[Eicrux]

I have HD650 that i just received last week, and it is very nice compared to my last iem. The question is that I only drive this headphone straight from my laptop, and I can really go loud that i cannot go past 60% when I listen to music. I have heard/ read that an amp is just wire with gain, amplify the volume so that it can be heard to acceptable listening volume, so do I need an amp to pair with my HD650?

 

[castleofargh]

-from an objective perspective you can always find an amplifier (or DAC+AMP) that will measure better than your laptop's own dac and amp.
-from a subjective perspective, for all the possible reasons ranging from preconceptions, to audible differences and taste, you can find amps that will feel different/better to you.
 
in both cases, you're ultimately the one with a particular desire and so the one who can answer.
 
but no not all amps are wire with gain, in fact many are "colored" on purpose and some people will prefer that. and obviously there are also bad products just failing at transparency.
when it comes to power alone, your laptop is probably fine for your use. on mine there is a very audible background noise with my hd650 that really ruins my fun, so I use an external DAC and amp that has low noise floor because that's what I wished to correct. if you don't have a particular problem and enjoy your music, no need to fall head first into the hifi master race in my opinion.

 

[Eicrux]

Thanks for the answer. I think that my HD650 can do better to as I do hear some noise and a bit of distortion down low.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

  I have HD650 that i just received last week, and it is very nice compared to my last iem. The question is that I only drive this headphone straight from my laptop, and I can really go loud that i cannot go past 60% when I listen to music. I have heard/ read that an amp is just wire with gain, amplify the volume so that it can be heard to acceptable listening volume, so do I need an amp to pair with my HD650?

 

Wire with gain also means that it can amplify the signal to drive something without adding distortion and noise. If there is audible distortion and noise, then a good amp would drive the HD600 without you getting those. Ideally, you should be able to play the music a little bit above your comfortable listening level (ie you can only listen that loud for a few tracks at a time) without hearing obvious distortion, that way if you do go louder then you have clean power to give the headphone.

 

Note however that this is a big "if." Not all distortion sounds like cone break up, and not all noise is obvious hissing (amps that are totally silent for example can sound like they have deeper bass, when in fact it's not necessarily that they EQ the sound or they have better current delivery). Even if we can hear that laptop for ourselves, at best we would know there would be some improvement with a really good amp like an O2, Meier, Violectric, or Schiit, but then at that point there's still the question of 1) whether you can hear the difference and 2) if you'd think it was worth spending more for.

 

And then there's the possibility that while you might hear the difference, sometimes people actually prefer systems with a numerically higher distortion percentage, because some distortion can be euphonic. While this is mostly true of some tube amps vs your typical, technically adept with no marketing bull solid state, I wouldn't discount the possibility of other devices having a similar enough effect of warming up the sound of a headphone (though in some cases it can be due to a high output impedance on some low impedance loads) that some people would think that the technically adept amp sounds worse.

 

Similarly, not all of those hearing a difference are just adept at doing so. Others are hearing placebo, while others are hearing what can count as such, except the key difference is they're playing louder and the other amp just doesn't distort as much at that point (and perhaps beyond). In the latter example, there really is a difference, but then it puts into question whether it's worth it to you given you can only use that much power in shorter bursts (otherwise you'd suffer hearing damage).

 

Note that this isn't meant to totally discourage you from trying an amp. I just don't like having people enthusiastically recommending them (despite qualifications like "my laptop gets loud enough on it") only for the person asking to come back and rant about other people hearing placebo (the chances of placebo as well being some measure of tone deaf however aren't that far apart) or whatever. Basically, try one, but I suggest you invest more than just entry level amps that have a huge gap in performance over really crappy stuff, but maybe not much over otherwise good enough gear, that way you can get more performance for just a little more.