When to use or not to use?

[lamb.of.god]

Hi,

After all these years, I thought it's all about how good the headphones are. Until I saw this forums and I WAS BLOWN AWAY! I had no idea that Hi-Fi can be portable! I thought Hi-Fi only exists in home theaters, recording studio, etc.

Now for the million dollar question, when to use or not to use a headphone amp? I'm currently using a Sony Extra Bass MDRXB50APR headphones on my iPod Classic. Now that I saw this forums, I'm tempted to dump all these crap and buy a HiFi rig (Like Fiio X3 plus a Fiio A5 Hphone Amp.....saw this in one of the threads but I have no idea about this at all).

For the half a million dollar question, is there a post where I can learn how to build my own HiFi portable rig? Like a guide, recommended setup, etc? I tried searching for keywords like "newbie guide" or "starter rig" but found nothing helpful.


Thanks in advance!

 

[ProtegeManiac]

Now for the million dollar question, when to use or not to use a headphone amp?

1. If your headphones have a sensitivity lower than 97dB (note that some manufacturers switch around sensitivity and efficiency, the latter has a higher dB than the former to make the headphone seem more easy to drive)

2. If your headphone has a low impedance and whatever you're plugging it into has a high output impedance.

3. If your headphone has impedance much higher than 120ohms and what you're plugging it into has a power rating closer to "5mW at 32ohms" and thereabouts.

4. If what you've been plugging the headphones into has bad channel separation, piles on distortion and noise quickly, ie, generally you can't get a loud and clear enough sound. Clear just means the sound isn't crackling or cracking up, so excessive bass and/or weak midrange or treble is more likely due to the headphone's response.

I don't think any of these apply when using the iPod and those Sony headphones together.

Now that I saw this forums, I'm tempted to dump all these **** and buy a HiFi rig (Like Fiio X3 plus a Fiio A5 Hphone Amp.....saw this in one of the threads but I have no idea about this at all).

Did you read all the forum posts regarding the firmware of non-mainstream players?

Oh, wait, you can't. At some point it gets so ranty it devolves into a flame war and mods have to delete these. Mostly people who can't understand that 1) the original Fiio X3's design mandate from the people here was "do NOT make it work like an iPod with iTunes or we won't buy it" and 2) Fiio doesn't have a gigantic team of software engineers in Silicon Valley.

For the half a million dollar question, is there a post where I can learn how to build my own HiFi portable rig? Like a guide, recommended setup, etc? I tried searching for keywords like "newbie guide" or "starter rig" but found nothing helpful.

Just post about what sound you want to get that improves on your current headphone, and then replies will state if you'd need an amp.