Headphone Amp on a Budget

Hello, I'm new here and would like some advice concerning headphone amps. I pretty much have no knowledge on the matter, all I know is that my headphones aren't performing at their full potential, and I need a headphone amp to get them there. The problem is, I'm 16 so I don't have enough money to be dropping around $500 on high-end equipment. I'm looking for a decent amp, that's affordable ($200 is my limit for now), and powerful enough to properly drive my headphones. I don't even own an amp, so I really want to start somewhere decent. My headphones are AKG k271's btw, if that matters.

Well, my old set up was a CD player connected to an integrated(?) amplifier I got at a thrift store. Again, I don't know what that means, I saw it at the store, and thought it would help with sound quality. the amp died recently though, so it's just the CD player now. I tend to use my laptop as a source just as much as I use my CD player. I don't know what sound card my laptop has, but it has "Dolby Audio", if that helps. The sad thing is, my laptop sounded better than the CD player/amp combination, so I knew I was doing something wrong, or the equipment was bad, or both. I've been reading through the forums ever since I posted this question, and the "Matrix M-Stage" keeps coming up as a good pairing for AKG's. The other recurring suggestions were the "NuForce Icon uDAC-2" and the "fiio E9".

estreeter, thanks man. Just wondering, have you tried them?

Haha good point. I've been reading up on the UHA-4 and from what I've read, it seems like people are mostly using it for IEM's and such. Now the debate in my head is whether to get the UHA-4, or a fiio e7/e9 combo. On paper, the fiio combo is more appealing as the e7 functions as the DAC, and the e9 functions as the amp (to my understanding), which would theoretically bring more of an improvement. Don't get me wrong estreeter, I appreciate the suggestion, but I just want to explore all the options before I decide. Thoughts anyone?

So I did more reading, and apparently the FiiO E7/E9 combo can only connect to a computer =/ That should be good enough, but is there a way to connect my CD player to it? Cus my plan was to connect my CD player to the FiiO combo, then to some sort of receiver, which would then be connected to speakers (I mainly use headphones, but the option for out loud listening would be nice.) Is there any way to do that? And would that be a good idea, or am I misusing the equipment?

Thanks for the advice! Yeah, I'm not referring to little portable CD players though, if that's what you meant by "old school CD players", I meant the ones that stay at home and are intended for sitting down and listening too. I refrained from calling it a stereo in my earlier post because it is a dedicated CD player that takes a 1/4 jack and has RCA connections on the back, and I thought stereos were those all-in-one type deals (which shows my lack of knowledge, sorry haha.) So it's considered a stereo system then?

And my main issue isn't that I want speakers (though it would be nice to have everything all in one setup), it's that I want to amp up my CD player using the FiiO combo, but the FiiO combo only has an RCA out, and not an RCA in.

I think I'm babbling on too much. I think the better suited question would be: Is there an amp that I can use with both my laptop AND my CD player/stereo system?

Sorry if I'm asking stupid questions..

Awesome, I already have one of those lying around! I read somewhere that RCA to 3.55mm diminishes SQ, though, is there any truth to that? Well, either way, it looks like it's the most promising set-up, and fits my needs. Thanks guys, I appreciate the help!