I noticed a difference going from an Apple dongle & 2021 MBP headphone jack (which is pretty awesome for a built-in jack) to a FiiO BTR5 on my EX800ST. Punchier and cleaner bass, more texture in the mids.
9 years ago, I had the Sennheiser IE80 and Aurisonics ASG-1, an iPhone 4, and the FiiO E7. Not much difference with the iPhone out and the FiiO, but I tried an ALO Audio The National portable amp - a lot cleaner output, mids got pushed forward, soundstage grew bigger - basically everything sounded bigger and more detailed. It wasn’t $300 worth of a difference, but my broke college ass would have gladly spent $150 for that difference.
I noticed a difference going from an Apple dongle & 2021 MBP headphone jack (which is pretty awesome for a built-in jack) to a FiiO BTR5 on my EX800ST. Punchier and cleaner bass, more texture in the mids.
9 years ago, I had the Sennheiser IE80 and Aurisonics ASG-1, an iPhone 4, and the FiiO E7. Not much difference with the iPhone out and the FiiO, but I tried an ALO Audio The National portable amp - a lot cleaner output, mids got pushed forward, soundstage grew bigger - basically everything sounded bigger and more detailed. It wasn’t $300 worth of a difference, but my broke college ass would have gladly spent $150 for that difference.