[belushka]

Do these IEMs require an amp to sound properly? I have an iPod shuffle 1st gen and I want to know will it be able to make them sound as they should. They have 64 ohm impedance, that's why I'm asking

 

[psygeist]

They do sound better with amping.

 

[Berkovajazz]

Or try Sunrise earphones, Very similar, but they sounds very good even without amping.

 

[ChavaC]

I never noticed much of a difference between any of my amps with the re0. One of the things I liked most about them was that they sounded great even out of my cheap DAPs. The only amping issue would be that they did seem to require setting the volume significantly higher than my other iems, but my 3GS still powered them fine. Personally I would only add an amp if your player can't get them loud enough, and even then probably something like one of the cheaper FiiO or a cmoy.

 

[LizardKing1]

For the RE-0 only it would probably be smarter to get a player like the Clip+. The reason is that the iPod has a pretty non-linear frequency response, it rolls off the bass and scales up to the highs so it sounds bright. The RE-0 is already bright, so they won't go well together. An amp might solve this issue (if whatever is messing up the FR is before the amp of the iPod), but it's not the best solution. It's an overkill, like using a machine gun to kill a fly. However the Clip+ only outputs 489mV while the iPod is something like 1V, so you'd need to crank up the volume a bit on the Clip+. Also I doubt an amp is important to "bring out the full potential" of the RE-0 since it has 64ohm impedance. This kind of invalidates my previous point about the iPod making the RE-0 brighter (more impedance, less affected by weird FR), but the point remains that a Clip+ is cheaper than a portable amp.