[dragonxx21]

Hello, I'm looking to get an amp (portable or desktop, they will mostly be used inside) for my Koss Dj100s. Do you think they are worth am ping? I'd preferably like to stay fairly cheap, under $50 CAD if possible, but I can stretch it out if it would be a worthwhile upgrade. The ones I'm currently looking at are the Fiio E6 ($40) as well as the E11 ($85). A store nearby also has the Fiio Q1 at $88. Finally I'm also looking at a DIY Cmoy. Any other recommendations or thoughts?

 

[dragonxx21]

bump

 

[obobskivich]

What are you plugging them into currently?

 

[Sam21]

https://www.jdslabs.com/products/1/cmoybb-v2-03-headphone-amplifier/

 

[dragonxx21]

What are you plugging them into currently?

 
Currently just have them plugged directly into a 3.5mm jack on my pc going directly to the mobo, no dedicated sound card or plans for adding one in the near future, although it could be a possibility.
 
Edit: For more info, my current motherboard is this one

  https://www.jdslabs.com/products/1/cmoybb-v2-03-headphone-amplifier/

Is there any point in buying their DIY kit as opposed to just the prebuilt?

 

[Sam21]

you could try putting it together yourself if your are good at soldering....will be cheaper (assuming you already have the equipment for it).

 

[dragonxx21]

  you could try putting it together yourself if your are good at soldering....will be cheaper (assuming you already have the equipment for it).

 
Yeah, this is what I was looking for. I have a soldering iron and I have soldered various things over the years. I was just wondering if I'd be missing out on by going with the DIY over the prebuilt. Do their DIY kits come with everything needed or will there still be some parts I would need to get?

 

[obobskivich]

The Gigabyte specifications are fairly non-descript on the audio output, but my instinct is that it probably works fine as-is, and adding an outboard component may or may not actually yield any sort of improvement (however "will it be worth $100?" is probably the more pertinent question, and that's even iffier imho). If you're after a DIY project there's probably worse ways to spend some time, but given how easy the DJ100 are to drive, unless you're getting into clipping or something right now, the motherboard is probably doing a good enough job with whatever it uses as its output device (its probably "just an opamp" but that's, at least for easily driven headphones, "just good enough").

If you were going from some mobile device or something that doesn't even have a headphone output (random example: a VCR with a single set of line outputs), a headphone amplifier would probably make a more significant difference in sound quality.