AMP FOR HD595's

You can use the HD595 straight from a computer just fine. They will improve with an amp but they will not sound bad or too soft at all running from your X-fi.

Would a built-in recharging circuit be alright? So you could run off batteries and charge them in situ.

Batteries are a cleaner power-source.



595s don't need an Amp, but get one, Standard questions: Music-type, Budget.

I'd also have to advise against getting an amp. The HD595 can easily be used directly out of a sound card with a rated 50 Ohms, and your primary purpose of gaming is one that's not very well-suited towards amping. It'd make more sense to use an external DAC/amp for your music listening when you're not gaming. (It'd sap precious CPU cycles during gaming if you were to try it, and your X-Fi is specifically designed for gaming anyway.)

There are a few DAC/amps being discussed on the front page of this forum, just read around for them.

A headphone amp wouldn't, an external DAC probably would take up at least some CPU cycles.
The HD595 IMO is one of the best headphones for movies and gaming and it can easily run from a portable player or a computer sound card. It does sound better playing music when amped but not a whole lot better. If you want to buy a non portable amp, i'd go for a tube amp like one of the Little Dots or a Dark Voice or Xiang Sheng. The HD595 sounds very nice with tubes. I don't think an affordable portable amp would improve the HD595 by much.

IMO the 595's really don't respond to amps unless you spend some mad coin or use an amp that "colours" the sound. I have an Arietta and there is a slight difference when using the amp instead of straight out of the PC, but I don't think it is worth the $$$ (for the 595 that is ). In your case maybe put the money into a better DAC (maybe EMU0404?)...

Audio Jester, your desription shows how bad was the idea of buying Arietta for the HD595's and that's it. These headphones repsond very well to tube amps (i.e. Little Dot's) or well chosen SS amps. I can build an amp, battery or mains driven (with an adaptor), that will help a whole lot the HD595's. I sold my amp to several HD595 owners in my country and they've been very satisified. It's just because I've spent several months on tuning my final design just using the HD595's. Stock amps are aimed at "any" headphones, or a certain models, unless otherwise noted, which means you can miss the intentions of the manufacturer just because of owning another type of headphones. Also my amplifier can help many other low impedance headphones. Proven on Pioneer SE-A1000, HD555, Grado SR60, Sony MDR-7509HD... Shure E3c, CrossRoads X3, Senns CX300, etc. Even BD DT990 and HD580 fare pretty well.

Do not buy an DAC prior to getting an Amp.


Your system will always have a DAC chip and an Amp is much more versatile.

A line-out needs an Amp.

A digital-out needs an Amp and a DAC.

cheap amps will not really be an improvement for the 595s. ex. a pa2v2 will just give a dirtier sound than the sound directly from the soundcard. a very low budget amp is not going to improve the sound of any headphone much. They are designed for headphones that need power but are not too detailed and not too fussy about quality

Yeah, its like most things. You can go and buy crap.

An Amplifier is not pre-destined to improve a thing.

 Frankly, I am a bit confused about the difference between "amped" and "unamped".

Usually, when people say "unamped", they seem to really mean "out of an ipod or laptop", rather than "out of a home stereo".

I am initially planning to use my 595s straight out of a classic (nonportable) Sony CD changer which has a pretty decent headphone output.

Since it is not a stand-alone headphone amplifier, would that be considered using them amped or not? How much difference would a stand-alone amp really make under those circumstances, and how much would one have to spend to hear that difference?

 

(Since the headphones themselves only cost $150, it would seem pretty silly to spend more than that to amp them.)

That's a good question and I've been trying to establish a definition for a long, long time. To me unamped means, as you suggest, out of something not really meant to drive anything other than earbuds. Amped means out of something with decent drive, be it either a speaker amp, dedicated HP amp or quality CD player. However, some here use "amped" to mean only out of a dedicated HP amp, which to me is too narrow a definition. For phones like the 595, which I consider among the best in their price range and relatively efficient, a CD player might do, but a decent speaker amp would be better and, if you don't already have one, cheap and easy to obtain on Ebay.