[PhenomenalSound]

I can't decide which amps to get out of this 3: fiio e17, e11 and headroom total bithead. My sources is laptop and ipad but I use my laptop for music more often.

 

[kmhaynes]

Fiio E11 does not have a DAC section, so you can only use it with the headphone jack of your laptop and iPad, using the onboard audio processor -- which might be good or not-so-good.
Fiio E17 is a amp/DAC, but is on back-order until mid-March or later.
Total Bithead is a pretty old amp and does not get too many good reviews these days.
You might want to look at the iBasso D-Zero.

 

[PhenomenalSound]

Between Dac and amp plug in to computers which one sounds better?

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

Between Dac and amp plug in to computers which one sounds better?

There are DACs, there are (headphone) amplifiers, there are DAC with built in amplifiers.
So when you add an add-on external DAC, you also need to add an (headphone) amplifier in there somewhere.
Computers that have an analog audio output have DACs (just usually very low costs ones).
IPads do come with DACs and I believe the add-on external DACs that will work with them are around $500.
Most external DACs are connected using USB, optical or coaxial, which your iPad does not have.
You can get a Fiio L cable, which connects to the LOD port on your apple device, it bypass the apple products internal headphone jack
providing a cleaner analog output signal to whatever external amplifier you are using with your apple product.
You can easily plug an external DAC to a laptop using the USB port
 
I've heard that apple product come with a decent DAC(s).
 
 
 

 

[wje]

Quote:

I've heard that apple product come with a decent DAC(s).
 

 

 
Actually, it can be kind of a mixed bag when it comes to apple products and their DACs that are built into their devices.  With the earlier iPod devices and up through the iPod Video (30 GB, and sometimes referred to as an iPod Classic) is one such device as well as the iPods built up to that point.  Apple, used Wolfson DACs at the time in their devices and the quality of music output was really quite good.  As Apple progressed with their devices - adding on more features, yet keeping a small footprint for them, they had to switch to implementing chips that could handle more processes.  In the case of the iPod Touch, the Cirrus-Logic chipset is utilized.  The iPod Touch, 4th generation that I have does sound good - but, it does not sound quite as beautiful as my 30GB iPod Video (Classic). 
 
However, don't be mis-guided by just the "Classic" name alone.  Apple still releases iPod devices that are called "Classics" - but, they don't feature the Wolfson DACs.  I'm not sure what the iPad devices are currently using and can't comment on their sound quality, either.  Then again, one does have the option to use the EQ that is built into the device to tweak their sound to a point where it sounds reasonable to them.