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I would imagine an amp may certainly clear my complaints up but I am just not an amp guy, probably never will be.
Sorry to hear this, Spyro. I haven't had a chance to compare the JH13 and JH16 directly, bc I found someone selling a used JH13 at a steal and just bought that. But I will say this: the bass on my JH13 (and the sound in general) is absolutely rich and thick and amazing WHEN
driven out of my macbook optical
playing through Audirvana/Fidelity/Amarra
into a Sparrow A DAC/amp ($200)
it sounds 95% as good out of my iphone4 into the ($99) PURE ipod dock through either optical or coax, into the Sparrow A's DAC/amp.
It was about 80% as good out of the iBasso D4 portable DAC/amp ($200) when using 9.6v batteries and topflight's opamp kit ($30)
about the same out of the iphone4 into the RSA Shadow ($350)
about 60% as good from my iBasso T3D ($99) out of my iphone4 (which is what I use now on the go)
and about 45% out of my iphone 4 directly (which I never use, since the T3D is so tiny - see my pic for the modded version
All this just to say, I've found the JH13 to be heavily dependent on both source and amp power, as you would expect from any top tier headphone. I would expect the JH16 to have a slight different sonic signature, but otherwise be similarly dependent on source and amping.
by the way, I never believed any of this stuff about DACs or amps before I got my JH13. On most of my cheaper headphones and iems, it all sounded the same. To this day, I still don't believe the hype around the TWAG cable. I had a chance to compare a V2 Twag to my stock westone cable and actually preferred my westone. (admittedly the v2 wasn't broken in, but still...)
I think you owe it to yourself to at least consider a micro amp before you lose $500 on these. A T3D is a little over $100, less used, and the even better Pico Slim can be found for less than $300 used. Both would make a huge difference in the bass and overall sound signature. You can actually get a dock, like mine, that literally holds the amp to the ipod, so you don't even need rubber bands or anything.
Just my 2cents. Best of luck to you!