budget portable amps for IEMs

[all4music]

hi friends,

i am sure most of you would have read and used the portable amps for the headphones/earphones.
i am specifically looking for an amp to power the IEMs ... my Triplefi's to be precise. while 'm aware that the TF10s can be driven well directly from a decent source but i find the amp does free the source player from the load and IMO the platers sound their best at their moderate volume. so far i have been using only the Fiio E5 with my S9.

recently i came across iBasso T3. general reviews read good. but i wanted to know if this is a worthy upgrade from E5?
how does this fare against Fiio E7?
and at last the availability.. does the iBasso ship it from Honk Kong or US? is there any place in India where i can buy there. lynx doesn't seem to stock these. my budget is around $100/-.


PS: in future i plan to buy a used ipod and try using using line out. will iBasso T3 prove to be good in that case too?

TIA
-Som

 

[seribrow]

Regarding your 1st query, yes both the iBasso T3 and the E7 are far ahead of the E5.I've both the ibasso T3 and E7, both are pretty close in their performance - but in the value part of things, the E7 is absolutely the winner! The T3 is a dedicated portable headphone amp and does that job admirably. The E7 is a different beast altogether,you probably know that the E7 is a DAC/amp combo - I also use it with my notebook as a DAC and its a pleasure to hear. Two headphone out jacks means you can, if required connect to headphones to the E7 and there is always the upgrade path to the desktop partner the Fiio E9 amp. Fiio is also about to come out with a dock connector for the E7, which will allow a line out connection from the DAC making it a suitable partner to any other portable amp (though that many devices may get kinda of clunky!). The last aspect - price! the E7 is cheaper than the T3 and probably falls under the 100$ mark you've set. I believe that Amazon or some other retailer would ship the E7 from the US, though not sure of the iBasso! (Yes, the iBasso and the E7 both can be used with the iPod line out connection)