I have a MacBook retina and an iPhone 6 - for the Amperior I would stress again that a DAC isn't going to give you a huge hit of improvement. The Amperiors are designed especially for mobile and can be driven easily.
If you do get a DAC, one may want to do some ABX testing to see if they can hear any difference.
ye i already know how e10k sounds i got to listen to it in an audio store and i know how it sounds aka much better. and i already bought it. also you have like the latest macbook and it does have a better dac, my macbook 2009 dac sounds a lot worse than latest macbooks. and i find e10k sound better than latest macs. i got to listen to it on their mac mini and directly compare them. i've heard e10k and i know for a fact that it's much more better than any macbook dac. it sounded with more detail and clarity with passages in music that are quiet when i listen on iphone or my macbook sound with nice melody with e10k. i don't know how to describe all the details in music, i don't know if i'm qualified for that with only having amperiors as a quality sounding headphones.
lets try to describe the sound for you. in comparison to mac mini i listened on and compared directly. e10k more detail, more resolution, itital impression really good, bass was fully there, the lyrics are fully heard, clean sound you can tell they spent some time making sure it sounds good. the only issue is when you move it enough it might stop playing and needs a few seconds to recconect and continute playing. the bass also felt like a nead feature, it was really clean bass, but not much bass though but it's definitelly detailed sound with bass but i thought it was less detailed with simply dac sound without hardware eq. felt like listening to music in a recording studio where musicians would record their music.
but i actually can't tell you for sure because i really liked sound on mac mini in apple store but i came to listen to music on it next day i was not as impressed as the first time. but i guess that's how it goes with audio you've got to go a bit with your initial impression and compare two headphones or dacs directly. listen to one listen to another only then you can tell. but i would say that the signatures in sound were definitelly different between macbook and e10k but i still liked the audio sound on e10k more than on macbook. because again as i said when i listened to audio on latest macbook with amperior the next day and the third day i was not as impressed by the sound and prefered e10k sound to latest macbooks as it sounded much better and more detailed.
also it's listening to amperior headphones in apple store on latest macs that i realised that dac, sound card does matter cause it sounded better than on my macbook. my plan was ititially to buy that darn mac mini to listen to music but then i thought may be external dac amp might sound just as good or better, and i went to the only store in our city that sells hifi equipment and i had to take a tram out of city center and then like walk there like for 15-20 minutes just to get there, it was like an area with large business offices are, like of companies that i don't even know much, may be it's like their european offices, like and when i got there there was like not a single customer, then one was there wile i was testing the audio of e10k, they had mac mini there so i could compare mac mini to e10k sound and listened to e10k with mac mini. i really left happy cause i realised dac on macs isn't as good as external fiio e10k dac with amp. the sound i described already as best as i can i think.
anyway i got one today so i already bought e10k will be a christmas present for me. i would surely buy c5d but i can get like four fiio e10k for the same price as c5d. so it's not worth the money for me at the moment, just like i do like 35mm digital sensor dslr but it's too expensive. so i have apsc sensor dslr even though i do want 35mm digital dslr like 5dm2 or 3, and i want an iphone 6 but i won't be paying 700 euro for it right now. there are many other things i need to buy and i don't feel like spending all my money on christmas even thought i do know it's better.
i do read on this forum that mac dac is pretty good and there were suggestions that amperior will not benefit from a dac which is why i did not buy it. but you need to also know that not all macs are made the same, my macbook 2009 is not the latest mac, neither it is 2012 mac. the dac on mac after 2012 is pretty good but even that is not as good as fiio e10k. i've described why, none the less i already bought it and i will get to listen to it more and let you guys know if amperiors benefit from external dac cause using it for a while might change my opinion buy i don't think so. my opinion was solid that it's a lot better, and also considering i've got older mac with worse sound card than latest macs it's going to be really good and wound on amperiors will be very good. i just have to tell you that macbook 2009 dac is really bad in comparison to fiio e10k. for those who believe that mac dacs is very good it's not true external e10k is much better. i'm not a professional so don't take my word for it neither did i compare many dacs so i can't tell you which is my favorite dac. but between my macbook 2009 and fiio e10k, fiio e10k is my favourite dac. there are not may people who review dacs, there is one guy on youtube and all seem to find c5d their favorite dac. i'm just not spending that much on a dac right now considering i can get e10k for 1/4 the price. considering that i already like sound of amperior with e10k. it is really my opinion, but surely i would buy c5d if it was 100 euro. i will keep that dac as the one to get if i decide to upgrade. etc
today i went to shop to buy some food and i decided to take apple earbuds to listen to music and when i heard music with it i laughed, it did not sound good. i can't even believe that i was listening to it. and i came up with new rating names or scale, apple earbuds are **** fi, beats headphones are muffle fi. and amperiors i don't have anything to compare them to cause i do not have better sounding headphones so buy may be clear fi or studio fi, but i can't be without listening to better headphones.
but overall i liked e10k than inbuilt mac dac, especially for my macbook 2009 it's really worth upgrade. thanks