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Budget Headphone Amp Recommendation?

post #1 of 3
2/11/12 at 1:27pm
Thread Starter 

Hey guys

 

I am looking for a usb headphone amp (or other kind if thats not ideal) to use with my macbook pro for music listening. 

 

The Setup will be Macbook (320 quality MP3) - Amp - Senn HD25 or Beyer DT660 

 

I listen to electronic music and hip hop as genres 

 

When i say budget im not sure what i actually need to spend to get what i want so need some recommendations and ill decide off that, but nearer the cheaper end as its just for a laptop, i already have an expensive sound card for my studio imac for music at my desktop but aster listening on that and going back to my macbook the music dosent sound as good so i want to improve this setup

 

 

Thanks for any suggestions guys! 

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post #2 of 3
2/11/12 at 1:47pm

You might want to clarify this.  By "headphone amp" generally people mean a device that is an amplifier only:  it takes in an analog signal (well two of them for a stereo amp, which is what we're talking about) and outputs an analog signal.

 

Some headphone amplifiers are portable but have rechargeable batteries that can be charged through USB or something else.  These still need an analog input.  Other devices use the USB to get digital audio data from a computer (so act as a sound card) and have a DAC to convert it to analog.  Many of these have an integrated headphone amp.

 

 

Do you want a headphone amplifier or a USB DAC + headphone amplifier?  For the latter, the FiiO E10 is a popular option at around $75.  There's not particularly great options under that price range if you want to use lower-impedance headphones like the DT 660.  For around $35 you can get a Creative X-Fi Go! (don't worry, you can run it off of the OS's native UAC1 drivers and not have to use Creative's), if you don't mind a little worse performance and sub-bass rolloff into low impedance headphones.  It's a few dB down at 20 Hz for about 32 ohms headphones.  Blame small output caps.


Edited by mikeaj - 2/11/12 at 1:51pm
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post #3 of 3
2/11/12 at 1:49pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by mikeaj View Post

You might want to clarify this.  By "headphone amp" generally people mean a device that is an amplifier only:  it takes in an analog signal (well two of them for a stereo amp, which is what we're talking about) and outputs an analog signal.

 

Some headphone amplifiers are portable but have rechargeable batteries that can be charged through USB or something else.  These still need an analog input.  Other devices use the USB to get digital audio data from a computer (so act as a sound card) and have a DAC to convert it to analog.  Many of these have an integrated headphone amp.

 

 

Do you want a headphone amplifier or a USB DAC + headphone amplifier?  For the latter, the FiiO E10 is a popular option at around $75.  There's not particularly great options under that price range if you want to use lower-impedance headphones like the DT 660.

 

ah the DAC may have been what i meant i dont know much about this area of audio



 

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