whats a headphone amp for?

GreenThu)v(b · 29 Jul 2007 at 23:04

I have a pair of sen hd555's, playing music with my pc, thru a cheap creative inspire t606 5.1 system, i can max out my headphones, have massive loads of bass ect. Just wondering, what exactly are head amps for? just to play music louder? or is their more to it than that

james.miller · 29 Jul 2007 at 23:10

oh lots of things really. dynamic range (difference between the loudest and quietest bits), seperation (how well it can distinguish between left and right signals), imaging (how well it can 'place' a particular sound or instrument in the sound field), power handling with difficult loads (low impedance headphones for example), the flatness of the response (how even it is across the range of the audio spectrum), the amount of distortion, the amoutn of background noise.....

it goes on and on basically lol

headphone amps will drive a pair of 'phones much cleaner and with a much better presentation, in a nut shell. them may not necessarily go louder unless your headphones arent very forgiving of the amp. but expect tighter bass, a smoother midrange and a much cleaner top end

Greenlizard0 · 30 Jul 2007 at 00:00

james.miller said:
oh lots of things really. dynamic range (difference between the loudest and quietest bits), seperation (how well it can distinguish between left and right signals), imaging (how well it can 'place' a particular sound or instrument in the sound field), power handling with difficult loads (low impedance headphones for example), the flatness of the response (how even it is across the range of the audio spectrum), the amount of distortion, the amoutn of background noise.....

it goes on and on basically lol

headphone amps will drive a pair of 'phones much cleaner and with a much better presentation, in a nut shell. them may not necessarily go louder unless your headphones arent very forgiving of the amp. but expect tighter bass, a smoother midrange and a much cleaner top end

I have a Fata1ty sound card, with a pair of Audio Technica ATH A900 headphones, would I benifet from buying a headphone amp do you think? I mainly listen to music and play DVD's. I don't play games really at all.

GreenThu)v(b · 30 Jul 2007 at 13:31

thanx for that post

oh its tempting

squiffy · 30 Jul 2007 at 13:33

Those Sennheisers demand a dedicated headphone amplifier. You say there's "loads of bass" but let a Audiophile listen to it, and he'll probably recogize that the bass is just distortion, not bass.

Things change I've changed · 30 Jul 2007 at 16:09

/\ truth

If you continue using the hd555's with the 5.1's internal amplifier then you don't deserve those headphones tbh, I just brought a pair of HD650's and I feel guilty even using then on a Gemini mixing desk, I feel they deserve better.

Bigsy · 30 Jul 2007 at 16:58

Greenlizard0 said:
I have a Fata1ty sound card, with a pair of Audio Technica ATH A900 headphones, would I benifet from buying a headphone amp do you think? I mainly listen to music and play DVD's. I don't play games really at all.

All headphones will benefit from a proper amp, but if I were going to spend out on an amp I'd probably get one with a built in DAC and bypass that Xfi card altogether which really isn't all that.

I received my Meier Corda Move a few days ago and for a portable DAC/AMP it is simply great even using it with very low impedance IEMs and amazing on my DT770's.

Greenlizard0 · 30 Jul 2007 at 17:01

Bigsy said:
All headphones will benefit from a proper amp, but if I were going to spend out on an amp I'd probably get one with a built in DAC and bypass that Xfi card altogether which really isn't all that.

I received my Meier Corda Move a few days ago and for a portable DAC/AMP it is simply great even using it with very low impedance IEMs and amazing on my DT770's.

How would I bypass it? Where would I plug it into?

squiffy · 30 Jul 2007 at 17:03

Digital out from the X-Fi.

Greenlizard0 · 30 Jul 2007 at 17:06

squiffy said:
Digital out from the X-Fi.

But he's just said to bypass the creative card? :confused:

lone_bullet · 30 Jul 2007 at 17:08

squiffy said:
Digital out from the X-Fi.

Or simply ( and most commonly for digital headamps? ) a USB connection

squiffy · 30 Jul 2007 at 17:08

And that's what it does.

