sound check off/eq flat. I haven't tried my 5.5 gen 80gb yet.

The sound is clearly better than iPod alone, and still clearly better than my old radioshack headphone amp, which I thought was an improvement over bare ipod until I got to try something better today.

I have an "iPod dock-connector to 3.5mm plug" cable on order from the cheap guys on ebay until I can afford an ALO cable (also bought an iBasso D1 and Ultrasone HFI700 DVD, so that's it for now).

I think you will find more improvement in SQ if you use the iPod line-out instead of amping from headphone out.

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Perhaps that wasn't stated emphatically enough.

It is essential to get a line-out/dock interconnect to bypass the inferior amp in the iPod. My recommendation is one well-made cables from ALO Audio (one of our sponsors) -- the choice being dependent on your budget -- but do some research.

Using the headphone out, you're just making the limited sound quality louder and you're missing out on greater dimension, clarity, separation, imaging, and a generally more "live"/immersive quality that you'll hear connect an amp to the iPod's dock/line out.

All that aside -- Congratulations on your new portable rig!!!

x3 on the line out vs. headphone jack


Nice job on the rig! Be sure to get a dock cable that is long enough to accommodate your setup. Most of them are made for the amp to be in a brick with the player and are therefore very short.

nice looking rig! hope you're enjoying the tomahawk as much as i did!

Other good options exist for the line out dock (LOD):

qables.com
sendstation pocketdock
eBay
DIY (if you're into that sorta thing)

Did none of you notice that in the last paragraph before the pics I said, and I quote:

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I actually bought a couple of cheap ones before I posted, until I can afford the good ones, but they aren't here yet.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...MEWN:IT&ih=009

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...MEWN:IT&ih=017