[donaldekelly]

I thought plugging my headphones into a receiver would be a way to test how much better they might sound with an amp. But apparently - NOOO!

This article on HeadWize says most receiver headphone jacks are about 10-20mW - which means no more amperage than my IRiver 320 portable MP3 player, and less than an IPOD in terms of mW.

"And this is exactly what you find in hi-fi receivers. Their headphone jacks typically provide only 10-20 mW of output Power."

http://headwize.com/tech/dbohn1_tech.htm

Am I misunderstanding this article? Am I confusing amps and wattage?

My Onkyo receiver (501 I think) has no rating in the booklet about watts from the headphone jack.

 

[RMgX]

Well if your reciever goes louder than your portable that means it has more output wattage, mine becomes louder than I want to listen to for even a few seconds before I go past half of the max volume while my EU capped ipod doesn't reach those volumes at full power.
If your portable can go on full with your headphones see how far you have to go on your reciever to reach the same volume.

My headphones sound better plugged into my onkyo A-9511 amp than from my ipod for sure.

 

[James63]

I have an Onkyo TX-DS575 and the headphone-out has plenty of power but does not sound that great. It sounds ok but it has a lot of hiss. If you can get by the hiss it sounds ok. I find even a moderate amp will sound better than most receiver outs. It will not be night and day but the difference will be more apparent after a few weeks.