[plasmo]

Hey guys thanks for taking the time to read this! I will start with my gear, I have an old set of sony mdr-700 headphones from years ago when I was a dj They were great for what I used them for! Though it seam not very popular with the audiofiles! My portable source is an iPhone 5. At home I rarely get the pleasure to enjoy music, so it mostly would be when I am away at work every two weeks.
So my first question is : Would an amp be the first improvement to the sq


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[Sam21]

An amp almost always is necessary IMO, to bring the hidden details in the music to the surface...
 
though you should first decide which headphones you want to buy and then look for an amp....

 

[plasmo]

My sony mdr-700 still work fine, at this point I won't be getting new headphones just want to improve on what I have! Thanks


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[Sam21]

I have a wide variety of headphones, when I plug them into my amp, they sound much better....

 

[Cotnijoe]

How much money are you considering to put into your investment?
 
Honestly the iphone 5 is fine as a source for fairly budget oriented headphones or in ears. Yes there will be benefits if you use an amp, but honestly, budget headphones dont scale well off amps and werent really created with amping in mind. Theyre meant for just plug in and play.
 
If you plan on keeping your mdr 700, then yes probably get yourself an amp. If you're thinking of starting new, finding a new headphone and a new combo all together, then depending on the amount you want to pay, just straight out buying a new headphone is probably the best option.
 
So the question now is how much are you willing to spend and do you want to keep the headphone.

 

[plasmo]

Thanks sam21, so an amp is defiantly going to be a noticeable improvement!


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[plasmo]

Cotnijoe, right now the investment is limited I have always loved music and put a lot of money into my dj gear, that does not get used much any more, I realised how much I miss listening to good music and a friend put me onto head fi, I am amazed at how much you can spend on such a personal listening set up! The mdr 700 cost me around $400 when I got them, I have noticed they dropped a lot over the years!


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[plasmo]

Maybe if I enjoy the improvement from using an amp I will look at some new headphones, not quite sure just yet! So much information to take in, with all this gear to learn about!


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[cel4145]

Cotnijoe, right now the investment is limited I have always loved music and put a lot of money into my dj gear, that does not get used much any more, I realised how much I miss listening to good music and a friend put me onto head fi, I am amazed at how much you can spend on such a personal listening set up! The mdr 700 cost me around $400 when I got them, I have noticed they dropped a lot over the years!

As Cotnijoe pointed out, an amp may not make much difference. With an iPhone 5, if you simply hook an amp up to the headphone jack, you will be double amping the existing headphone amp in the iPhone 5, which means you'll just be amplifying the existing sound. An additional amp is really only going to help in that situation if you are running your headphones loud enough that they need more volume or dynamic headroom than the iPhone 5 can provide.

Otherwise, to take advantage of the sound of a headphone amp with better sound than the iPhone 5 amp (which might be pricey) and bypass your phones internal amp, you would need an Apple lightning adapter to get line output, which itself is a DAC--I don't know how it compares to the default DAC in the iPhone 5.

So what is your budget for this? That will make a difference, too, as to what the best option is for you.

 

[plasmo]

Honestly I did not really have a budget, before coming on the forum I did not realise that I needed to change or improve what I had.


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[plasmo]

So to begin this journey I have found some one selling a shiit audio vali, amp for $100, I thought it would be a good place to start. (They retail over $210 in Australia )


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[Cotnijoe]

I've never tried the vali myself, but from my experience, schiit makes some pretty good stuff!

 

[cel4145]

I've never tried the vali myself, but from my experience, schiit makes some pretty good stuff!

Yep. I have a Schiit Asgard 2. Good equipment. $100 sounds like a great deal for the Vali if they are that hard for you to get.

 

[plasmo]

So before you mentioned using the 3.5 audio out from the iPhone will just amplify the sound, if I use the lightning connection I will then need another dac ??


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[Cotnijoe]

I know more and more (if not many) DACs are able to receive signal from iphone 5's lightning now. As long as the DAC has its own power source or doesnt take too much power from the iphone itself, and as long as you have the right connections, i think it can be done with more and more DACs now.