[Viiva]

I'm thinking of buying a pair of ATH M50's for use walking around and for music production at uni.

It'd probably be mostly electronic music but they need to sound at least fairly good no matter what's coming out of them.

Source would be my laptop bought about a year and a half ago and a 5g 30gb ipod.

If i go ahead and buy them will a small portable amp perform well enough like an FiiO E5? or will i need something better to get rid of hiss and whatnot?

thanks

 

[fjrabon]

they shouldn't hiss. A FiiO E5 isn't necessary unless you want more bass.

 

[Edoardo]

they sound very well even straight out of the iPod, but the bass sounds pretty far... to make the bassist come into the room I have to switch my portable Graham Slee Voyager in "contour" mode. I don't know the Fiio but I can say that a "flat" portable amplifier does not help much in giving "subwoofer" power... a desktop one would be useful instead. when I at home I use a 17yo technics stereo system and it's wonderful.
I mean, they're so easy to pilot that a portable amplifier would very probably be obsolete.

 

[mzd]

at 35 ohms they really don't need a dedicated amp. if at some point you want to eek a little more out of them then go for it, but they def don't need it.

 

[rjoseph]

I have a m50 and use it from my itouch. I also have an E5 and it does nothing to the m50. In fact the music sounds better unamped from the itouch. Maybe because the itouch has a built in amp, I dont feel the difference. The m50 does not need an amp.