[ffdpmaggot]

Somewhat, what I was suggesting was that if I spend 80 dollars on an amp, thats a sound improvement that I could move between IEMs as I upgrade, whereas with the IEM, I could be throwing that eighty dollars away when I upgrade, or when it breaks.

 

[Sumflow]

You will be throwing the money away now if you do not need an amp after you upgrade. 
Quote:

  I could be throwing that eighty dollars away when I upgrade, or when it breaks.

A decent pair of IEM's will be warranted for two years will be sensitive enough not to need a cheap amp.

 

[ffdpmaggot]

Well an amp should last a lot longer than that, and I don't know what is considered cheap in the field of amps.

 

[JoeyRusso]

Quote:

I don't think iTunes does FLAC. If you want lossless on your iPod or iTunes use ALAC.
 
To answer OP's question: in layman's terms an amp will strengthen the sound. A good amp will bring energy in your headphones/iems. Today I received a PA2V2 to see what it could do and I am pretty happy with it already. It gives me a bigger sound with both the RE0 and MS1000 (the Beyers don't care for this small box). It's in your price range too so I would definitely check it out.

I just received my PA2V2 as well, and I'm loving it so far.  Paired with a quality LOD out of my iPod, my ER-4P's and Grado's sound great!!!  Best $60 I've spent so far...

 

[Ypoknons]

Putting aside the question of balanced armatures, crossover and amplifiers for the moment, an amplifier cannot add anything to do the headphone's capabilities that is not already there (unless it is coloration). The utility of a headamp is based on the headphone that it drives. 

 

[Jack C]

I don't think of it as adding but complementing. For example, a pair of lean sounding headphones combined with an amp that offers a bit of boost in the bass and lower mid-range may yield a more desirable overall audio character than the headphone is otherwise able to achieve on its own.
 
Jack

 

[uglijimus]

@prog rock man, nice! I think that's a succinct, accurate and easy to understand explanation.

 

[Sumflow]

Amplifiers like the "Naim" headphone amp, offer optimum performance to a variety of high impedance headphones.

Quote:

 ffdpmaggot    what is considered cheap in the field of amps.

Improvements are minimized with low impedance earphones like the types normally discussed here.  Amps make up for problems with headphones, designed  for different uses.  Do your headphones have a problem that it needs an amp to fix?
Quote:

ffdpmaggot    if I spend 80 dollars on an amp,

You will get more sonic improvement from spending the funds on better earplugs, than you will on a better amp.

 

[Berserker]

Quote:

I just received my PA2V2 as well, and I'm loving it so far.

The PA2V2 sounds excellent paired with my Clip+, and Hippo VB's.
 

 

[Mad Max]

A real good amp can open up the sound, give you more clarity, tighter, maybe even deeper bass, control sibilance, clean up the sound, can even retrieve more detail versus the HP out if you use the line-out, "glorified-HP-out," or whatever you want to call it.
 
Also, more current. Stacked BUF634's are so, sooo nice, then paired with the superb ADA4627-1 you get maximum win. =P