Quote:
Originally Posted by Cooler13 
Interesting thread. I have a Z5500 too and noticed the increase in volume on headphones with the master volume, but never thought of using the Z5500 like that. Truth be told if I'm not on the road I don't use my headphones except in very rare cases. Also, all the soundcards I own/ed had very powerful volume for headphones. More, I use the Z5500 only with optical cable.. if I need to listen to my headphones I'm using the analog stereo output of my Sondigo.
Right now I'm not using the Z5500 as they are way too powerful for the room I'm living in, so I use my X-530 (even that on low volumes).
Still it'd be interested to know how the headphone amplifier sounds on headphones requiring an amp.
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X2 this is exactly what I want to find out to. It would be interesting if anyone can compare a 300 ohm or 80 ohm headphone on the Z5500 vs Direct through the sound card vs a Expensive headphone AMP.
According to wikipedia a headphone AMP is only used for weak audio devices mainly battery operated devices that cannot power high impedance headphones.
In other words they say a headphone AMP just boosts the volume hence the reason its called an Amplifier its really no different from a 2000 Watts soundstream car amp. They all do the same thing.
But only with little difference in audio quality where SNR and other types of noise is concerned. Infact many scientists say expensive amps are waay overpriced and they do nothing but give audiophiles the satisfaction of feeling just cause they spend plenty money that they have something good.
So will be interesting if someone can compare the Z5500 amp with an expensive amp with a high ohm headphone and see if it can power it with low distortion. Atleast compared to the average human ear, many people claims to be audiophiles however after years of damage to your ear drums because going deaf with headphones is very likely and almost unavoidable. I doubt many of us can even hear the difference between real audiophile equipment.
Most scientists agree a lot of things are also all in your mind and its a psychological thing with your brain tricking you. Who knows they could have a point also scientists agree burn in is just a myth to even to this date they continue to preach burn in is all myth and we only think it works cause our brain and ears adjust to that specific sound signature. Who knows?
But thus far I notice an improvement using my Z5500 amp over just plugging in the headphone direct into the sound card. But to truly test it I would need a 80 and up ohm headphone and thats where you guys come in. Hopefully someone here has a high ohm headphone to test this.