[kaiss3r]

Hi guys! As the title says, I'm concern on what really is the purpose of having an portable amplifier such as Fiio amps and etc...
 
1) Is an amplifier only for gears with a high impedances?
 
2) What if my gears have the typical impedances (16ohms, 32ohms, 60ohms), can I still use an amplifier?
 
3) I read somewhere that low impedance gears have "hiss or distortion" when used with an amp and some doesn't sound good, can someone clarify these?
 
4) I have BA200 and Koss ksc75 (both 60ohms), Soundmagic ES18 and Sunrise Xcape IE (both with low impedances), I can enjoy them directly plugged to my sansa clip+. If I'll buy an amplifier like Fiio E07, will there be a difference?
 
5) Is an amplifier only used to boost volume or to alter also our gear's sound quality?
 
Forgive me if I have a lot of questions, but I'll be very thankful if you guys can clarify all of them. Thanks in advance! 

 

[Jonathan Khong]

Quote:

Hi guys! As the title says, I'm concern on what really is the purpose of having an portable amplifier such as Fiio amps and etc...
 
1) Is an amplifier only for gears with a high impedances?
 
2) What if my gears have the typical impedances (16ohms, 32ohms, 60ohms), can I still use an amplifier?
 
3) I read somewhere that low impedance gears have "hiss or distortion" when used with an amp and some doesn't sound good, can someone clarify these?
 
4) I have BA200 and Koss ksc75 (both 60ohms), Soundmagic ES18 and Sunrise Xcape IE (both with low impedances), I can enjoy them directly plugged to my sansa clip+. If I'll buy an amplifier like Fiio E07, will there be a difference?
 
5) Is an amplifier only used to boost volume or to alter also our gear's sound quality?
 
Forgive me if I have a lot of questions, but I'll be very thankful if you guys can clarify all of them. Thanks in advance! 

Good question. 
 
From my recent experience, an amp primarily is used to drive harder to drive earphones and headphones. However, it does not mean that it will not have any benefit on iems that have low impedance. I have a shure se535 ltd J and it is a very sensitive iem, it gained benefit from Just audio's portable A class amp, also I have heard it on furutech adl carbon fibre amp and RSA SR71B and they do provide improvements. Such as better sound stage and seperation and a tighter sound in general. However, the price ratio is the point here, it is normally not worth purchasing an A grade portable amp if it only improves a little of a cheaper iem. Also amps from what I have known, portable ones that is should only benefit higher end universal fits, 535 should have just made the mark that can sound better with an amp, other than that I do not see a reason for purchasing such an expensive amp for a lower end iem. Fit ear and JH customs are best paired with an amp. Also amps are normally coloured so that it adds a bit of musicality to the experience, thus there are people who choose amps to see whether it matches the signature of their earphones/headphones, it can also be used to enhance areas of the earphones where it is weak, e.g. lack of bass.
 
Hope this helps!
 
Jonathan.

 

[Mooses9]

Quote:

Hi guys! As the title says, I'm concern on what really is the purpose of having an portable amplifier such as Fiio amps and etc...
 
1) Is an amplifier only for gears with a high impedances? NO but some amplifiers wont driver headphones that are actually higher impedances than you think for instance the he-6 or the beyerdynamic 600ohm. so like everything, there are amps made more less specifically for in ear monitors and some made for both full size and IEM and then some that will obviously drive iem's but geared more towards full size.
 
2) What if my gears have the typical impedances (16ohms, 32ohms, 60ohms), can I still use an amplifier? yes 
 
3) I read somewhere that low impedance gears have "hiss or distortion" when used with an amp and some doesn't sound good, can someone clarify these? i think the answer is cheap amplifiers can have volume noise, and floor noise with iem's that are more sensitive this is where you will see hiss,floor noise, or distortion. so imo rule of thumb stay away from a amp that is low in quality look at specs and weigh them again other amps you are interested in. also if you have 500.00 iem's look for a amp that i mean isnt 500.00 but understand with this hobby pairing is everything and im not saying a cheaper amp wont sound good with 500.00 iem's but your not going to be doing those iem's or headphones justice. basicly with amps you get what you pay for, both in build quality and power.
 
4) I have BA200 and Koss ksc75 (both 60ohms), Soundmagic ES18 and Sunrise Xcape IE (both with low impedances), I can enjoy them directly plugged to my sansa clip+. If I'll buy an amplifier like Fiio E07, will there be a difference? imo yes there will be a difference how much i cant say ive owned the e7 but not the headphones you mentioned. the e5 is more or less just a volume booster, the e7 is a start to getting into amplifiers. so there will be a good difference to the sound quality, its not going to be spectactular but you have to start somewhere.
 
5) Is an amplifier only used to boost volume or to alter also our gear's sound quality? that depends, again a fiio e5 is more or less just a volume booster, when you start getting into the higher end model amplifiers, they have operational amplifiers and buffers and circuitry that low grade amplifiers do not have, also understand a good amp is going to be to the closer side of transparent, meaning its not going to be colouring the sound, its not going to be emphasizing on any one particular frequency. but again depending on the circuitry and the buffers and opamps those are really going to be what sets the sound quality it yeilds apart from another amp.      in short answer yes some amps are just volume booster...... and others boost sound quality.
 
Forgive me if I have a lot of questions, but I'll be very thankful if you guys can clarify all of them. Thanks in advance! 

 

[jseaber]

Quote:

Hi guys! As the title says, I'm concern on what really is the purpose of having an portable amplifier such as Fiio amps and etc...
 
1) Is an amplifier only for gears with a high impedances?
 
2) What if my gears have the typical impedances (16ohms, 32ohms, 60ohms), can I still use an amplifier?
 
3) I read somewhere that low impedance gears have "hiss or distortion" when used with an amp and some doesn't sound good, can someone clarify these?
 
4) I have BA200 and Koss ksc75 (both 60ohms), Soundmagic ES18 and Sunrise Xcape IE (both with low impedances), I can enjoy them directly plugged to my sansa clip+. If I'll buy an amplifier like Fiio E07, will there be a difference?
 
5) Is an amplifier only used to boost volume or to alter also our gear's sound quality?
 
Forgive me if I have a lot of questions, but I'll be very thankful if you guys can clarify all of them. Thanks in advance! 

 
1) No, amplification depends entirely on your needs. There's a common misunderstanding that impedance is the determining factor as to whether an amp should be used. Excellent amplifiers improve: THD (distortion), SNR (noise/hiss), output impedance (fixed frequency response), and output power. Which improvements you'll realize depend on your specific audio source, headphones, and listening style. If you listen at low volumes, you may not need more power--but there's more to amplification than power!
 
2) Yes. You also need to consider your headphones' sensitivity specification. Lower sensitivity headphones are more demanding. See this post.
 
3) Used properly, a great amp will minimize hiss so that it's actually less audible than when listening directly to your audio player. Used improperly, hiss can increase. It's correct to set volume to max at the audio player (or use an LOD), and only adjust volume at the amp. Hiss will be attenuated as long as volume is less than source level. If you do exceed source level, hiss increases proportionally with volume, but you're already listening at a very high volume and hiss will generally be less of a concern.
 
4) See the link in answer (2) to determine if you'll benefit from more power. You should expect improved hiss and a cleaner signal with those sets. Again, it all depends on your audio player and the quality of the amp. A budget amp may or may not be any better than your source! Definitely read reviews and pay attention to critical specifications.
 
5) An amp relieves the audio source of the demanding headphone load. It's important to understand that an audio sources' performance typically improves when connected to an amp instead of headphones. This allows the amp to deliver a cleaner signal than the source could provide, assuming the amp is of higher fidelity than the source.