gain matters

[anoobis]

There's a lot written about quality, not quantity, when it comes to amps. And quite right, just because it's loud doesn't make it good.

Short version:
However, sometimes gain does matter. If you have a weak DAP, the gain of the amp may be at least as important as its quality.

Long version:
I recently plugged both my home amp and CMoy into my electric piano, driving 250 Ohm HP, so it should be voltage that counts. Both sounded good but I couldn't help feeling that the _desktop_ wasn't quite there. I hesitate to say it struggled because it drove the headphones well enough, just not loud enough. Max gain of 3. In comparision, the CMoy sounded great because I could get the electric piano to the volume of a real piano, which is sort of the point!

So, my suspicion is that the desktop is designed to take a line out and the piano must be closer to a (very) weak DAP. (Could it even be unamped internally?) In which case the high gain was needed and not having it ruined the overall enjoyment.

[FallenAngel]

Moral of the story: make sure you have enough gain to drive your headphones off the source you use.

[nikongod]

portable amps can be built with high gain as easily as home amps can be built with low gain. also vice versa. the exception would be a tube amp (without global feedback) which sets gain based on the tubes used.

for a solid-state amp, something with a gain switch could be a solid solution if you have devices with such large variances in output voltage.