[mark6.190059]

Here are two good forum amp links if you haven't already checked them out:

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showpo...10&postcount=1

http://www.headphonesrock.com/2007/0...d-labs-spirit/

I also bought a pair of Atrios a couple of weeks ago, and although I already have an amp, I am still contemplating many of the same issues as you. I had a pretty maxed out transportable PIMETA built for me a couple of years ago, and although I did notice a slight improvement in dynamics and tonal balance, this improvement never quite made up for the fact that there was a more noticeable loss in soundstage compared to the headphone out of both my Marantz CD deck and my Sony D-33. Upgrading to $100 interconnects helped things out a little, but not much.

With the various IEMs I have owned, the improvement in dynamics is even less evident and somewhat compromised b/c of the increased noise floor. With better portables like the mSeed Spirit and RSA Hornet, the noise floor shouldn't be an issue for you, but the Spirit is said to compress the soundstage some and the Hornet is a lot of money for me.

With an iMod fed through something like the Hornet using an ALO interconnect, you'll definitely notice an improvement in all attributes of your iPod's sound, but do you really want to spend an additional $500 - $600 to lug all of that around while you're doing chores, etc? What if the hard drive on your iPod fails?

My Atrio's sound great straight out of my 2 gen Nano, and I might be more inclined to spend the $600 on a decent CD deck/home amp combo.

 

[blazin_it_alwyz]

Ok. I have basically put in more than 50+ hours studying this stuff.

I think it's safe to say that I have came a long way from just 2 days ago, from thinking a pair of these has awesome audio

I'd pretty much say in 2 days I went from geek to chik.

This is what I'm going to end up doing. I have the Atrio M5's coming my way soon. Going to pick up a PSP, custom firmware so I can play FLAC and do other stuff with that, a long with a bunch of other accessories for it too. The last thing I'm going to do is buy the amp.

Xin SuperMicro IV.

It is very, very small which makes it very portable, and it rivals the sound of the Ray Samuel's Tomahawk.

I figure it is going to take about 3 months for that amp to arrive. So that solves the problem of me spending too much. I just spend 300 bucks or so now, give it a rest until that amp finally arrives (I heard Xin even though he has excellent reasons to, takes a very long time), and then when that amp comes I will pick up the 5.5g Ipod 80gb, pick up one of the ALO wires, and change the firmware to Rockbox to enable FLAC, and other useful stuff. Now that is top of the line quality stuff right there. Win-win situation all around.

 

[MaloS]

Hm, never seen these before, anyone information (atrio m5)? xD

 

[subfocus]

I would definitely go for a decent amp. I use the Atrios out of a 5.5g /80 ipod and a Xin Supermacro IV and I personally find that there is definitely a marked improvement with a decent amp .

 

[kool bubba ice]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rei_yano /img/forum/go_quote.gif well I want to buy an amp cuase the volume on my pcdp is not loud enough. I dont really know what to look for in one and have no idea where to find a newbie guide on portable amplifiers. either way I would like one that has rechargable batteries and decent battery life. also would like to spend at the most a hundred bucks cuase I cant really go too much above that ship and tax included. I have some lower end audio technica ear clips. they were about 50 bucks. I plan on buying some better ones later but first I need more volme out of my cd player.do all amps improve sound quality? any info would be greatly apreciated. links to guides and whatnot would be awesome.

Go to a headphone meet to try a lot of different headphones & portable amps..Experience is always good to have under your belt..

 

[blazin_it_alwyz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MaloS /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hm, never seen these before, anyone information (atrio m5)? xD

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=234707

Everyone is saying that in the price range 100-500, these IEM's blow the majority of the competition out of the water. That's why I got them. I kept hearing in that thread that people thought they sounded better than the $500.00 pair Shure E500's, and that is pretty good considering I bought the Atrio M5's for only 130.00