If you’re deploying decent phones onto your head, the tweaky little amplpifier on your iPod is going to be an issue – it will let you down! It has a tiny equalizer and ‘loudness’ feature, but at the other end it will sound tinny and hollow or just nasty and blown out if you turn the gain up on anything with a bassline. I’m using a little intermediary gadget as a headphone amplifier; thank goodness it’s not as massive as a full-sized stereo amplifier with 15 lb magnets. So here’s a rare product placement (though I’m not getting paid), look up the FiiO E5 Headphone Amplifier. It works great. I actually did not originally buy this for headphones, but for my car stereo. That’s another long story, but with the same problem: Trying to plug my iPod into an aux jack without an amplifier, and it still doesn’t help. If I want to listen to something I hate and make it sound even worse I load it in my car with that setup.