[cifani090]

Should i shell out $200-300 on a portable amp for my upcoming SE535 and my iPod Classic 80gb? I have read a few threads on this, but not much depicts on what to use, or if there is much of a difference.
 

 

[WakiDabeast]

I'd say no because earbuds have lower ohms so an amp for power is useless and the sound improvement is not that big, but it depends on you phones. With my earbuds i plugged them into a 7.1 yamaha receiver (which does similar things as an amp) and I heard almost no difference. 

 

[cifani090]

I heard that the RSA Predator does pretty good, so i am looking into that right now.

 

 

[lootbag]

I used to have the Predator, used mine for over 1000 hours.
Never tried the SE535 though because I had Westone 3s.
I can say that it did make a difference, giving the music more impact and everything was tightened up and less sloppy.
 
I think it would pair well with the SE535s because RSA sound signature is relatively darker than most amps.
Just my thoughts.

 

[bcwang]

I don't know how good the ipod classic headphone section is compared to the ipod 5g, but my 5g sounds significantly better through the pico slim to the se530 than directly out of the jack.  In fact, the jack hisses so much with the se530 I consider it pretty unusable, plus the fact that a volume setting of 1 bar is loud enough or too loud depending on the music.  Disregarding that part, the ipod jack also has a much less dynamic, blurrier sound.  It is simply far less enjoyable.  On the other hand, I'm talking about the 5g and have no idea if the classic is greatly improved in this area.