Ipod classic vs High-end Dap's and first amp choice

[ScreenKiller]

dear head-fi'ers.
right now i own a ipod classic 7th gen. and a pair of 1964 v3's ,tdk ba200 and i love them.
right now i am looking into a few things.
i was wondering how does the ipod classic compare to other "higher end sources"
and i heard that the ipod classic 7 gen beats the imod when used with a amp(line out). is that true?
and dap's like teraplayer/ibasso dx100 /hifiman hm-*** are they really that much better for iem's?
i know to utilise the full potentional of the dap's i should use flac instead of mp3 but flac is just so rare and hard to find.
does it really matter that much?
 
and what is a good amp for a high sensitivity ciem (16ohm v3's). and does it really makes SQ better?
i was looking a the jds labs c5 and it looks like a very good amp for high sensitivity iem's. anyone experience with it?

 

[davidcotton]

Ok
 
The only way to use flac at this time on a classic is to use the emcore build of rockbox, do a search on this forum there's a massive thread on it.  With flac, most of us ripped our own cds to that particular format.  So if you have mp3's and still have your library then prepare to get busy   Saying that it may be worth ripping a couple of discs to the flac format to see if you actually like/tell the difference between it and say mp3 320. 
 
That should get you started. 
 
At the end of the day do you enjoy the ipod classic as a source with the iems you mention?  If yes, then be content with that and look into getting your library sorted first that will give you a boost.  If you are still curious then you can start looking to something like an amp to see if that improves anything
 
  Everything I have read of the above players involve a compromise of some sort.
 
Cheers

 

[ScreenKiller]

thanks david.
ok but i personally don't own alot of cd's most of my mp3's are downloaded.
so first i got to find more flac music.
i know if i want to use flac i have the rockbox my ipod classic.
do you have any experience with amping iems? and if you do i was wondering which amps you own/recommend.

 

[davidcotton]

Nope no amp experienc I'm afraid. Go look in the portable amp section though, plenty of choice in there

 

[Berkovajazz]

You can convert .flac/.ape to .aiff if you like stock firmware. .Aiff works fine with tags and album art.
Try to put your IEMs to some powerful source, notebook, home theater, home amp, etc. If will note a grand difference, so portable AMP or True-China-Player(iBasso, HiFIman, Colorfly, HiSound) will be better. If no, live happy with just iPod Classic and lossless formats. 
50%/50% feeling the difference with armature IEMs.
 

 

[Retrias]

or you can just use the standards UI , and use ALAC , they are pretty much the same, and you can still use itunes with ALAC

 

[ScreenKiller]

i do hear difference between my ipod classic , iphone 5 and macbook pro retina ( i know apple fan.)