grado rs2i

Op, how much are you willing to spend? do you need a portable amp, or full size? 

Little Dot MkIII, it's a very smooth-sounding amp. Also that harshness could be from the source - what resolution are you running from the iPod? Any compression, even "lossless," has some digital artifacts that are more audible, and that's not just "audiophile" music, which tend to be well sorted out so they get a little more elbow room. From my own music library metal tracks get the distorted (effects pedal) guitars distorted (as real the actual deviation from the original) when compressed. Like the same album can sound "right" with warm and crunchy Distortion Effects on a regular system then suddenly sound like they used a Fuzz pedal when compressed to AAC 128kbps.

I have the RS2i, and I heard the same harshness. A tube amp will help alleviate it, but at this price range if you like to go SS take a look into KICAS Caliente.

Without actually hearing your set up it is difficult to tell, but my guess is less ideal up stream components such as the ipod amplify the inherent harshness of the RS2i. SS tend to err more easily than tubes. With a good tube amp and source it is possible to reduce the harshness to much less of an issue.

Have you tried another phone with the ipod and e7 ? If you heard the same harshness then it is not the RS2i.

KICAS Caliente is a SS design but somehow managed to behave tubey like and seem to match well with the RS2i. It also seem to preserve the tonality of the RS2i quite well. As I see it, what separates the RS2i from lower grados is its better tonality, thanks to the wooden chamber may be, and I want an amp that would retain that.

At your budget, I would also take a look at the new Musical Paradise 301 MkII. Skylab will have a review on these.

I've got a 6Gen Nano running ALAC, and I dont have any problems with that into my modded SR60i - I admit that the SR325is will still ambush me on occasion, but that is less about the iPod and more about the phones.

I did a lot of research around amps which power low impedance headphones and discovered that if you want a tube amp then you need to look at either a hybrid tube amp or a tube amp coupled with a transformer. The majority of tube amps are OTL which do not pair well with low impedance headphones such as the RS2i. I also found that tube amps that are coupled with a transformer were generally out of my budget (but am saving and looking at an antique sound labs my local distributor carries). After doing my research I discovered that one of the most highly regarded hybrid tube amps when paired with grados was the LD 1+ and as a bonus it is cheap like borscht. 

I've now had it for a bit more than a month and have upgraded the tubes and opamp (cheap amp with 3 family's of tubes and tons of opamp rolling options) and with my RS2i's the sound is amazing. I would highly recommend this little amp to anyone wanting great sound with many opportunities to customize that sound further. 

I dunno about the RS2i but my SR225 sounds great with the LD MkII, which is OTL.

Not sure if it's in the budget (300 pounds = ~600USD?), but the Mapletree Ear+ HD is well-known for its synergy with Grados.  I have one paired with an RS1 and it's a fantastic combo.

ur gonna want a nontube amp due to the grado's ohms. here's a rule i learned before:

-headphones with 150ohms or higher, both tube and nontube amps are good

-headphones lower than 150ohms, use solid state

ur also gonna want to ditch ur ipod unless you bypass the ipod's dac like using wadia dock/idecco. then connect it to any solid state amp/dac. i strongly want you to try the dacmini, beyerdynamic a1, burson audio, or even the grado amps themselves. if you love tubes then get a hybrid amp. the music hall 25.2 amp is both tube and solid state that goes very well with any grado headphones. i use my rs2i,325, ps1000, and rs1 with it and you will love it, hopefully.

As mentioned before, grab a used MAD Ear+ amp (~$500?). Also, grab a pair of TTVJ flat pads for the RS-2i (~$40).