[SpiderNhan]

No amp necessary for the M50X. All the headphones I mentioned are portable and efficient. Same goes for the ATH-MSR7, M70X and Sony MDR-10, MDR-1R.

 

[Kyaku]

   
I know they aren't exactly comparable with IEMs, but I'm starting to think IEMs is the direction I need to be heading. 
How would the ATH-M50x series compare to $50 - $100 IEMs like the moe audio SS01s or shure SE215s? 
 
I don't know how I feel about carrying around a portable amp, and my budget is under $150... ATH-M50x being absolute max, and if those need an amp to they are out  
 
 
 
Budget is under $150, and if an amp is necessary that would have to be included in the budget 

yeah ATH 50x doesnt need an amp, i ran that off my note 3 no problems, same with the Sony MDR 10. You can find the Sony MDR 10 for under 100 brand new on amazon. Or used Sony MDR 1R on amazon for about $100. The MDR 1R is nice. And still have money left over for an Electric Avenues amp should you need one. 

 

[The Goat]

  No amp necessary for the M50X. All the headphones I mentioned are portable and efficient. Same goes for the ATH-MSR7, M70X and Sony MDR-10, MDR-1R.

 
 

  yeah ATH 50x doesnt need an amp, i ran that off my note 3 no problems, same with the Sony MDR 10. You can find the Sony MDR 10 for under 100 brand new on amazon. Or used Sony MDR 1R on amazon for about $100. The MDR 1R is nice. And still have money left over for an Electric Avenues amp should you need one. 

 
 
Can either of you contribute to how much more 'bassy' the m50x will feel against the IEMs I mentioned? 
I made a very lengthy thread explaining my situation, about 5 hours ago, it finally just now posted... but I had the brilliant idea of adding some more links and it got taken down so I'll probably have to wait another 5 hours for it to be approved again ._.

 

[Kyaku]

   
 
 
 
Can either of you contribute to how much more 'bassy' the m50x will feel against the IEMs I mentioned? 
I made a very lengthy thread explaining my situation, about 5 hours ago, it finally just now posted... but I had the brilliant idea of adding some more links and it got taken down so I'll probably have to wait another 5 hours for it to be approved again ._.

I find that no matter which pair of Over-ears i get, they will never hold up to comparison to in-ears. The seal with in-ears bass will in my opinion will have deeper and richer and smoother sound. Obviously it would depend on the set you get. But when compared to two sets that have similar class in sound... then yea.... Also i dont like how over ear sets when large amounts of bass is pumped through it starts to vibrate or rattle or shake... I suppose this question is a bit more subjective to how do you like your bass. 

 

[Kyaku]

  I find that no matter which pair of Over-ears i get, they will never hold up to comparison to in-ears. The seal with in-ears bass will in my opinion will have deeper and richer and smoother sound. Obviously it would depend on the set you get. But when compared to two sets that have similar class in sound... then yea.... Also i dont like how over ear sets when large amounts of bass is pumped through it starts to vibrate or rattle or shake... I suppose this question is a bit more subjective to how do you like your bass. More directed to your question though, the M50x's have a good amount of bass. So do the SE215's.

 

[The Goat]

  I find that no matter which pair of Over-ears i get, they will never hold up to comparison to in-ears. The seal with in-ears bass will in my opinion will have deeper and richer and smoother sound. Obviously it would depend on the set you get. But when compared to two sets that have similar class in sound... then yea.... Also i dont like how over ear sets when large amounts of bass is pumped through it starts to vibrate or rattle or shake... I suppose this question is a bit more subjective to how do you like your bass. 

 
Well I used to be heavily involved in car audio, and the feel you get from a pair of powerful over ears is a much better simulation of that body shaking feeling you get from a powerful system in a car/home. The IEM bass I've heard, again... the best ones i've heard were some crappy skull candies, but even so... IEM bass is much more heard than felt. 
 
I want to 'feel' the bass, but even though IEM bass isn't as powerful I still think that's the way I need to go for my current situation, hopefully my thread gets approved here soon xD 

 

[kid vic]

   
Well I used to be heavily involved in car audio, and the feel you get from a pair of powerful over ears is a much better simulation of that body shaking feeling you get from a powerful system in a car/home. The IEM bass I've heard, again... the best ones i've heard were some crappy skull candies, but even so... IEM bass is much more heard than felt. 
 
I want to 'feel' the bass, but even though IEM bass isn't as powerful I still think that's the way I need to go for my current situation, hopefully my thread gets approved here soon xD 

Kinda getting more and more off topic now that the K7XX's are not interesting to you but here are a couple links to threads that will help you.
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/715697/the-audiophile-bass-lounge-basshead-club-part-ii
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/716711/the-best-bass-headphones-are-the-extreme-bass-club
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/706419/best-bass-earbuds
 
Also, you should look into the MDR-V6 and MDR-7506, their my portable/all-around/beater cans and you can definitely get them for under $100.

