[n0ah]

I've moved away from full sized headphones as I'm living with someone who likes having music playing over speakers. I have very little isolated listening time except for my commutes for the most part or runs. My only IEM is the IE6 right now but I plan to go bigger there at some point, but there is audible hiss on my Nuforce Icon HDP. I've been told its normal and I just find it too distracting. I can't have them in with no music playing for more than a couple minutes without getting bad anxiety. I figure $450 should be able to obtain at least almost dead silence.
 
Are there any other amp/dac combos out there that don't suffer with IEM use? I have not been active at all in the head-fi world and consider myself in a unique situation as I don't believe there's many people here who do IEMs for at-desk listening so it makes it sort of a hard thing to search up rather than starting a new thread.

 

[stv014]

The O2 amplifier is well suited for use with IEMs, since it has low noise (-105 dB referenced to 400 mV), low output impedance, and low enough distortion driving low impedance headphones. For the same price ($150), there are probably not many alternatives that would work better in this application.

 

[Wobble]

Hey i stumbled upon this and im in about the same situation, 
I recently ordered some UM Merlins CIEM, i also have a pair of Beyer DT880's 250ohm and Senn IE80s. 
Im looking for a good tube Desktop amp under $500 that has low enough noise and impedance to drive my 12ohm headphones. 

 

[punks15]

Quote:

Hey i stumbled upon this and im in about the same situation, 
I recently ordered some UM Merlins CIEM, i also have a pair of Beyer DT880's 250ohm and Senn IE80s. 
Im looking for a good tube Desktop amp under $500 that has low enough noise and impedance to drive my 12ohm headphones. 

Have you tried Graham Slee Novo?