[beamthegreat]

**What is an amp or dac
Sorry for my noobishness, but can anyone one explain what is an amp or DAC? I've joined head-fi for a while and bought a couple of high end headphone but have no idea what an Amp or DAC is.

And can you also explain what is an Impendance or ohm used to measure?
Thanks

 

[carickw]

DAC stands for Digital to Analog Converter. Headphones and speakers use an analog signal to drive them however many sources today are digital so a DAC will convert a digital sound signal into an analog one that can be used to drive the headphones.

An amp is an amplifier. It takes an analog signal and makes it stronger, more or less. They, many times, can clean the signal to reduce noise. Different amps have different sound signatures. One may amplify low frequencies (bass) more than another, for example.

Impedance is a measure of resistance to current, and is measured in ohms. When talking about headphones, something with a higher input impedance will draw more voltage for the same amount of current. In general, headphones with higher impedances need a stronger source to drive them. The other specification that goes along with impedance is sensitivity, how much sound (dB) the headphones will make for a given power (W). If something has a high sensitivity it will use less power to create the same amount of sound.

 

[krmathis]

Also read:
Digital-to-analog converter - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Amplifier - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia