The HE400SE has small power requirements and should be more than good with the Apple dongle. The Apple dongle is widely regarded as an excellent piece of technology for very little money. When you decide to invest more money into the hobby or have harder to drive headphones, a used Shiit stack will be a fairly inexpensive upgrade and I would not go any cheaper than that.

I’d put the money towards the quedelix 5k instead. It has peq and excellent Bluetooth. Also can connect to phone and pc via usb. It can drive the he400se on balance- in my experience most good headphones sound better with an amp than without. It was a worthwhile purchase for me.

I got a cheap portable headphone amp a while back to give my AKG k240s a volume bump from my Samsung tablet/phone. Never had an amp before so I figured a cheap demo would let me form an opinion.

I forgot how much I like having knobs over buttons for volume lol. Just feels better physically dialing it in exactly as you want it. Can't really say it made a huge difference in sound, just more volume and a knob to turn.

Even if ONLY for that and as long as you've got the money to spare, nothing wrong with a cheap desktop amp. It's your money, you do you.

What cheap amp did you get? I have a FiiO A3 which literally just seems to make any headphones I plug into it louder and technically bumps up the bass if I flip that switch, but I hate having to charge it and carry it so much that I just don’t use it. I really like the idea of having something plugged into an outlet and set up at my desk or near my game consoles that I could just plug into as needed and hopefully see some benefit from. I have a Mixamp Pro hooked up to my Xbox and I use that with headphones just to have the audio mixing but boy is that name misleading. It doesn’t actually amplify at all. It’s very strange lol.

What is the Bluetooth used for on these devices that have it? Is it just so that the audio source can stream music/sound over Bluetooth to the unit and then it amplifies it to the headphones you have plugged into it?

Also, if you don’t mind, is peq EQ dials? And what is “on balance”? I’m not joking when I say I’ve never really had an amp before. This is entirely new territory for me, one that sounds exciting but I am afraid of being disappointed if I don’t perceive any difference at all, especially at $100+. I could stomach the Fosi Q4 right now because of the Cyber Monday sale but I don’t know if I can really swing any higher than that due to having to buy so many people gifts.

Either way, that’s great that it was a worthwhile purchase for you! Awesome to hear you’re getting the added enjoyment from it.

I didn’t notice any used Schiit but I see that brand new the Magni and Modi end up being $109 + $129 together. I have mysophobia and can only buy new products so that’s a bit out of my reach right now, definitely clocking in at more expensive than any pair of headphones that I own besides the DT 900 Pro X.

It's a very cheap Chinese portable amp off Amazon I got for like $20. Its smaller than a deck of cards & I swear the battery is just rattling around in there. Would not recommend, but I made a cheap impulsive buy to satisfy my curiosity.

That said... it does the trick. Boosted the k240s nicely while adding a touch more bass. Didn't notice any crackle or distortion, even with the Moondrop Chu or Aria SE.

Sounds like you're looking to amp from a TV & I've sadly got no clue on that front. Best of luck finding a solution!

Oh no, no TV for me. At most I would use the USB part of an amp on a game console sometimes but I mostly play Xbox and it doesn’t support USB devices like that unless they’re stamped and certified by Xbox.

I wish I could get a Magni and Modi but it’s just too much for me.

Yes the Bluetooth functions as you mentioned. On quedelix, parametric eq can be set from an app, so no dials. Balanced is balanced cable, to get full power from the quedelix- you likely don’t need this so don’t worry about it for now. I don’t see why not on the fosi for your use case. I hear the difference between amp/no amp- deeper bass, better separation and clarity. Some people don’t hear it and will not need the amp. I have the he400se and the difference is night and day for my ears. Can you test it out and return if it doesn’t doesn’t make a good difference? Happy Holidays!

Sounds good! I likely have an opportunity to get a Schiit Magni and Modi for Christmas which could be cool, too. I’ll figure it out. :)

That will be a great score

You probably don't need one. Honestly even if you did want one you might want to consider just getting like a used LG V60 instead.

The only thing I ever bought is a qudelik 5k, But that was as much about the Bluetooth and parametric EQ as it was the DAC.

Basically unless your headphones or iems are not loud enough you do not need more power.

That’s fair. I was considering getting HD 6XX or maybe even HD 600 and those do seem to need an amp as far as I can tell. Or at least greatly benefit.

What do you like about the Bluetooth on the 5k? I’ve genuinely never had an amp or dac so all of these features always sound so foreign and exotic and exciting to me.