[RayleighSilvers]

I realize there have been threads about this already but they are a couple of years old, and my question is slightly different. If you don't want to read the wall of text (understandable), skip to the last paragraph.
 
I have the sansa clip (v1) which I have rockbox'd. The stock buds sounded ok to me. I bought some sony Mdr ex-700's from ebay (which I thought were real) but they sounded a lot better since they were in ear. They unsurprisingly ended up breaking which led me to my next earphone (my biggest mistake). It was a panasonic hje-something. Really cheap and the audio quality showed. After that mistake I decided I would spend some proper money on some good in-ears, which after much research I ended up getting the soundmagic e10's (which received very positive reviews from everywhere). 
 
I plugged them into my clip and was quite underwhelmed. It did sound better than the panasonics but not miles better. After all the reviews I thought these phones would blow me away but they didn't. I messed around with the EQ's but to no avail, it only made things worse. I thought It might be the earphones. The impact from the bass was underwhelming and the songs generally didn't have much energy. I tried the e10's in my cousins HTC XE (w/beats (shudder)). The phones suddenly came alive. Although it was bass heavy, it sounded amazing. It felt like a mini subwoofer.
 
Today I plugged the phones into the line out of some crappy trust speakers, which I connected to the lineout of the onboard sound from my pc. Tried the same songs through winamp/foobar and the phones sounded brilliant. Really came to life. Bass was tight, had plenty of impact, vocals were strong, musical separation was great and soundstage notably bigger. The problem that I thought were the e10's were actually the clip. Everyone keeps saying the clip has very good SQ so why doesn't it work well with the e10's? Does it need an amp to drive the phones? or is the clip itself the problem?

 

[ACDOAN]

The Sansa clip+ is also a beat in term of power. I use the Senn HD 280 ( yes, I know ..) without any additional of external amp and lo and behold, this little thing that I have been considered POS drives the Senn HD280 to insane loud level. Most of all, it sounds damned good.
 
The supplied IEM is okay but , man this little thing SQ is good . I was about to get the Ipod Classic 160gb but it does not have the FM radio, so I picked the Sansa Clip+ to use it for walking my dog. That's how low I thought about this little thing.  With the Senn HD 280, I was in for a big surprise that what this little gem can sound with full size cans.

 

[RayleighSilvers]

Maybe the clip+'s SQ is significantly better, I don't know. I for sure that the player is too weak for me at the moment. whether an amp can fix that or not, I guess I'll have to buy one to find out.

 

[bravo4588]

I use fiio e11 with my clip zip. and these are the changes appeared to me:
*increased volume
*instrument seperation & clarity became a little bit better with my hf5(with my ZX700 not much changed)
*recessed, less punchy bass than the player
 
most of the changes are subtle so borrow an amp from a friend and compare before you decide to purchase an amp.

 

[RayleighSilvers]

Hmmm...Those aren't the changes I was hoping for, especially if they're subtle. I don't have any friends you are into technology as much as me so won't be able to try it. I'm looking to recreate the sound I get from pc's and even mobile phones since they have a lot of energy as well. Whether this is due to coloration I don't know, but I'm not using any equalisations or sound enhancers. 

 

[bravo4588]

Quote:

Hmmm...Those aren't the changes I was hoping for, especially if they're subtle. I don't have any friends you are into technology as much as me so won't be able to try it. I'm looking to recreate the sound I get from pc's and even mobile phones since they have a lot of energy as well. Whether this is due to coloration I don't know, but I'm not using any equalisations or sound enhancers. 

I also think different amps(like high-end ones) can offer different(if not improved) sound signature other than the E11 offers(only amp I've got at the moment). can any head-fier verify this? what about the PA2V2(same price range)?