One additional point on amping this player:
The main reason I was able to get away with having a good sound in the end is what I was pairing with in the headphone department: Heir Audio 4.Ai - these IEMs are notorious for detail in the upper mids & highs - they go out hunting for it and come to the door of your eardrum on bended knee with their day's gatherings.
Were I pairing with anything less detail focussed, I would have foregone the amping in the first place. In fact, the amping was to make up for the sensitivities in the highs in these phones to begin with - and to help these IEMs to finally put their double low-end drivers to work.
When listening to this player with my LCD-2s, there is no need for additional amping. With a set of Grado SR325s, I can take or leave the amping. With Shure 425s, amping tends to make the lows overblown - and the mids hide behind rocks...or something.
Anyhow, it's about every component in the line. Just wanted to be more clear about the fact that I don't recommend amping this player unless you're dissatisfied with the sound as it currently comes through your phones.
Believe me, pairing Heir 4.Ai with the Studio was nice - but so breathy and lacking in the lows that it essentially sounded like a junky set of 'tinny' in-ears + great clarity in the tin. A super-focused tin-can sound, you could say.
Hope that explains my reasoning, and I hope I'm not:
Just always wanted to use that smiley!