Things change I've changed · 30 Jul 2007 at 17:10

Greenlizard0 said:
But he's just said to bypass the creative card?

Just get a standerd headphone amp for now mate, you don't need to bypass the creatives internal dac just yet.

Supercow · 30 Jul 2007 at 17:51

I so want an x-can (not sure what model though)
My HD 595's are so wanting one - but I cannot justify the expenditure

GreenThu)v(b · 30 Jul 2007 at 18:56

lowrider007 said:
/\ truth

If you continue using the hd555's with the 5.1's internal amplifier then you don't deserve those headphones tbh, I just brought a pair of HD650's and I feel guilty even using then on a Gemini mixing desk, I feel they deserve better.

dont deserve them lol, nutter

they still sound the ****** to me, then again iv never experienced better sound so i wouldnt know really, which is why i posted this thread

if i bought a headphone amp, and connected that thru my creative system like the way i do with my hradphones now, would i still experience a better sound quality?

squiffy · 30 Jul 2007 at 19:12

My Sennheiser HD-535 sounded lousy from portable units, and PC until switched over the Audiolab 8000Q, or a dedicated portable headphone amplifier.

So yeah doing them injustice.

GreenThu)v(b · 30 Jul 2007 at 20:07

£600 lol, can i expect any beloew the £150 mark

squiffy · 30 Jul 2007 at 20:17

GreenThu)v(b said:
£600 lol, can i expect any beloew the £150 mark

Yes.

Things change I've changed · 30 Jul 2007 at 20:33

GreenThu)v(b said:
dont deserve them lol, nutter

they still sound the ****** to me, then again iv never experienced better sound so i wouldnt know really, which is why i posted this thread

if i bought a headphone amp, and connected that thru my creative system like the way i do with my hradphones now, would i still experience a better sound quality?

nutter lol, suppose I am a bit

, but it is a bit silly running those headphones off the internal amp, I don't mean any offence, it's like me buying a pair of 1 grand book self speakers and pairing them with a matsui all-in-one hi-fi then I really would be a nutter

, look on the bay for a secound hand x-can headphone amplifer, that should start you off.

GreenThu)v(b said:
if i bought a headphone amp, and connected that thru my creative system like the way i do with my hradphones now, would i still experience a better sound quality?

If I understand what your saying correctly then no it will not, you do not want to plug the headphone amp into the creative speaker system's audio jack where you curruntly plug your head phones into, what you want to do is plug it directly into the front left and right audio jack from the back of your sound card, basicly the best thing to do is get an 3.5mm jack splitter, google ''Hama Cable Adapter 3.5mm Jack to 2 x 3.5mm Sockets" (miss out the " ), plug that into the front L&R audio jack on the back of your soundcard, basicly that converts it into two, use one of the female jacks to plug your creative front left and right speaker jack into that you previously had plugged into the back of your sound card, the other female jack you can use for your head phone amp, the cable you need for the will be a 3.5mm jack to left & right rca, just google "3.5mm jack to left & right rca" (again, without the ") plug that cable into the spare female jack and the 2 left and right rca's will plug into the headphone amp, that way you can have your speakers working fine and your headphones through the amp without no messing around.

Bigsy · 30 Jul 2007 at 20:59

GreenThu)v(b said:
£600 lol, can i expect any beloew the £150 mark

If you just want something to get you started the latest go-vide is on offer: http://www.go-vibe-headphoneamp.com/Home_Page.html

Just get your self a 12 or 24v DC power supply and your all set. At £30 you can't go wrong, and when you out grow it and want something a bit more able you can get a more expensive desktop amp and relegate the go-vide to a portable rig or sell it

However, if you are willing to spend up to £150 then the Corda move is absolutely fantastic: http://www.meier-audio.homepage.t-online.de/amplifiers.htm

The amp on it is surprisingly powerful for a portable unit and the built in USB DAC is a real bonus. Check reviews on headfi.org it really is rated highly.