[Orion601]

Hi everyone! Good to finally be a member. I know there are plenty of posts on this topic, but I still am up in the air. I have a 5th gen Ipod Nano 16GB, and have ordered the as mentioned headphones.

My music taste is Metal, and variations of the genre. I do love a clean sound, but also love deep and powerful bass. Not at the point of absurdness. However there is a common deep electronic bass sound featured in some music ex. "Dead Bodies Everywhere" by Korn intro... I also have a pair of Bose Quietcomfort 15's and they seem to struggle with such a powerful note. Hence the Shure's being ordered (hope they are as good as I have read)

Long story short, I want an amp... I have it narrowed down between three options. RAS Tomahawk, Ibasso D10 Cobra and the Headamp Pico. I want to know which out of these three is going to the best fit for Metal music. Please advise me on which would be the best option.

Also the Pico and Cobra have DAC avaiable as options or standard (you all know that! why am I telling you...

), and I'm not sure if that benefits me any. There is a fairly large jump in price between the Pico and Pico w/ DAC. So if I can avoid the extra cost I will. However if it does make a difference than I will purchase it.

Next up LOD's? Who makes a great one and do I need one? The LOD is the cable that plugs into the bottom of the Ipod and connects to the input on the amp correct? Would a audio 3.5mm audio to 3.5mm audio cord work as well? Is the quality less than compared to the LOD? Anyhow, please help me out whenever you all can get a chance. Thank you in advance!

 

[vkvedam]

D10 is pretty good with 530s, you get pretty decent soundstage, airy treble and punchy, clean and tight bass. This is my experience with this combo so far. Others might chime in with Pico impressions.

BTW, welcome to Head-Fi and spend your dough wisely.

 

[Emokid]

I owned a 3MOVE with good DIY cable, sold it and don't care about portable amps anymore. Super-sensitive IEMs like these do well right from DAP headphone out. Yes, connecting SE530s to my desktop setup makes soundstage explode, bass is uber punchy and deep and treble is superb, but when i take them outside they are good enough right from an iPhone or Clip. There is a lot of guys happy with these portable toys that will tell you otherwise, so in the end maybe you will have to find out by yourself. :-D

But remenmber, there is huge difference between IEMs and full-size power demandingness and also big diffenrece between portable and desktop amps drive capabilities. Considering this, my Shures are fine right from DAP and my K701 shine from 130€ desktop amp far more powerful and better than portable 3move i owned(whis is actualy very good choice in portable domain).

 

[milkgaryjeff]

Go for the iBasso with your 530.
Actually 530 is quite universal....

 

[s1rrah]

Quote:

Originally Posted by milkgaryjeff /img/forum/go_quote.gif Go for the iBasso with your 530. Actually 530 is quite universal....

I have to agree with milkgaryjeff ...

The SE530's will sound pretty great with just about anything, amp'd or not.

That said, I do slightly prefer them amp'd ... just a tad more energetic/full sounding, but straight out of an IPOD or otherwise, they still sound absolutely phenomenal.

I just bought my second pair of SE530's today (having sold my original pair about 8 months ago) ... can't wait to get them. I'll be listening to them as much with my Havana/Raptor desktop rig as much as I will be with my generic 4 gig portable player ...

But as far as your opening post? I really couldn't recommend any of those three ... I'd say they all would sound good.

 

[Orion601]

Thank you so much for the quick respones! I mean that...

 

[Henerenry]

I agree with the other sentiments in the thread so far, the se530's handle themselves pretty well straight for DAP so much so, that spending 300+ on making them sound better is pretty much frivolous.

I've heard them amped through a move2 and whilst it did add some more body to the sound, it wasn't good enough to make me run out and spend x number of dollars on it and an lod.

Save the money on some custom tips! or a home rig!

 

[qusp]

if you are wanting just an amp, maybe leave it out, they do improve with one, as despite what many people say on here multidriver IEMs are NOT well driven from a HP out, most will show some problems in the bass and soundstage is somewhat 'fuzzy' there is a big difference between loud and well driven. D10 does well with them and if you think you would use a DAC/amp with a laptop or home PC, this will show a marked difference IMO and also allow you to use just the amp if using an ipod or other portable source without digital output. the advantage becomes clear at this point. some might argue, but most who do will say this is the case with all IEMs and this IMO is simply uninformed and misguided. a little information is a dangerous thing