[s0ny]

Hi, I am new on this forum. Since 3 weeks, I've been reading headphone and amplifier reviews on a daily basis on this site.

I have a Sony XA50ES CD player and Sennheiser HD650 headphone. The CD player appears to be powerful enough to drive this headphone through the headphone out. When I turn the volume knob on the player to 10 o'clock, it is loud enough. I wonder if an external headphone amplifier will improve the soundstage and overall quality of my HD650 on the XA50ES.

I want to avoid buying a headphone amp and finding out that it does not improve audio quality. I'm thinking about getting a Little Dot MKV. I've read very positive things about this amp, but some owners don't experience quality improvement compared to an unamped setup. I'm willing to buy one if it dramatically improves the output.

Thanks guys.

 

[Mr.Sneis]

Nice CDP.  I would be venturing a guess that there is just an op-amp powering the headphone out of the player but I could be wrong.
 
With the HD650 in particular, they do like good clean amplification and you should be able to hear the difference.
 
Sorry for your wallet.  If it sounds good enough to you, you may be as well off just living with it as is!