[steadyearnest]

I just purchased my first pair of good headphones and I'm not sure if i need an amp or not. I bought the Beyerdynamic dt831's as I am in college and living in a dorm so i needed something closed. I am very happy with the quality, but was conisdering buying the Total Airhead amp from www.headroom.com but wasn't sure if it was worth it given my sound card. I am running all my music off of my computer using the Hercules Gamer XP. It has an external rack with lots of inputs/outputs and claims to have a headphone amp built in. I doubt it's a very good quality amp, but I could be wrong. I just need some advice: is it worth the $150 to get the Total Airhead or not?

 

[Gluegun]

It is VERY worth it! The Game Theater XP naturally has some okay volume, but the headphone jack does not add any amplification. Get the Total Airhead, and leave the processor on. Trust me. I have the DT-831/TA combo, which I happily use with my SBLive and my SL-CT470. Just, get the TA...

 

[blr]

I use my DT831 with OBH11 and generally the combo sounds very good. Placing a 120 ohm adapter between the amp out and phones solves the brightness problem.

 

[Braver]

where do you get those adapters? I've been reading up on this a bit, but how do you put those 120ohms at the jack?

 

[blr]

I didn't put it in the jack itself. I made a small extention cord with the resistors incorporated just before the female jack. However this gave me an intermittent problem after a week or so. I'm planning to put everything in a small box whenever I have the time.