[auradud3]

hello everyone, i have been floundering trying to put my new IEM rig together! to begin i recently had cervical vertebral fusion, my pain therapist told me to do what i would normally do to relax, so in a greedy moment i bought myself a new ITouch 5, to feed my new GR 10's. As my rig sits now it sounds wonderful, but i know the Grados will do much better with a dac in line, this is where my problems begin, seems Apple made the lightning to usb cable unusable as an input to a dac or any other externals, that shoots my want for connection before the ITouch's internals. now, looking at all my options i see far too many to make an informed choice, and do not know the abilities and characteristics of all the new equipment. i am a long time headfier, and can man, but? i find myself completely stumped! in all honestly it has been more than a few years since i have had a need to buy new electronics, and WOW things have changed!! Technology!! would any of you fine audiophiles help me in my quest to complete my IEM rig? i am in your educated hands, and i reach out because after this surgery mends i will be back  again for a shoulder replacement (yes i am an old timer) and it would jut be nice to smile through my discomfort.
 
thank you so much in advance
 
oh yeah, 1 last thing, the dac amp/dac would need to be small enough to travel with my ITouch.

 

[cel4145]

"but i know the Grados will do much better with a dac in line"

That may not be true. Not sure about the iTouch 5, but many Apple devices have good sound quality. If your iTouch is easily capable of driving your Grados to your normal listening volume, you may or may not find adding an external dac/amp to be significant.

But if you just bought the iTouch, and you want something with better dac/headphone amp, why not return it and get the FiiO X3 2nd gen: http://www.fiio.net/en/products/39. It's a better all around DAP for audio quality.

 

[auradud3]

thats a very good idea, yes i have only had the itouch for maybe 3 weeks, thats a nice starting point, thanks i will look into this. i would however miss alot of the functionality the itouch offers........ from anyones experience is it possible to use a different cable out of the lightning port?, or am i stuck using the headphone out?