[Jerpipe]

I'm new to headphone systems. Can I connect my headamp to my DAC directly without a preamp?

 

[Jerpipe]

I'm thinking about buying ps audio nuwave or similar stuff. I just found out that nuwave have no integrated preamp. Is that a issue for headphones or just a concern for speakers?

 

[Jerpipe]

bump need help

 

[Zadok]

I don't know about that product, but most headphone amps are designed to be used directly from a dac. The need for a preamp arises from two main uses:

1) you're using speakers or an amp that don't have a volume control.

2) that preamp has a feature you want to add to the signal chain, such as using a tube preamp to give tube sound while sending the signal along to a solid state Amp.

 

[Jerpipe]

I don't know about that product, but most headphone amps are designed to be used directly from a dac. The need for a preamp arises from two main uses:

1) you're using speakers or an amp that don't have a volume control.

2) that preamp has a feature you want to add to the signal chain, such as using a tube preamp to give tube sound while sending the signal along to a solid state Amp.

I don't know about that product, but most headphone amps are designed to be used directly from a dac. The need for a preamp arises from two main uses:

1) you're using speakers or an amp that don't have a volume control.

2) that preamp has a feature you want to add to the signal chain, such as using a tube preamp to give tube sound while sending the signal along to a solid state Amp.

Thanks! So preamp is most likely not a concern for headphones right?

 

[DonS1000]

This may be off topic but could someone explain why a seperate DAC is better than say the output of an IPod - as it seems to me they are both running the same algorithm to convert the music ?

 

[Zadok]

Preamps are most useful in larger systems that contain multiple sources and or multiple amps. The preamp makes switching between these components easier, and like I said before, also has the benefit of affecting the signal chain if you want a certain sound signature added.

As for dacs, they do not use the same algorithm and they also have different capabilities for ensuring signal accuracy as well as distortion management. As you go up the dac hierarchy, more and more functions will be implemented to allow ever closer signal accuracy compared to the original sounds from the artist.

 

[DonS1000]

I had a Sony PHA-2 Dac - and I couldn't tell any difference between it and my Itouch , maybe my ears aren't so great. Would anyone know the names of the different algorithms ?

 

[Zadok]

You might not hear a difference because of some other bottleneck in your system. Your music files might not have top quality compression or they might not have been mastered super well (this happens often with indie artists who have smaller budgets). Your headphones might require a better Amp to carry the more detailed signal forward. Your headphones themselves might not be detailed enough to reproduce the sound well either. Systems have weakest links that are usually the problem, but it can also be hard to diagnose without other equipment for comparison.

 

[DonS1000]

I was using same Itouch/Headphones/Songs for comparison - the only difference I remember doing was headphones plugged into Itouch and then plugging headphones into Dac (attached to Same Itouch). The only differences could only be accounted to different algorithms for D/A conversion (between Itouch and the dac) and different distortion in the amplification quality (between Itouch and the external DAC).

 

[ProtegeManiac]

I'm new to headphone systems. Can I connect my headamp to my DAC directly without a preamp?

Technically, no, because how do you control the volume?

Headphone amps have a preamp stage built in already. It's just a matter of whether they have a preamp output that bypasses the headphone amp's output stage for a speaker power amp or studio monitors.

I'm thinking about buying ps audio nuwave or similar stuff. I just found out that nuwave have no integrated preamp. Is that a issue for headphones or just a concern for speakers?

The NuWave doesn't just lack a preamp, it totally lacks a headphone driver circuit. And anything with a headphone driver circuit has some kind of preamp circuit or digital stage volume control, unlike speaker systems where you can get a preamp and power amp separately instead of an integrated amp.

You need a headphone amp to work with the NuWave.

I don't know about that product, but most headphone amps are designed to be used directly from a dac. The need for a preamp arises from two main uses:

1) you're using speakers or an amp that don't have a volume control.

2) that preamp has a feature you want to add to the signal chain, such as using a tube preamp to give tube sound while sending the signal along to a solid state Amp.

DACs that have headphone outputs have a headphone amplifier output stage controlled by a preamp circuit or digital stage volume control.