What does a "Headphone Amplifier" do for say IEMs/Portable Headphones??

Quote:

Originally Posted by altfiv3 

I see a lot of sideways references here to "headphone amps" and I just have no clue what they're about or what the advantages are of having them...

 

I tried to go to the "Amp" sections, but idk which to go to and overall the posts there were just too high above my level of knowledge in this area.

 

So I come to you, since what I really want one for is possibly "improving" some headphones/iems that I have.

 

I have 2 questions

1) What is the principle/advantages of a headphone amp?

2) What would using say amps like: this or this do for me??

 

 

Thanks guys.

All headphones will improve (somewhat) with an amp.  Some more than others.  The actual sonic changes, along with the actual improvement depends on the headphone, the amp, and their synergy together.  This is the most basic understanding on what an amp can do (that the end user would care about :p).

Everything with a headphone jack already has a headphone amplifier. People are mostly talking about dedicated standalone headphone amplifiers, which may have different characteristics than the integrated headphone amplifier.

There are generally three main reasons people get headphone amplifiers:

1.  To boost the signal, to make the headphone play louder.  Some headphones are relatively quiet and need a higher signal (larger voltage) or just something that can handle the required current.  A more powerful amplifier may be able to provide more power  into different headphones.

2.  To boost the sound quality.  An amp pretty much takes an input signal and replicates it on the output (optionally scaled higher or lower, to increase or decrease the volume).  As with any type of analog system, this can't be done 100% perfectly, so there are imperfections on the output as it does not track the input completely correctly.  A cheap integrated amplifier may do a suboptimal job with this.  Depending on the design of the amplifier circuit, the performance at different output volumes into different kinds of headphones with different input signals, may be audibly different.  It depends.  Some amplifiers intentionally distort the signal so the output has somewhat different characteristics than the input; in some situations, this type of distorted sound is pleasing and preferable to many listeners.

3.  To get a shiny new toy (practical benefits aside), or because of peer pressure or misinformation.

Particularly for sensitive high-end IEMs there may be many factors behind #2, other ways that sound quality could be improved over something that's deficient.  But in general, sound quality depends much more on the headphones than on the other components, which are much easier and cheaper to produce reasonably competently.  edit:  some amps also have controls for crossfeed or equalizer options like bass or treble boost/cut, so you're gaining extra functionality in some ways.  These are things that can easily be done in software, but crossfeed is somewhat rare on portable music players.

If you're looking for better sound quality, you want to avoid the cheap pro headphone distribution amps/mixers, that are not designed for high fidelity listening but just for hearing your own sound or the mix in the studio.  The ones you linked would fall into that category.

Quote:

Originally Posted by altfiv3 

I see a lot of sideways references here to "headphone amps" and I just have no clue what they're about or what the advantages are of having them...

 

I tried to go to the "Amp" sections, but idk which to go to and overall the posts there were just too high above my level of knowledge in this area.

 

So I come to you, since what I really want one for is possibly "improving" some headphones/iems that I have.

 

I have 2 questions

1) What is the principle/advantages of a headphone amp?

2) What would using say amps like: this or this do for me??

 

 

Thanks guys.
 

Using a headphone amp will offer you advantages to your headphones quality. (ipod for example) You will find a boost in bass also overall punch / volume to your music. None the less it depends which headphones you're using, whether or not you hear sufficient changes in your audio experience depends on the headphones and amp itself.  If you're looking into an entry model amp try the Fiio E5 which can be bought on ebay for $20. That will give you a nice introduction to the world of headphone amplifiers.