[Harrath]

I'll be using Sony CD3000's which are low (32 ohm) impedance headphones.

Is an amp worth it? The Zen has no line out, just a headphone out, and provides 100 mW of power (enough to drive the Sonys to ear bleeding levels). My guessing is that adding an amp wouldn't improve the sound at all, just make the crappy headphone out a crappy LOUD headphone out.

What are your thoughts?

 

[master83]

this is exactly the reason I got the ihp-120 instead of any of the Zen's... it has a line out. There will be a horrible sound trying to amplify a headphone signal. allthough the Zen NX has a pretty powerful head-out.. that's a plus

 

[Harrath]

Well, out of curiosity, do you think it would be possible and beneficial to mod around the amplification circuit and turn the headphone jack into essentially a line out?

 

[brschmid]

i have a CMOY amp with my Zen and i love it, of course i am not using 400.00 dollar headphones either

 

[skyles]

adding an amp to the zen does IMPROVE the sound dramatically. i really don't like listening to my zen anymore without my supermini (despite the bulk), it really has spoiled me.

 

[James]

Quote:

Originally posted by master83 this is exactly the reason I got the ihp-120 instead of any of the Zen's... it has a line out. There will be a horrible sound trying to amplify a headphone signal.

This is completely untrue. In fact, until very recently, Headroom still recommended the Zen as the top portable MP3 HD player to go with their amps (at least, that's what Todd told me just before he left the company). In any event, I independently came to the same conclusion having carefully auditioned the Zen, Jukebox 3, iPod 2nd gen, and the Neuros.

Personally, the only reason I don't use my TAH with my Zen and Ety's more often is that I don't yet have a convenient way of carrying them together portably. Fortunately, the Zen has at least a decent-sounding amp with good power. Otherwise, the sound quality improves dramatically when the TAH is placed midstream.

 

[master83]

so why do people always say that you lose resolution when amping a head-out signal vs. a true line-out signal? it has to do with the headphone amplifier in the mp3-player coloring the music with power, bass, treble etc - amping this further generally makes things worse. But hey, if you can get it to sound nice, it's wonderful

Put there's a reason why people with, say, Ipods connect their headamp directly to the device to get a line signal instead of connecting it to the remote where you get the head-out signal.

Anyone else got any comments? Pro/Cons of amping head-out signals?

 

[Fish Tank X]

The amp just ampliifies things further.

You're adding the amps little colorations and amp induced noise into the signal. Fortunatley under most circumstances outside it's difficult to notice, if not impossible. On the other hand, the increased power provided by the amp (Not necescescarily current, but voltage swing is probably higher) is very noticable.

 

[James]

Quote:

Originally posted by master83 so why do people always say that you lose resolution when amping a head-out signal vs. a true line-out signal?

This is true. The result is simply far from being horrible.

Quote:

Put there's a reason why people with, say, Ipods connect their headamp directly to the device to get a line signal instead of connecting it to the remote where you get the head-out signal.

Actually, it is my understanding that the iPod's headphone jack cannot provide a line-level signal. The only way to access a non-amplified signal is through the dock.

The point is that a player can still sound great out of the headphone jack if the underlying DAC and opamp are good. For example, using my TAH, I like the sound of the Zen's headphone jack over the Jukebox 3's line-level. I like the JB3's line-level over its headphone jack and I am sure I would prefer the line-level of the Zen, if I could get to it. But as it is, maxing the Zen's headphone-out and running it into my TAH or home stereo creates beautiful sound.

 

[brschmid]

i run my Zen with my amp and minimum volume, works great

 

[master83]

Quote:

Originally posted by James This is true. The result is simply far from being horrible.

Okey, my "horrible" was an overstatement.

I can agree with that. But worse than a line-signal.. especially if you use high end equipment (headphones, amp etc)

 

[anearfull]

Quote:

Originally posted by Harrath Well, out of curiosity, do you think it would be possible and beneficial to mod around the amplification circuit and turn the headphone jack into essentially a line out?

That's a really good question. I bet Xin Feng (Mr SuperMini) would be a good person to answer it. I know his modded radios sound fabulous so he's into that kind of thing.

I imagine that bypassing the amp section would be quite machine dependent ... on some players it might be easy while on others it would be impossible. If possible, I'm interested!

A good question for the DIY crowd.