SearchOfSub
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Aug 28, 2013
- Posts
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I appreciate the principle of keeping the signal path as simple and clean as possible,.. but you are wrong. Most headphone and virtually all speakers need amplification. The design and quality of components determine how an amplifier will effect the sound. People often select amplifiers for a particular coloration... but it's also possible to build amplifiers which are pretty close to wire with gain.
In the face of a difficult load, having sufficient amplification allows the speaker to effectively produce sounds from the signal it receives even as the load from the speaker chances. I am sure everyone here has heard a pair of headphones or speakers that was being driven by an amplifier that wasn't up to the task. Great headphones sounding awful because of an amplifier that isn't sufficient. Note: how loud an amp can drive headphones is just one part of the equation, because it could be getting plenty loud but distorting the signal at the same time. The question is how does the amplified signal look compared to the source.
Does the Mojo need an external amplifier? I don't think so for the headphones I am using. Would it benefit from an external amplifier? I suppose that would depend on the load and the amplifier. My IEM didn't benefit from the addition of an amplifier. My HD800 (to my ears) got better with a top performing amplifier and worse with amplifiers which weren't up to the task.
--Mark
No, I am not WRONG. You are wrong. I was saying if the line out has enough power to drive headphones, no reason in adding another amp in the chain. A hugo added with a a $2,000.00 amp added on top of it won't make it sound any better. it'll sound worse because the strength of Hugo which is transparency, and openness is compromised heavily by the flavor of the external amp. You will hear more of Amps sound then the prior because it is the second to last in chain, just like you will more of headphones sound signature than any amp in chain. I suppose Mojo has similar characteristic to hugo, so it's best left alone if has enough power to drive your headphones.