[Pacemaker1000]

Hi passed audiophile linn stuff etc, but now new house has dreadful acoustics so looking for introdunction to headphones, amps. Etc!
can I rip cd's to a player and then direct to headphones or do a need an amp too?
what is best format? Flac?

sorry for lacking basics

 

[ProtegeManiac]

Hi passed audiophile linn stuff etc, but now new house has dreadful acoustics so looking for introdunction to headphones, amps. Etc!
can I rip cd's to a player and then direct to headphones or do a need an amp too?

That depends on how much power the player produces and how low the sensitivity and what the impedance of your headphones are.

In short it's kind of like whether you really need a full custom system or just a shelf system, which hinges on whether you have the space and want speakers that would require an amp that has more power (and lower distortion+noise) vs a shelf system set.

If you get a decent player that has 125mW at 32ohms and a Grado that has 99dB/1mW sensitivity then the amp isn't all that critical unless there's some noise coming through due to pushing a small PCB portable amp to produce that much and you push it to such a point even with those Grados. If you get an IEM, some players with detachable amp cards like the old Fiio X-series would work better with the stock amp card for example as they're designed with a bit of extra power but more importantly low noise.

what is best format? Flac?

Most commonly used, yes.

As for hearing a difference...as long as they're the same bit rate and no errors happened during the rip and you didn't touch settings that alter anything, no difference between FLAC and ALAC.

 

[Pacemaker1000]

Thanks.
have they cracked wireless audiophile yet? Suppose that avoids an amp anyway?
can you stream flac?