[GCX-15]

All I've noticed they do is make the sound louder. So if you have a high impedence headphone do you actually need an amp to improve the sound if you can already drive the headphone to a suitable level without the amp? I have an SA5000 and I listen to it straight out of a portable CD player and it seems loud enough. It doesn't seem like I need an amp to improve the sound.

 

[Duggeh]

Volume is not everything. Control is everything.

I can throw a dart a mile, but I've got no idea where it will land. Its worth more points though if I can get it to hit the dartboard in the right place.

A good amplifier will exercise better control over a transducer resulting in better sound at all volumes, although notably at lower volumes.

Just because an amp can drive a diaphragm to high output volumes doesnt mean that its doing it as well as another amp might do. Some headphones can get REALLY loud from an amp. The K1000 or Ergo AMT will go pretty loud from a T-AMP, but either of them will sound rubbish compared to plugging them into something better. Same for an HD650 from a CMOY, sure, itll go loud, but compared to a Singlepower Extreme the difference is night and day.

I am of the camp that believes in finding the right amp before the best source as well.

 

[digismurf]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GCX-15 /img/forum/go_quote.gif All I've noticed they do is make the sound louder. So if you have a high impedence headphone do you actually need an amp to improve the sound if you can already drive the headphone to a suitable level without the amp? I have an SA5000 and I listen to it straight out of a portable CD player and it seems loud enough. It doesn't seem like I need an amp to improve the sound.

Ya what they said. Or to again put it in a general high-level manner, typically a dedicated headphone amp will make your headphones sound "fuller" with more bass and cleaner higher highs.

If you are happy with how your setup sounds now though, look and listen no further. If there's one thing I've learned about this hobby over the years is that sounding good is all relative...this sounds good relative to what I've heard before...until you hear something better, then relative to that, gee this doesn't sound very good anymore, argh!

Cheers!

 

[krmathis]

It amplify the audio signal, to a level where it can properly drive a headphone transducer. Its all about sound quality, not SPL.