Why Aren't Headphone Amps Mainstream?

Headphone amps have been mainstream for a long time, there is one inside every digital audio player, mini disc player, portable cd player, personal cassette player, many integrated amps, "midi systems", "ghetto blasters" as well as personal computers and laptops plus of course professional audio gear. 

The market for boutique headphone amplifiers has exploded of late but headphone amplifiers themselves are nothing new and everyone probably has half a dozen in their house already.

I think the same reason most people are happy with the ear bugs they get with their ipod.

because most people dont care about getting that extra sound quality out of their ipods.  most audio people are speaker people.  the headphone enthusiast community is rather small. most use ipods and their stock earbuds.  

i told my friend whos been into audio, but into speakers, since we were teenagers and he said i was stupid to spend so much on a headphone system. 

I knew what you meant, just being a bit of a pedant 

Really the headphones that need a powerful, well performing amp most are those designed for home listening – large, power hungry open backed headphones designed for sitting back in a chair and listening.

People spending the sort of money to buy these are going to know enough to start with to know about headphone amps and where to get them.

For an average person with white ibudz or something just a shade better, a dedicated headphone amp is completely unnecessary.

Even of the headphone nuts here, not everyone believes you need a portable headphone amp for portable headphones.

Quote:

Originally Posted by damie-dee 

As a newbie, I was shocked to learn that the average stereo/AV receiver doesn't give high quality headphones the best sound. If I knew that a decade ago, I would have never spent several thousand dollars on receivers. The sales people at Electronic stores never told me about that.

ifyou count on sales ppl to tell you everything ud ever need to know, youll be in for a shock lol

The sad truth is that few people care about audio quality, and care even less about the headphones themselves (meaning they don't know **** about sound and electronics) 

Comments I get from casual people walking around with apple earbuds when this is mentioned; 

"It'll do"

"I don't care" 

"What?" 

"Huh?" 

"(Nods and rolleyes)" 

The trendy response to this is "People don't care about sound quality."

The more accurate response is "The most contact most people have with audiophiles is articles laughing at them. Unfortunately, the people giggling have a point. Hence, headphone amps and other esoteric audiophile things are not going to become mainstream unless some things change."

Quote:

Originally Posted by damie-dee 

I can't think of any major Electronic manufacturers that make dedicated headphone amps, not even high-end ones like Denon, Marantz, etc. Most Amps appear to be built by small businesses.

Naim and Musical fidelity makes headphone amps...

Quote:

Originally Posted by damie-dee 

I'm not familiar with them, are they household names?

Naim is a big, british company, google it. :) 

Musical Fidelity are not as big or popular but they still have a decent number of products. I see Musical fidelity products in many of the stores I usually visit.