Worth getting a headphone amp?

Ice Rich

Ice Rich

Ice Rich

Soldato
Joined
3 Dec 2004
Posts
2,676
Hi all,

I upgraded from motherboard sound a few years back which was a fantastic decision.

I am using a Xonar DX soundcard with a pair of HD555 headphones connected directly. I've never had a problem but I see there is some talk on the forums amps (and how they are now being built-in to sound cards).

Do you think I would notice any difference if I purchased one?
How much we looking at?
Is a headphone amp mainly for people who listen to sound very loudly?

Many thanks,
 
Headphone amps can make headphones go louder, but that's generally not why they're required. It's more about letting your headphones reach their potential.

Dynamic headphones work by generating movement by passing electricity through a wire coil around a permanent magnet. The thinner the wire used, the higher the impedance. Thinner wires are typically used to allow lighter drivers which, if designed well, can lead to more refined high frequency response. To overcome impedance, and drive to a high volume, relatively high voltage is required. This also affects driver acceleration at low volume too though. Well amped headphones generally sound clearer and more 'full' at low volume.

There's also current to worry about. Even low impedance headphones can require a relatively high current. If current is inadequate, then sound distortion is more likely, as the drivers don't make it through their full sound wave-form.

Your typical soundcard (or source in general) output satisfies neither the current nor voltage requirement of the most demanding headphones. This is where amps come in.

Your HD555s are kind of 'medum' as far as amp requirements go. They apparrently do benefit from an amp but don't sound bad without a dedicated one. I've only really tried HD555s from a listening station in a store though, so can't comment from experience on their performance with different amps.
 
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I have jus been looking into Headphone amps too and decided to check the forums for info, u seem to know ur stuff Uriel...

I have an old Technics home theatre DTS amp that i dont use anymore, in its day it was a very good amp... im just wondering if it would work in the same way as a headphone amp if i ran my pc thru the amp and the headphones from that?

Also been looking at the 5.1 Astro mixamp, would that make my Senn PC 350's 5.1 or would i need 5.1 Headset?

Sorry if i sound totaly thick i just havent messed with pc audio and surroundy stuff for a while.

Forgot to mention my soundcard is XFi Fatal1ty.

Cheers.
 
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sorry to hijack the thread, but if you had a mixer coming from the sound card, say, a eurorack ub 802, would that be sufficient enough to drive a low impedence headphone.
 
Yep, pretty much anything that has a headphone socket will drive low impedance phones. It's only more demanding phones that require a dedicated headphone amp. Just looking at a picture of the UB802, I can see a phones socket.

However, impedance is not the only factor when determining whether phones are easy to drive or not. Some phones, such as some of AKG's are 64 ohm, which do require a dedicated headphone amp, but Sennheiser's HD25 70 ohm version phones, will work from pretty much any headphone socket.
 
Rich, I have a pair of HD595s which are pretty much the same as the 555s. I use the on my laptop, iPhone and Walkman through a Fiio E7. It's a portable amp and also a DAC when used with the laptop via USB.

For gaming (Bad Company 2), movies and music they do make a difference. It's not about the loudness, there's a lot more detail. When watching movies the speech is clearer and explosions bigger :)

Music on the laptop also sounds much better but not so much through the iPhone or Walkman, not enough bass. Maybe it's because I'm now using line in instead of the USB DAC. I have Fiio line out adapters for the iPhone and Walkman.

But when used with smaller IEMs you have to watch the amp level as things get loud very quickly. This is where the amp makes you smile if you like you house / trance music :)

I'm in Bristol next weekend visiting family. If you live near or can get to Frenchay or Staple Hill you can borrow the Fiio for a day.
 
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Mujja said:
I'm in Bristol next weekend visiting family. If you live near or can get to Frenchay or Staple Hill you can borrow the Fiio for a day.
Click to expand...

Blimey you are trusting!

Wish i lived a little closer to you know so i could try it!

Am considering asking for the e7 off my girlfriend for christmas, i have a budget of 100 pounds so was also looking at the e9 but im not sure if its out yet!

Do you like the e7?
 
haz_pro said:
Blimey you are trusting!

Wish i lived a little closer to you know so i could try it!

Am considering asking for the e7 off my girlfriend for christmas, i have a budget of 100 pounds so was also looking at the e9 but im not sure if its out yet!

Do you like the e7?
Click to expand...

Both E7 and E9 are sold by FiiO in the Jungle store atm. They went up in price by quite a lot though, I think getting them off the bay works out much cheaper.

Just checked and I'm wrong, they all went up in price by £20 at least. BS price if you ask me :(
 
Haven't read about the E9 but I had the E5 before which I didn't like. There was a constant hiss and all it seemed to do was boost the bass.

For me being able to connect the E7 to my laptop and bypass the built in sound card wAs the main selling point. It's a Vaio F series and the headphone out jack is right next to where I use a mouse. The HD595s had to be used with a 3.5mm adapter which stuck out even more but I've replaced the cable now with a shorter 1m length and 3.5 jack on the end.

The E7 also has 2 outputs which is handy for sharing music. And it comes boxed with a protective rubber case.
 
Mr Krugga said:
I think getting them off the bay works out much cheaper.

Just checked and I'm wrong, they all went up in price by £20 at least. BS price if you ask me :(
Click to expand...

I paid just over 50 del from a seller in Redruth. Was the cheapest I could find delivered.
 
Just read that with my cans because the impediance is so low using the e9 probably wont make much difference.

May still get the e7.. hmm.
 
I have the b-tech bt928 and it works well, much better than running directly from my laptop and also means I can use my DAC, I removed the tone control from it and it sounds much better.
 
Mujja said:
I'm in Bristol next weekend visiting family. If you live near or can get to Frenchay or Staple Hill you can borrow the Fiio for a day.
Click to expand...


Wow, lovely gesture and I appreciate that! However, I am the other side of Bristol otherwise would have been good to meet up.

I'm going to look into Fiio E7 now, prices seem reasonable so might even place an order.

Just looking at the connectors now; So it would be best to connect the amp to my sound-card directly and not use the USB at all right? Would that connecting cable need to be of good quality and do you know the name of it?

Thanks for help guys,

Out of curiosity, how did you know I am located in Bristol :)?
 
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Just looking into the Fiio E7 some more and it seems that it is to be used 'instead of' rather then 'work with' my xonar soundcard. Would the buit-in decoder make my soundcard useless?
 
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