[Ojsinnerz]

Hello. I'm quite new to headphones, and amps. I'm thinking of getting the Fiio amp, because it's ridiculously cheap for what you get, and since I don't have any money (Grade 9 student). But before I do that, just a few quick questions on what they are.

1. Do they actually improve the sound? I know it depends on the brand, and the quality of the product itself, but still. Does it? I've heard that it just adds more "power", which will increase the volume.

2. Is it true that using an Amp for a long time will actually decrease the quality of the sound? I mean, in a long term.

Thank you.

 

[deaf-nation]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ojsinnerz /img/forum/go_quote.gif 1. Do they actually improve the sound? I know it depends on the brand, and the quality of the product itself, but still. Does it? I've heard that it just adds more "power", which will increase the volume. 2. Is it true that using an Amp for a long time will actually decrease the quality of the sound? I mean, in a long term.

Hello,

just a quick answer for you (

in my opinion

). These are quite broad questions.

1. Do they improve the sound?
No. What you put in = (at best) what you get out.
Having said that, headphone amps can "colour" the sound or add some subtle changes. I guess most people who have hard to drive headphones (high impedance) would need a headphone amp. Personally, my headphone amp does seem to improve the listening experience, but there is no up-sampling or anything.

2. Yes - if you listen too loud, your hearing will suffer.

Perhaps, if starting,you could borrow one from a friend (headphone amp). Good quality headphones can be costly...........dohhh!!! To me they make the
biggest difference to the listening experience.

 

[synaesthetic]

Whether amps actually improve sound is subjective; some headphones cannot be adequately driven by the weak internal amplifiers in sound cards and portable devices. Adding an amp in this case can improve sound by providing the headphones with enough power to operate properly.

Furthermore, sound quality can be improved by using a dedicated headphone amplifier from a line-level output, as this will bypass the underpowered and often mediocre headphone amplifiers on portable devices, computer sound cards and the headphone jacks of stereo components.

However, the old "garbage in, garbage out" axiom still stands. If you feed the amp a mangled signal, it will not rebuild the signal. It'll just amplify it--warts and all.

 

[paul_lindemann]

It does not improve the sound, but it sounds better! Why? Because the focus is better and the noise floor (all things equal) is better.

Amps do die, albeit slowly, so you need not worry about the degradation of sound over the mid term...after 5 years with constant use...yes!

 

[Uncle Erik]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ojsinnerz /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hello. I'm quite new to headphones, and amps. I'm thinking of getting the Fiio amp, because it's ridiculously cheap for what you get, and since I don't have any money (Grade 9 student). But before I do that, just a few quick questions on what they are. 1. Do they actually improve the sound? I know it depends on the brand, and the quality of the product itself, but still. Does it? I've heard that it just adds more "power", which will increase the volume. 2. Is it true that using an Amp for a long time will actually decrease the quality of the sound? I mean, in a long term. Thank you.

1. Yes, they can improve the sound. Not by changing the signal itself, but by fully driving your headphones with good control and damping of your headphones. When your headphones are driven as they were engineered to, you will get better sound. If you put a wonderful signal through an amp that doesn't have control over your headphones, you won't get good sound.

2. No. The amp itself will wear out over time, though.

Does your school offer electronics classes? My high school did, and we had a full lab with all the tools. If you have something like that, take the class and tell the instructor that you want to build an amp. You might get to build one as part of taking the class, and you'll have all the tools you'll need and guidance from the instructor. If you scrounge parts, you can build a $1,000+ retail amp for under $100.

 

[Ojsinnerz]

Thanks for all the answers you guys. I may order one next month

@Uncle Erik:

No, we don't have any classes like that, unfortunately.

 

[JediRemi]

Thanks for the question and also thanks to the aswer...
I'm also a beginer to amps (but not to headphones, i ve tried maybe 50 of them, looking for the graal over the years).

I tried a amp one my ATH-pro5 headphones and yes it did sound better, depending on the music i was listening to.if it was a music with loud bassline it almost saturated, or the bass ate the other sounds (I would have needed a compressor, haha), but on other types of music, especially arabic drums, the improvement was amazing...

Ok , if you permit it, I will put all my "beginer questions" in this post:

Does the amp re-equalize the sound ? That's why it would sound warmer, agressive or mellow depending on the amp, right ?
(does "balanced" means that it has a neutral equlization ?)

If all the amps do the same job, why will you find series of it ? MK I, MK III etc ... (uderstand the question as: what are the diferences ?)

(I think the above questions are often in the mind of the newcommers, so maybe a "sticky" post would be great about it)
---
Is there a "Dummies guide to amp building" ? we aleready have the "complete guide to tube knowledge" it would be a tube complement.

I m leaving china tomorrow and this is my last chance to buy at a really cheap price a little dot, a C&c or even a chinese made ennourmous tube amp for less than 100$ (it s made in a university, probably in electronic classes). What would justify to invest in a 300$ amp rather than in a 60$ LD MK I ?

I'm planing to buy 1 headset for monitoring, so if the amp re-equalize the sound, it would bias the monitoring/mastering job.
I am also planing to buy one for "enjoying music" where a reequlizing one would be welcome.

All my questions could sound stupid but sorry i cannot find a clear answer by myself right now.

((please post a reply even if you answer only one of the questions above))

Thanks a loooot

 

[deaf-nation]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JediRemi /img/forum/go_quote.gif Thanks for the question and also thanks to the aswer... I'm also a beginer to amps (but not to headphones, i ve tried maybe 50 of them, looking for the graal over the years).

Hi,

I'm a new amp owner myself. What do you need in an amp?
You need to work out, what are the most important characteristics for

you

within your budget....... Because ------ it's your money you will be spending.

For instance;

Will you use it when travelling?

What sort of build quality?

What current internet reviews are there?

Do you need a good warantee?

Internal/External power supply.....

What does it sound like?

The list long. But really, you have to narrow the characterstics to suit your own requirements.

A PAV2 is a really good, budget priced amp I would thoroughly recommend to anyone starting on "the amp journey".
I used to have one, which I sold to someone. You can get them online.

If I was in China, I might get a tube amp for the novelty value alone. I love anything with tubes

Good Luck.

 

[SwaFa]

I will generally respond to the above questions about amps and their purpose and advantage.

I recently bought a Corda 2MOVE.
I use it with 'Sansa Clip'.

What I understand from my limited experience is that an amp is able to drive the earphone easily thereby exploiting the full potential of the earphone.

Sources like 'Sansa Clip' don't have enough (amp) power to fully exploit the earphone.

First impression with the 'Sansa Clip' -> 2MOVE -> Sony in-earphones is that the base is better and clean. The difference is more perceivable at mid to high volume level.

Hope this helps.