[doughead]

I have always wondered why desktop headphone amps do not have bass-boost features like what we seen on most portable headphone amps? It seems like portable amps costing from $100 to $800 have bass boost, so its there whether it's a "serious" audiophile amp or an entry-level "fun" portable device. I have 2 subwoofers on my home hifi setup and they are used as much for pop/rock music as much as for more "serious" classical/audiophile stuff. So why are manufacturers doing away with the bass boost on their desktop amps? I don't think its something "un-audiophile" since a lot of audiophile speaker setups do use subwoofers, and most of the time in pairs too.
 
The feature is useful since one can't simply add subwoofers into a headphone like on a speaker setup. One can argue why not just get a bass-heavy headphone in the first place but I don't think that is a solution as most bass-heavy headphones (eg, Sony's XtraBass series) may sound good for Hiphop/EDM/rap etc music but just loses it when playing back classical, vocals, instrumental music (the bass overwhelms the mids and highs). A bass-boost feature would come in useful since the boosted bass will only be added when the music warrants it, but its signature audiophile sound is still retained. 

 

[Mr Rick]

  I have always wondered why desktop headphone amps do not have bass-boost features like what we seen on most portable headphone amps? It seems like portable amps costing from $100 to $800 have bass boost, so its there whether it's a "serious" audiophile amp or an entry-level "fun" portable device. I have 2 subwoofers on my home hifi setup and they are used as much for pop/rock music as much as for more "serious" classical/audiophile stuff. So why are manufacturers doing away with the bass boost on their desktop amps? I don't think its something "un-audiophile" since a lot of audiophile speaker setups do use subwoofers, and most of the time in pairs too.
 
The feature is useful since one can't simply add subwoofers into a headphone like on a speaker setup. One can argue why not just get a bass-heavy headphone in the first place but I don't think that is a solution as most bass-heavy headphones (eg, Sony's XtraBass series) may sound good for Hiphop/EDM/rap etc music but just loses it when playing back classical, vocals, instrumental music (the bass overwhelms the mids and highs). A bass-boost feature would come in useful since the boosted bass will only be added when the music warrants it, but its signature audiophile sound is still retained. 

I use an EQ. It's a much more versatile solution.

 

[doughead]

  I use an EQ. It's a much more versatile solution.​

 
But not everyone uses a PC/Macbook as a source for music playback for their headfi setup. My Hifiman HM650 has no EQ feature. Even on my wife and son's Fiio X3II and iBasso DX50 DAPs, their EQ features are sub-par and hardly makes a difference in tweaking the sound. If I were to get a desktop headphone amp, I would still use my DAP as the playback source.

 

[jnorris]

1) With so many headphones being so bass-heavy these days, bass boost would be redundant.  
2) For those users that purposely don't own bass-heavy headphones, why use bass boost to make them bass-heavy?
3) The Loudness control commonly found on receivers and amps is for low-level listening through speakers and is unnecessary with headphones.
4) Having a "Bass Boost" button just makes the device seem cheap and low-fi.

 

[Headzone]

dsp controlled bass eq would be nice.

 

[erik701]

You can adjust EQ settings in any better audio player, I recommend to leave low frequencies on 0 and set lower level on other, higher frequencies, you will avoid distortion.