[Standarddeviate]

When I listened to my ATH-M50s for the first time, I was devastated. My cheap in ears had just as much bass, the volume was low, and they over quality was terrible. They were plugged into a computer monitor. Several minutes later I plugged them into my iPod Nano 5th gen, and was amazed at how quickly they had burnt in! They sounded 10 times better than before, and were much louder. Obviously they hadn't been burned in, but it got me to thinking about the source power. I'm a custodian, and I do a lot of walking, bending, sweeping, mopping, wiping etc., so portability is very important to me. I've even considered going to the hd25s for that reason, but I like the bass of the m50's without having to sacrifice too much sound quality by going to the Beats. Will an amplifier improve the sound from a lesser power source, and how much do I really need for 38 ohms? I see some amplifiers on eBay that are built into altoid tins, is it possible that cheap amplifiers could damage the headphones, or make them sound worse than when they don't have enough power?

 

[PurpleAngel]

So your iPod Nano has a better built-in headphone amplifier then the computer monitor.
I doubt you would damage the headphones using the cmoy headphone amplifier (altoid tin).

 

[Standarddeviate]

Thank you, I know 38 Ohms isn't much at all, but is there a way to tell what the power out-put of an amplifier is? By what unit is it measured, and how does it relate to Ohms?

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

Thank you, I know 38 Ohms isn't much at all, but is there a way to tell what the power out-put of an amplifier is? By what unit is it measured, and how does it relate to Ohms?

I'm not even close to being an expert.
Can't really explain how all the spec's work to effect what.
Two amps can have close to the same spec's on paper, but one can work better then the other just by the quality of the parts.
Like electronic parts made in Japan or USA verses the same "spec" parts make in China.