[Saint Henrik]

Hi fellow headfiers.

I recently bought Heir Audio's upgraded model of their 4.ai iems which is called 4.ai s and i also own Sony Xperia S and Sony Walkman Z.
And now I'm planning to buy my first portable amp to improve the performance of the iems. But my problem is that I don't know much of anything about portable amps.
I have thought about using the amp with my smartphone Xperia S and then listen through Spotify (320 kbps) but I have heard that it's not possible to connect amps to smartphones.
So I have thought about connecting the amp to the Walkman Z and sharing the network from my smartphone to the Walkman that has Wi-Fi and android and then listen using Spotify.
I hope that makes some sense.
So what do you think about that setting? And what portable amps would you recommend?
All help, opinions and basic information would be highly appreciated.

Thank You

 

[Saint Henrik]

bump

 

[spook76]

You can absolutely connect a portable amp to a smartphone. If you do not want to use or the phone does not have a line out use the 3.5mm headphone out. You then connect your IEM to the headphone out on the amp.

I started my audio journey doing exactly that set up even now I use an iPod Touch as my DAP (digital audio player). An amp can certainly improve your sound but before I can give you recommendations what is your price range?

 

[MattAnthony1990]

this isn't the correct forum to post this in. Take a look at the big red bold print at the top of the main page. Just a heads up for you.

 

[Saint Henrik]

You can absolutely connect a portable amp to a smartphone. If you do not want to use or the phone does not have a line out use the 3.5mm headphone out. You then connect your IEM to the headphone out on the amp.

I started my audio journey doing exactly that set up even now I use an iPod Touch as my DAP (digital audio player). An amp can certainly improve your sound but before I can give you recommendations what is your price range?

Thank you for replying. My price range would be around 0-400 $

 

[Saint Henrik]

this isn't the correct forum to post this in. Take a look at the big red bold print at the top of the main page. Just a heads up for you.

I'm sorry if this is wrong place for this but mobile version of head-fi doesn't show any red print for some reason

 

[spook76]

Thank you for replying. My price range would be around 0-400 $

Well the choices in that price range are huge. You could start with a Fiio E11 for around $70 all the way to the Pico Slim for around $400. What kind of sound are you looking for warm, analytical or ever a bass boast?

 

[Saint Henrik]

Well the choices in that price range are huge. You could start with a Fiio E11 for around $70 all the way to the Pico Slim for around $400. What kind of sound are you looking for warm, analytical or ever a bass boast?

I'm pretty sure neutral/analytical sound would be what I'm looking for. I don't listen much bass heavy stuff like edm or dubstep. And the iems (4.ai) has neutral sound signature that I like. I have thought about the Fiio e11 but I'm not sure would it be much of an improvement to the sound.