[inspiredtolive]

I am pretty new/clueless to audio equipment stuff. A lot of people like to talk about headphones and stuff, but do I need a good sound card or something if I just listen to music on my computer? What if I use my phone?

 

[billybob_jcv]

Back-up...

What are you really trying to do? Tell us what you have now and what you are interested in improving. You don't *need* anything. However, what you might *want* depends on many factors.

 

[wolfjeanne]

Billy Bob has got a point...
 
In general though:
If you have a sub 100 dollar headhpone updating your soundcard/DAC or amplifier is usually not worth the money; the in-built sound card on your computer and phone are decent enough, especially with a good API such as WASAPI or ASAIO. The quality of your music files is of more importance then. Go for FLAC or 320 MP3 (not trying to start that discussion again).
That being said, having a good DAC and/or AMP can make your headphone sound better, especially if it is an unforgiving headhpone. My shure srh-440 for example did improve, albeit only slightly when hooking it up to my SABRE asynchronous DAC, and the difference is more audible with my Philips L2. For my Sony MH1C's though I can not tell the difference.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

  I am pretty new/clueless to audio equipment stuff. A lot of people like to talk about headphones and stuff, but do I need a good sound card or something if I just listen to music on my computer? What if I use my phone?

 

Start from the end of the signal chain - is there any headphone out there whose sound you want? Does it need an amp? If if needs an amp, then might as well get a good DAC to go with it (or get a one box DAC-HPamp) so you can send a proper fixed voltage line out signal (ie the kind of signal that comes out of a CD player for example) to it.

 

Note that if you want to use it for gaming and you want virtual surround for example you need either on-board sound with maybe a good amp circuit (like current red motherboards) or you get a soundcard. Personally, I'm much more inclined to get the motherboard, since that means one less card that may get in the way of airflow (note that I'm an SFF kind of guy, so I either have a tight mATX case or a mITX board that has no other PCI-E slots; then again, if I had ATX, I'd probably be running SLi or XFire).
 

  What if I use my phone?

 

If your headphones don't need an amp, then plug it directly into your phone (specs vary more with software than hardware anyway, but then there are Android hacks for that). If they do, then depending on your phone, you might be able to use it as a music server, outputting digital audio via USB.
 

 

[inspiredtolive]

What kind of headphones need amps? I recently bought the CAL and got the beats solo2 for my birthday. I currently just listen to music on my computer and on my phone. I am pc gamer so naturally, I do play a lot of games on my computer too.

 

[399942]

What kind of headphones need amps? I recently bought the CAL and got the beats solo2 for my birthday. I currently just listen to music on my computer and on my phone. I am pc gamer so naturally, I do play a lot of games on my computer too.

The headphones that you own don't *need* an amp/DAC, but having one would likely improve the sound quality.

I'd recommend doing some research and stuff on headphone amps, DACs, and file compression (lossless audio, FLAC, etc) and such. Once you're knowledgeable of how stuff works then you can be on your way to buying your first amp and DAC.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

What kind of headphones need amps? I recently bought the CAL and got the beats solo2 for my birthday. I currently just listen to music on my computer and on my phone. I am pc gamer so naturally, I do play a lot of games on my computer too.

 
High impedance or low efficiency dynamic or planar drivers, or electrostats that need a lot of voltage. The thing is every design has its advantages and disadvantages and sometimes in the course of designing a headphone that measures well enough in response, once price is factored in, you have to make concessions on a lot of other things, like efficiency, or going for higher impedance so it won't be too much of a problem if it has impedance swings (but if it's being driven by a chip that makes 5mW at 32ohms, then obviously you'd have a problem).
 
Don't worry about amping the ones you have now though.

 

[RRod]

   
High impedance or low efficiency dynamic or planar drivers, or electrostats that need a lot of voltage. The thing is every design has its advantages and disadvantages and sometimes in the course of designing a headphone that measures well enough in response, once price is factored in, you have to make concessions on a lot of other things, like efficiency, or going for higher impedance so it won't be too much of a problem if it has impedance swings (but if it's being driven by a chip that makes 5mW at 32ohms, then obviously you'd have a problem).
 
Don't worry about amping the ones you have now though.

 
I'll add that even if you do end up liking headphones that need an amp, there aren't many phones that can't be driven by something as economical as even the Magni 2. I run my HD800s off my built-in Realtek ALC892 hooked up to a Magni 1 and it sounds great.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

   
I'll add that even if you do end up liking headphones that need an amp, there aren't many phones that can't be driven by something as economical as even the Magni 2. I run my HD800s off my built-in Realtek ALC892 hooked up to a Magni 1 and it sounds great.

 
That's why my example was a 5mW at 32ohm integrated audio chip.