Thanks for ruining my resale

Yep- messing with our resale...6S amp section with non-digital pot better.  (My 6S is at -6dB gain for my UERM.)

Has anyone heard the Cavalli porta? I'm interested in that for sure.

Not sure if or what anyone can say about that.  I'd be patient till a final production unit is available.

Hmm, I'm not sure exactly, to be honest. What would be the main competitors of the 760 (and the 6SmkII) for, let's say, laptop use in the hotel or some such? And how would both of the Leckertons fair with said competitors?

Well, I was still basing my question on "transportable", thought that was clear enough; sorry. Just a few other candidates, then I will read up on them some more.

Been buying portable music for over 30 years but been serious for the last 9 Years. I do not understand why an amp is needed when many top notch Portable players have enough power to run custom made IEM?

It's really no different than buying a better DAC or source.  It's about fidelity.

An amp is never 'needed' as you put it.  For anyone running mp3s I'd recommend against wasting your money.  A portable amp should hopefully be a better amp that is more transparent improving the sound quality by letting the original recording pass through unmolested.  Some IEMs will benefit from added power/current as expressed in dynamic and transient response, others will not.  Larger and more drivers and more crossover networks could possibly stand to benefit from some extra push.

For those of us that are used to the quality sound of our ToTL hadphones, speakers , amps and DACs willing to spend $1-$2k to get similar audio performance from our portable rig requires us to take a hit on degrees of portability.  Better/best sound simply costs more real estate than an iphone can afford, period. 

If it could have been done it would have been done by now.  If there was a small DAP in existence that could meet or exceed the performance of my almost 3 year old Leckerton UHA6Smk2 by now, I'd be using it.  Nobody in their right mind wants to carry around a brick stack if they don't have to.

This is no different than speakers.  There's tons of cheap amps capable of providing enough 'power' to drive a set of speakers.  Once that's settled, ultimately you either pay to have electronic gear remove itself from the musical presentation (better components, better circuit/layout, possibly more headroom if you believe in that, etc.) or add itself to it.  I'm in the prior camp. 

If you are using any typical stand alone DAP/phone, my portable rig likely sounds and performs better than yours.  I know because I've heard most of them.  There's only one candidate on my radar atm as a replacement and it's not out yet and is very expensive.