[omacaco]

I've never much been into the whole audiophile stuff and I was always happy with cheap 10 buck headphones, but after listening to a nice pair that a friend had I realized I've been missing out. So I've been looking around at different headphones (usually around €50) and I've noticed a lot of people saying stuff about how much better certain ones would be if they where using an amp.
 
My question is at what impedance/sensitivity levels (I think those are the contributing factors) do you start needing an amp? Also can a decent standalone sound card be used to power the headphones that need it, or is a separate unit always required.
 
Also I know next to nothing about audiophile stuff so please go easy on the technical terms.

 

[TMRaven]

If either the headphone is reaaal power hungry or it's so refined that it'll allow you to hear subtle differences between more refined sources.
 
Long story short, less often than you would think.  A good sound card should do you good.  What you should mostly be worried about is having a clean source with minimal electronic interference etc.

 

[devgru]

Quote:

If either the headphone is reaaal power hungry or it's so refined that it'll allow you to hear subtle differences between more refined sources.
 
Long story short, less often than you would think.  A good sound card should do you good.  What you should mostly be worried about is having a clean source with minimal electronic interference etc.

 
+1
 
I'll never understand the use of external amps with IEMs, save for the very few that are hard to drive. 

 

[TwinQY]

At your price point, there's probably no need for an amp. High impedance/low sensitivity phones occupy more of the $300+ price range. Just choose your headphone to start off with rather than worrying about this kind of stuff. 

 

[Alexkahn]

that depends, if you got a headphone like K701,K702, or like HD600 650, you really need to get an amp
I guess you can just simply see the price of headphones, more than $200, you may need to think about an amp

 

[Snag1e]

Nwavguy wrote a good article about this subject on his blog entitled "More Power?", it should answer all of your questions. I cannot link to his blog here, but if you use google the page is quite easy to find.