Portable DAC+Amp for Etymotic 4XR

[philipus]

Hello everybody and Happy New Year, best wishes for '24.

I hope some of you could help me with this. I'm using the ER-4XR to listen to ripped CDs (no streaming) from my iPhone and my Macbook Air. I find that they often need quite a bit of volume, which led me to wonder if I shouldn't add a portable DAC-amp combo.

I've been out of the headphone game since I got the 4XRs years ago and see that there's today an overwhelming amount of options for portable DAC+amps. Of course I've seen plenty of reviews, but I must admit that I find them difficult to understand because of the frequent use of "audiophile", "reference" and similar terms. Is it really the case that we're in that territory with DAC-amps for 50-150 Euros, which is the budget I'm working with? In the '90s, which is when I was seriously into audio, terms such as those were reserved for truly capable and refined audio equipment. I remember having my mind blown several times by listening to reference systems costing several 100k Euro.

It would help me a great deal to hear from someone who might perhaps be familiar with these Etys and what fits well with them. In case it's relevant, according to Etymotic the 4XRs have an impedance of 45 Ohms @ 1kHz and sensitivity of 98 dB @ 1kHz, 1mW.

Thank you kindly in advance
Philip

 

[staticV3]

On my own ER4XR, about 30-50mVrms Peak is about as loud as I am willing to listen.

Before you buy anything fancy, first try a US version Apple dongle (Lightning=MMX62AM/A, USB-C=MU7E2AM/A).
With its 1.0Vrms output, it will push the ER4XR to almost 10x my highest usable volume.

 

[Oso Polar]

IMHO pretty much anything can drive Etymotic ER4XR to very unhealthy volume. Certainly anything I've tried. I'm usually using them with Qudelix-5K which seem to have enough power for them (or eardrums) to explode.