[phattanglo]

I'm thinking of buying a budget HP amp to use with my ipod and wondered what interconnect I need. Does it go from the multi connector on the ipod to the HP amp or jack to jack?

[deadmonkey]

HP?

Jack to jack?

Ah, headphone amp?

[HiFi Headphones]

It's best to take your audio signal from the Line Out on the dock connector of the iPod to drive a headphone amp. See our Line Out Dock Cable category for some suitable cables and adapters.

[Drubbing]

First, ask why you want an amp? They don't add Sound Quality or make things better, simply by going louder/adding a bit of oomph. This can often make things worse, for your SQ, and your ears. So the small improvement you may get, may not be worth the money.

iPods can usually go loud enough, and if better SQ is what your after, your money will be better spent on better phones.

But. Having been through this myself, you can go either way. A LOD is better, as you bypass the headphone out of the iPod. You can go jack to jack, but won't bypass any of the iPod components.

Also, to make it worth it, avoid really cheap amps like the Fiio - these are really nothing more than fancy volume boosters and have the potential to make SQ worse.

[HiFi Headphones]

The FiiO is more of a fun addition that can warm up the bass response of some of the more bass light headphones. We've had many customers report back that they've purchased a FiiO for this reason alone. It's also handy for powering harder to drive on-ear headphones - see the customer review on our FiiO E5 page. As Drubbing says it's not the last word in sound quality and does add noise to the audio signal.

LOD cables are the way to extract the best quality audio signal out of the iPod. This is a line level signal and altering the volume on the iPod does not vary it's output, so a headphone amp is required to drive any earphones or headphones from this signal.

The iBasso range of amps are all high quality devices that will give you a good clean amplification from a line level signal.

Shaun

[Drubbing]

I hear good things about the ibasso's from people who have them.

That's sort of the price range to be looking at for a good portable amp. The great thing about DAC/amp combos is you can use them on a PC as well to bypass onboard sound. So really good for easy to drive phones that benefit from, but don't actually require amping.