KeithEmo
Member of the Trade: Emotiva
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- Aug 13, 2014
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Keith, so if I'm using the iPhone as source/DAC/amp, its always better to use an external amp, assuming the ext amp is completely transparent? I always hear the iPhone 6+ to always sound better when I use the FiiO E06.
In general: Yes.
Any phone is going to be limited in terms of how much voltage and current it can deliver to headphones - both simply because the manufacturer is unlikely to want to spend the money to design and include a really good quality headphone amp, and because, even beyond that, doing so will generally either shorten battery life drastically, or force them to include a bigger battery - which will make the entire device bigger and heavier (because more powerful amps use more battery power). It wouldn't be impossible to include a really good headphone amp in a phone - but nobody's done it yet. (Note, however, that some are a lot better than others.)
However, the headphones themselves have a lot to do with that question. A pair of headphones that were specifically designed to work well with amplifiers that are subject to those limitations will work a lot better with a portable device like a phone. (In other words, if you get a headphone that was specifically designed to be very efficient, and to be driven by a limited voltage, then it's going to work much better with a source device that has those limitations - like a phone.)
(You need to check out all the options.... It might make sense to spend money on a pair of headphones that are designed to work well with your phone than to spend the money on an amp so that you can get better performance from headphones that weren't designed with that specific goal in mind. There are several current models of headphones that are specifically designed to be used with phones and other portable devices - and which work pretty well with them.)