[Speed-Freak]

So, after like 5 years I plunked down some cash and upgraded my audio section on my gaming computer setup.

After reading ALOT here on the forums I went with a Creative Audigy 4 Pro sound card for the nice analog output section and the built in small headphone amp. Also, ordered a pair of Audio-Technica ATH-A900s, figured with thie super low impedence that the small amp in the Audigy 4's breakout bow would be enough to spice them up.

So, now I am thinking I want to get a headphone amp aswell. I notice the A900s respond to me tweaking the output lvls of the programs and feeding them more signal gives them a sound I like more.

What I dont know is how do headphone amps change the sound of the source and about where my desires land in relation to how much my wallet is gonna hurt from getting it.

I am looking at assembled DIY CMOY amps, professionaly constructed home CMOY amps, and Gilmore amps.
Budget it prolly gonna be capped at about $200, but I would prefer something close to $100.

Reading around here for a long time front runners right now are Maxi Moy and Gilmore Lite.

But..... how do they compare in sound? What changes to make some better than others?

SF
(never welcomed to Head-Fi and my wallet already hurts

)

 

[DatHak512]

What about a HeadRoom Total BitHead? Or the HeadRoom Micro Amp. The micro is a little bit out of your range, but at least you get a 10% discount.

http://www.headphone.com/products/he...al-bithead.php

 

[K2Grey]

Welcome to head-fi, sorry about your wallet, you should be able to get a Pimeta for < $200 from jmtaudio.com, also consider buying a Chaintech AV710 and setting things up so that only foobar/winamp/whatever uses it. AV710 costs like $25, probably has better sound quality than Audigy4, but is worse for games.