[wquiles]

This is something that the more experienced forum members already know, but being a newbe, this was great to experience first-hand!

I recently built a high-performance mini^3 amp and although it was a huge improvement for my Senn 580's over the PC headphone output, I was not sure I would needed the mini^3 amp with my Cowon iAudio 7 due to the nice amp in the Cowon, and given that my UE Triple.fi 10's are pretty sensitive. However, during my recent trip to Boston I had plenty of time in the plane to get the gain/volume perfect between the mini^3 and the Cowon to truly do back to back comparisons with my Triple 10's. Sure enough, I was able to verify the clear advantages of the mini^3 (even with an adjusted gain of one): bass becomes more punchy and precise, and the instruments seem more "separated" from each other. I know "volume" or level-wise you don't need to have an amplifier with IEM's, but I am sure to always take my mini^3 while traveling

Will

 

[justhavingfun]

With certain IEM like ER4S, the amp makes big difference in sound quality. And even with easy to drive such as Shure SE530, the amp makes enough difference to my ears that I almost always use my portable amp with it.

 

[Punnisher]

Knowing that sensitive IEMs hiss like mad in portable players, adding a ton of resistance to them is a must for me, so there's no doubt that I'll be wanting/needing an amp when I start using IEMs more.