[myk7000]

Hey guys,

I was wondering what advantages and disadvantages there are to double amping your headphones. What I mean by this is like plugging your amp (from the headphone jack) into another amp's input.

By doing this, will it serve any benefit in SQ? Or is there a problem with doing it (I heard that double amping can be bad)?

For example, is it better to use the Line out in a dac/amp to utilize the dac or is it better to use the headphone jack?

If someone knows that would be awesome, thanks.

 

[colinharding]

Well I guess the first question I would ask is what source your using (headphone jack out) to feed the signal to the other amp. For example, if your source signal is a integrated low end reciever that your hoping to upgrade the sound quality of by passing the signal to a higher end amp I would say the process is not worth your while. Your end result is limited by your source, a poor source can only sound so much "better" when piped through higher end gear. Double amping might also require you to use two sets of volume controls, which is always a pain in my opinion. Line out is much preferred since the line out is a line level source piping constant volume and made to pass a signal to equipment rather than headphones. I assume your talking about your cobra, in which case your best choice would be to use the aux in/out to power your gilmore lite. The headphone jack is meant to power headphones, not another amp. However, using it to power another amp should not hurt the amp in any way. In the end it all falls back on your own ears, which sounds better?? I hope this helps,

colin

 

[myk7000]

Well I tried the "double amping" that seems to be loathed by head-fi'ers from my D10 headphone out to RCA into my Gilmore Lite.

It is much more annoying to worry about two knobs as opposed to one now (I might just put my d10 at max to not worry about that?)

BUT

It sounds much better than the line out.

Haha, the soundstage opens up with the hd600s and everything feels more exciting. I don't really get it but my ears are telling me this, so there must be SOMETHING going okay with double amping. I will test more when i get back tonight (i only had about 15 minutes of time to compare).

 

[Shahrose]

Quote:

Originally Posted by myk7000 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Well I tried the "double amping" that seems to be loathed by head-fi'ers from my D10 headphone out to RCA into my Gilmore Lite. It is much more annoying to worry about two knobs as opposed to one now (I might just put my d10 at max to not worry about that?) BUT It sounds much better than the line out. Haha, the soundstage opens up with the hd600s and everything feels more exciting. I don't really get it but my ears are telling me this, so there must be SOMETHING going okay with double amping. I will test more when i get back tonight (i only had about 15 minutes of time to compare).

Do whatever sounds better. IME, usually the line-outs yield greater SQ but I've heard both sound better than each other (line-out vs double-amping). Just need to trust your ears.

 

[KingStyles]

Ive tried this and you tend to get distortion very quickly. Why would you want to do this. If you are trying to combine sources try a nice 40 -50 dollar mixer. They work pretty well.