 

[newbatthis]

I'm interested in these phones atm after hearing about how good they are and seeing them on Massdrop. I'm new to open back but I'm willing to give it a shot. However I don't have an amp... and from what I understand it sounds terrible without one. How good of an amp do I need to go with this?

 

[roguegeek]

  I'm interested in these phones atm after hearing about how good they are and seeing them on Massdrop. I'm new to open back but I'm willing to give it a shot. However I don't have an amp... and from what I understand it sounds terrible without one. How good of an amp do I need to go with this?

When people say something needs a good amp, they are mostly talking about the synergy between a can and the amp. It's something subjective and personal. If you are trying to be budget conscious, but still have something that delivers a nice, quality sound, I like these cans paired with the Schiit Vali. You could even do the Magni if you like it a tad brighter.

 

[Oktyabr]

  I'm interested in these phones atm after hearing about how good they are and seeing them on Massdrop. I'm new to open back but I'm willing to give it a shot. However I don't have an amp... and from what I understand it sounds terrible without one. How good of an amp do I need to go with this?

No, they won't "sound terrible" without an amp.  After all no matter what you are plugging them into, whether that's your motherboard, soundcard, cellphone, DAP, or even the front of a CD player or receiver... if you are getting sound out of them you ARE listening to them with an amp.

Amp stands for "amplifier".  It's job is to take a signal from a DAC (yeah, there is one of those in all of those devices too!) and *amplify* it, making it louder.  Some amps tend to favor a certain frequency range more than others, i.e., a bit more bass or a bit "brighter" treble response (or lack of bass response).  There can be many reasons for this but ideally an amplifier should make the sound louder while changing the frequency response as little as possible and without adding any distortion, which is what can happen when you ask an amplifier to work at edge of it's limits (with the volume turned all the way up).  Ideally you want your headphones to be as loud as you comfortably like *without* having the volume turned all the way up.  This is called an amplifier's "headroom" and basically means reserve power that isn't being used most of the time.  If whatever you are plugging them into can't make the music loud enough without turning up the volume all the way, or if they aren't loud enough even with the volume maxed out, you will probably be happy with the addition of a separate amplifier.

I've ran my K7XX out of my motherboard, a dedicated sound card and my Samsung Galaxy S5 Active.  The S5 sounded pretty damn good but barely had enough power to make them play loud enough for my likes.  The K7XX, like other AKG open backed headphones are relatively inefficient... it takes more juice to get the same sound levels out of them than it would take a more efficient headphone.  My motherboard went louder than my S5 but distortion above half volume was very noticeable and very unpleasant.  My sound card has a dedicated "headphone" jack with presumably a fairly good amplifier chip on it as well.  It was the nicest of the three to use at my preferred volume but it was a pain in the butt to plug/unplug from the back of my PC tower.  Hence I run a desktop amplifier.

The O2 is a good pick for pretty much any headphone, the Schiit Magni(2) is also very capable for the K7XX.  Some say the Schiit Fulla does a good job but I haven't tried it.  The FiiO E10K is one of the most popular budget amp/dacs on the market and while I haven't read a whole lot of good reviews when used with these particular headphones I haven't read any bad ones either.  Might be a pretty good choice as well.  The Monoprice "Desktop Amp" might also be worth looking at in the low budget arena.

 

[roguegeek]

  No, they won't "sound terrible" without an amp.

Meh. They definitely don't sound good without one.

 

[Oktyabr]

  Meh. They definitely don't sound good without one.

Then *you* might need one.  Everyone's ears are different, same with cellphones, sound cards, whatever...

 

[roguegeek]

Hey, if you're happy with it straight out of your phone, more power to you. Let's not push our new friend down the wrong path, though. The large majority of people with these and any of the K/Q7xx cans know they scale very well, with the signature changing when quality power is put through them. So I'll disagree with you. If you care about the sound and are going to drop money on this can, everyone needs additional amping.

 

[SpiderNhan]

Using an AKG K7-series without a proper amp is like using an HD800 to listen to 128kbps mp3s. It's certainly serviceable, but there are better alternatives if simple musical enjoyment is your goal.

 

[BB 808]

Hey, if you're happy with it straight out of your phone, more power to you. Let's not push our new friend down the wrong path, though. The large majority of people with these and any of the K/Q7xx cans know they scale very well, with the signature changing when quality power is put through them. So I'll disagree with you. If you care about the sound and are going to drop money on this can, everyone needs additional amping.

Yeah, amplification helps, but dang these don't sound terrible straight out of my ancient iPod Shuffle...