[aznpos531]

I was reading reviews on headphone amps and DACs and I came across the term "noise floor". Specifically several reviews saying of the same amp that its noise floor is too high for IEMs. I looked it up but I think I'm still confused as to what it actually means.
Does this mean that this particular amp has lots of noise (hissing etc.) that can be heard while listening to media on the amp or does this mean that the lowest usable level of amplification is too loud for IEMs?

Thanks!

 

[billybob_jcv]

It's actually the gain that is usually the problem. The signal that is sent to the amp contains both music and noise. Hopefully, it's a very small amount of noise and a lot of music. When that signal is sent into the amp, the amp multiplies the entire signal by the amount of gain - and that includes both the music and the noise. In addition, the amp also adds it's own noise to the signal. If you add all that noise together, and you send the signal into a very efficient headphone like a typical IEM, and the noise might become a significant portion of the overall signal - perhaps even significant enough to to be audible. So, the less noise the amp adds to the signal (in other words, has a lower noise floor), the better.

 

[aznpos531]

Thanks for clarifying!