Full-Size headphone amps and iPods??

Noob alert! At the risk of asking a dumb question, I'm goin' for it.. my only source at the moment is my 4G iPod touch.  I only use it indoors at home in my chair. I'm starting to get into some better full sized headphones that could benefit from an amp. Now, my question is must I search for an appropriate "portable" headphone amp, or in my situation where I only use my ipod in my chair next to a desk, should I look into getting a full size desktop type headphone amp? Are there reasons that's not feasible?

I just ordered some ATH-AD700s and if they disappoint I am going to try something like Senn HD 598. Either way I'm sure I'm going to end up with several full sized cans before it's said and done. This hobby seems like headphones might be like golf clubs or fishing rods, can't have just one. :)

Just want to get an idea what I want so I can start saving up for the amp. THANKS

Thanks a bunch! Yeah I'm sure I won't need it to be portable. I'm disabled and stuck in my apartment 90% of the time. Music is mostly what I have to occupy me while I'm home so in those rare instances where I get out I try to give it a break.

I've had the last 3 generations of the iPod touch. Growing up in the 70's I had a pretty nice component setup which is long gone now. I want to put together something like that again but I live on the first floor and all of my neighbors are elderly and I don't think they would dig me blasting music and I do my best to respect my neighbors as I'm getting closer to their age every day :) Having grown up with records, I want badly to jumb back on that vinyl wagon but every time I investigate what I need it seems like it's not obtainable financially speaking. Maybe someday.

I listen mainly to various forms of rock music. I would like to get into some classical but it's another one of those deals where I wouldn't know where to start and it's on my todo list to find out.

2 related questions:

1.) I had know idea if an iPod would even hook to a desk type amp so now that I know it will I gotta ask, is it something that people normally do? If they don't, is it only because of the portability aspect? I assume the desk amps were probably a little higher in price, but thought they might be better if they would work but these were just uneducated assumptions on my part so feel free to tell me if you think I'm going about this wrong. Also tell me if you think I'm going wrong using an iPod as a source because don't assume I know much about this stuff, I don't. LOL

2.) Now I will look into those Little Dot as you suggest and price is going to be a factor for sure. I just want to understand what I'm looking for. Will I need to look for specifically a "desktop amp" or do I need a DAC also, or do they put these two together and call it something else?

You woud think as much as I've read on here I would know this stuff, but every post I read seems to assume everyone was born with this knowledge, everyone but me. :) You guys all seem really advanced but I haven't found a headfi for dummies section so I thought i'd place my question here. I really appreciate any help I can get.

Thanks again!

Yes I do have a laptop, 2 of them. Nothing special. I bought a cheap HP on a Memorial Day sale at BestBuy for $349. It has a 14" screen and I also have a 23" Acer H223H HD Monitor that I used with a Mac mini I no longer have. I suppose it would make a lot more sense to build a computer system than mess with this iPod, but for some reason I couldn't see the forest for the trees. :)

I don't have an amp budget in mind yet.

I have some things to sort out first. I need to make an appt with the ear doctor again.I'm back to where I have 24-7 pressure and pain in both ears. My eustation(sp?) tubes don't function properly. This has been going on off and on for 4 years. The last specialist punctured my ear drum (on purpose) to see if I was going to be a candidate for tubes in my ears, and long story short, he felt I wasn't. I'm miserable. I think a week or so of testing the Grado SR60i just made things worse. I may have another sinus infection that has gone to my ears. Who the heck knows? I do know I don't normally make out with closed phones or anything bass heavy that would drive pressure in my ears so it somewhat limits my choice of cans.

We crank the car stereo and it has no ill affects on me so it seems I'm sensitive to phones. I fear that if I don't find something I can live with in the Audio Technica or Senn lineup, I may be out of the phone business and just buy some speakers. Living in an apartment, the phones would be better (for my neighbors).

The only thing I know for sure is my wife and I have over 1,000 CDs in our collection and not a darn thing to enjoy them on other than our iPods and crappy PX100s at the moment.

While my ears take some time to sort out, I want to read all I can read and ask as many questions as I can so that I understand what my options are. It's really hard to make a decision about direction when you have no idea what half this terminology means and what these different pieces of equipment do. I'm enthusiastic though that I can sort it out with a little help from good people like yourself.

So right now:

1. Go see the ear doctor

2. Try a few more phones and see if I can live with something

3. Go forward once I know if this is going to be about headphones, or speakers

I'd be very interested to hear more about your vinyl setup. As many details as you'd like to share and if you'd rather do it via PM, that's cool as well.

One thing I think I am going to rule out is doing anything with my iPod. there is no point since I don't need the portability and am just going to stay planted in the chair. Plus that's something I can sell if I need to, to help gather more funds. I will be in a situation where I have to buy things a piece at a time more than likely, and I don't mind that at all. I imagine I can come up with a grand more by christmas time, not counting the headphones I already have money for.I'd like to not buy junk, though I realize this isn't a poor mans hobby. Heck, no hobby I've ever had is cheap.

In the interest of furthing my education I have another question. If I decided that my computer was going to be my one and only source and I set up the room with my laptop running my Acer monitor AND IF the worse case scenario occured where I could not mess with headphones because of my ear issues and had to rely on say a pair of bookshelf speakers.. Do bookshelf speakers hook to some of those amps or at that point do you give up the laptop and build a home stereo sytem from components like a receiver or integrated amp and a component cd player? Like I said, I just don't understand my options. I more/less do understand what I need for the laptop if I am able to use headphones as we discussed above but that's 50/50 at best.