I mentioned this earlier and here's the pics.
It started with a realization that the iPod earbuds kinda suck. I started doing a bit of research into what I could do about it. The goal was to go as far into Hi-Fi territory as I could without spending a lot of money. I was originally going to just get a nice pair of headphones.
The Yamaha HP-1 headphones are othodynamic semi-enclosed studio headphones from the 70's. They have a reputation for sounding great and being relatively inexpensive to buy. I got these for just shy of $20 on eBay including shipping. Being vintage headphones, they're pretty inefficient though...125 Ohm, actually. I don't expect that my Nano is going to have the juice to drive these things.
Time to find a headphone amplifier. Again, I found something with a reputation for sounding good and not being horribly expensive....the Little Dot II+. I also picked up an iPod line-out to stereo RCA cable to hook the Nano up to try to get the cleanest signal into the amp that I could.
Results? Yummy. Lots of detail. Way better than the stock iPod earbuds for sure. The bass isn't huge, but I'm not after that...I want a good, balanced sound which is what I'm getting with this setup. The amp's a bit too microphonic and I'm having a hard time finding a good way to isolate it from the vibrations in our furniture but other than that I'm really, really happy with this setup. I'd put it up against any other sub-$200 iPod headphone solution.
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