[acme15]

Will it just be obvious to me? too quiet or constrained? tinny? unbalanced etc? 
I have never used decent gear before, so i have no idea how 'good' something 'good' should sound if that makes sense.

 

[airkitoy]

if you used appe earbuds..lo

 

[gohanssjn]

I have the same problem acme15.  Tag for results of discussion.

 

[Head Injury]

If you can't turn it up loud enough, or if you're getting obvious noise with what you already have.

 

[gohanssjn]

Quote:

If you can't turn it up loud enough, or if you're getting obvious noise with what you already have.

I seem to sense a little different bass and less separation and nuance when listening on my iPod or computer when compared to my living room receiver.  Is that the kind of stuff you mean?

 

[wolfen68]

Talking portable...three good reasons to get an amp:
 
1.  You need more volume than you can get currently with your rig.
 
2.  Your source has an output (lineout or digital) besides the regular headphone out.  In many (actually most) cases, you can get a cleaner signal and improve the quality of what you hear.  With a lineout you'll need an amp, with a digital output you'll need a DAC and an amp (or a DAC/amp combo).
 
3.  Your headphones get loud enough, but they are known to be a model that requires more power to perform at their best.  An amp can assist with these harder to drive headphones and help eliminate that thin sound (among other things) that is common to underdriven power hungry headphones.   
 
 
 
 

 

[Ronald Lee]

Quote:

Talking portable...three good reasons to get an amp:
 
1.  You need more volume than you can get currently with your rig.
 
2.  Your source has an output (lineout or digital) besides the regular headphone out.  In many (actually most) cases, you can get a cleaner signal and improve the quality of what you hear.  With a lineout you'll need an amp, with a digital output you'll need a DAC and an amp (or a DAC/amp combo).
 
3.  Your headphones get loud enough, but they are known to be a model that requires more power to perform at their best.  An amp can assist with these harder to drive headphones and help eliminate that thin sound (among other things) that is common to underdriven power hungry headphones.   
 
 
 
 

agree with the no. 2. In my view, I would consider getting an amp if I feel that my rig are not playing it at the maximum potential. 
 

 

[kenman345]

I was in the same boat about two months ago. I decided to give them a try and used the headphone output at about 70-90% volume to a tiny FiiO E6 you can get for a little less than $30 and I instantly could tell I wanted more and better equipment. The better stuff I got, the better the experience became from my leisurely activity. Now I am hardly ever caught without either my earbuds or my headphones or earplugs and some type of audio player. 
 
If you wanna give it a try at a low cost, I highly recommend the FiiO E6 or a similar type of product to get your foot in the water and not feel bad if you replace it with better gear in the future. Each and every time I hear new music on the radio or in a store and I listen to it with my gear in high quality and you start to pick up on things you never heard before, with better clarity. I can't tell you all the technical aspects of what I just said, as I am still learning and picking up on things as I go on, but I love every minute of it.
 
 
To Be Noted: in the past 2 month I've managed to spend quite a lot of money on audio equipment. I don't regret it, just letting you know you may end up doing similar, as I have read many other have done on this forum. 

 

[Head Injury]

I seem to sense a little different bass and less separation and nuance when listening on my iPod or computer when compared to my living room receiver.  Is that the kind of stuff you mean?

 
No, but it may mean your receiver has a high output impedance (depending on the model, some just run their headphone jacks from the speaker amps but with some extra resistors thrown in). I mean like white noise, but you might hear distortion too if it's high enough.
 
 

Talking portable...three good reasons to get an amp:
 
1.  You need more volume than you can get currently with your rig.
 
2.  Your source has an output (lineout or digital) besides the regular headphone out.  In many (actually most) cases, you can get a cleaner signal and improve the quality of what you hear.  With a lineout you'll need an amp, with a digital output you'll need a DAC and an amp (or a DAC/amp combo).
 
3.  Your headphones get loud enough, but they are known to be a model that requires more power to perform at their best.  An amp can assist with these harder to drive headphones and help eliminate that thin sound (among other things) that is common to underdriven power hungry headphones.   

3. There is no such creature to my knowledge. Volume is volume. If it's loud enough for all your peaks, more power will not help. After all, it will be unused. Amps may distort more as they approach their maximum voltage, so some head room might be nice, but there's no such thing as an underpowered headphone that has enough power for peaks.

 

[acme15]

I was in the same boat about two months ago. I decided to give them a try and used the headphone output at about 70-90% volume to a tiny FiiO E6 you can get for a little less than $30 and I instantly could tell I wanted more and better equipment. The better stuff I got, the better the experience became from my leisurely activity. Now I am hardly ever caught without either my earbuds or my headphones or earplugs and some type of audio player. 
 
If you wanna give it a try at a low cost, I highly recommend the FiiO E6 or a similar type of product to get your foot in the water and not feel bad if you replace it with better gear in the future. Each and every time I hear new music on the radio or in a store and I listen to it with my gear in high quality and you start to pick up on things you never heard before, with better clarity. I can't tell you all the technical aspects of what I just said, as I am still learning and picking up on things as I go on, but I love every minute of it.
 
 
To Be Noted: in the past 2 month I've managed to spend quite a lot of money on audio equipment. I don't regret it, just letting you know you may end up doing similar, as I have read many other have done on this forum. 

Thanks for the heads up, but as much as I want some open backs for my classical, some better iem's, some xb700's for my dubstep, an alpen e17, a several hundred pound desktop amp, some wharfedale diamonds and a xonar essence stx sound card, I can't buy any of it xD

The curse of student life :'(

 

[wolfen68]

Quote:

 
3. There is no such creature to my knowledge. Volume is volume. If it's loud enough for all your peaks, more power will not help. After all, it will be unused. Amps may distort more as they approach their maximum voltage, so some head room might be nice, but there's no such thing as an underpowered headphone that has enough power for peaks.

K701, Senn 600/650 would be common examples.  I suspect a lot of the "seasoned" head-fier's would disagree with you and firmly argue you are not really hearing a Senn 650 directly out of an ipod, despite the volume being loud enough. 
 
I know from my personal experience I've seen this issue several times.....especially because I've always had portable gear I pair with full size headphones.  With that said, there are undoubtedly other headphone models that do fine without an amp.
 

 

[Parall3l]

Volume if definitely one of the most important reasons. My iPod drives IEMs fine but it had a roll off in the bass frequencies for my less sensitive and higher impedance cans . (I'm guessing is because lower frequencies takes more power to reproduce and the ipod didn't have the power)

 

[anomen]

*double post... need to delete... sorry.

 

[anomen]

as with most audiophile questions, it is more a want than a need.
 
once you realize that fine distinction, listen to different options and decide if you have the cash flow to handle your new hobby.
 

 

[Thing Fish]

Gives you more volume better separation and generally a wider audio range. (depending on the amp)
 
It also gives you a renewed interest in your music. Which can't be a bad thing.
 
I am a new convert and can't post a negative as the positives are too great...