Home vs. Portable Amps for IEMs

[Socrates3000]

Do IEMs do better with high quality home amps, or is a high quality portable amp all one needs to bring their sound to the highest level; does a portable like the Tomahawk bring out as much in IEMs as a high quality dedicated home amp.

 

[gtp]

I would say a portable is better than a home amp for a couple of reasons. IEMs are very efficient, so home amps with higher gains will generally result in a higher noise floor with IEMs. Further, home amps use AC power, and with sensitive IEMs you are more likely to hear line noise.

In general, IEMs don't change as drastically with amplification as full size cans do. A respectable lower-gain portable amp should be great with essentially all IEMs.

No experience with the Tomahawk, so I can't help there.

 

[Tarkovsky]

Aren't you then assuming a poor quality home setup? Or even just tube amp microphonics? I'm jumping onto the headphone bandwagon in the festive period with a Graham Slee Green Solo which is a tranny, some etymotic ER4P (with the P to S cable) and when my student loan comes through in January a pair of HD650s (or something similar).

 

[Podster]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tarkovsky /img/forum/go_quote.gif Aren't you then assuming a poor quality home setup? Or even just tube amp microphonics? I'm jumping onto the headphone bandwagon in the festive period with a Graham Slee Green Solo which is a tranny, some etymotic ER4P (with the P to S cable) and when my student loan comes through in January a pair of HD650s (or something similar).

You file that one under books and supplies right

LOL