Hi everyone! I'm new to the forums, and also fairly new to headphone gear. I am currently looking into getting a set of headphones and headphone amps. There's an abundant amount of information out there making it a bit difficult for a beginner like me to know where to begin so I hope you can point me in the right direction. Through some research however, I have read this page which was quite informative.
So basically, the first thing I would like to look at are some decent headphone amps. My intended use will be almost exclusively for home use on my computer. I'll be mainly listening to music, games (when I someday get a new computer) and occasionally movies. I still like listening through my speakers during the day, so one thing I would like is some easy way to be able to switch between headphone and speakers.
I pretty much have no experience with headphone amps, so here are a bunch of main questions that I have:
- I noticed that there are amps with USB connectivity; how does this work? Does the amp has its own DAC (so it doesn't use the sound card's)? What are the advantages?
- Is it possible to have a setup where I can easily switch between headphones and speakers without requiring to fiddle with connections?
- And basically, what types of amps are there, what are some recommended brands and what are some good online stores to buy from (that ship to Australia)?
Thanks.
Edited by peternguyen - 12/27/11 at 4:19am
