# Audiophiles help!! worth getting headphone amp?



## NdMk2o1o (Jul 15, 2011)

Really starting to explore HD video and audio lately and want to know if getting an headphone amp will have any significant difference to having them plugged straight into my Xonar DX. 

I like allsorts of music from hard fast bassy dance through to vocal acoustic easy listening stuff and just want to get the best sound I can out of what I have which is a Asus Xonar DX and AKG 514 headphones. I can get most of my music sounding fairly nice by fiddling with the Xonar control panel settings depending what I am listening to, though am wondering whether an headphone amp will actually "amplify" that. 

What experiences do people have with these headphone amps? is it worth experiementing and getting one? I guess I would like a bit more clarity and deeper bass or do I need to improve my soundcard/headphones first off?


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## twicksisted (Jul 15, 2011)

depends on the headphones... if your headphones require an amplifier like my sennheiser HD600's do, then yes... if they can run at full capacity without sounding weak etc, then its not worthwhile.

(before anyone corrects me on the HD600 needing an amp... plugging them into a soundcard directly without a headphone amp makes them sound very dull and bass weak, yes you can run them without but in my experience you need some extra power to make them sound their best).

EDIT: if you have high impedance headphones you will need an amp to supply higher current to them for them to play at their optimal level... so it really depends on the headphones youre trying to run... generally the cheap headphones are low impedance and can be used on iphones, mp3 players, pc's and TV's... high end reference headphones on the other hand generally benefit from amplification to run them optimally.

Aah i see you mentioned the brand/model of headphones... after briefly looking at their specs, 32ohms isnt much to run so i think the difference would be very marginal if you were to buy a high end amp to go with them... though others may disagree. You could easily power these with an ipod even


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## BumbleBee (Jul 15, 2011)

I agree. you will see a improvement but it will be marginal.


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## micropage7 (Jul 15, 2011)

i agree with them depends on the head phone itself. some may need some may not
but back to its function, ampli used to boost your sound power, so its back to your head phone except you may need the features like equalizer


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## Horrux (Jul 16, 2011)

Maybe with an Auzentech card?


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## BumbleBee (Jul 16, 2011)

AKG K514 don't need to be driven so why buy another sound card?


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## Thatguy (Jul 16, 2011)

NdMk2o1o said:


> Really starting to explore HD video and audio lately and want to know if getting an headphone amp will have any significant difference to having them plugged straight into my Xonar DX.
> 
> I like allsorts of music from hard fast bassy dance through to vocal acoustic easy listening stuff and just want to get the best sound I can out of what I have which is a Asus Xonar DX and AKG 514 headphones. I can get most of my music sounding fairly nice by fiddling with the Xonar control panel settings depending what I am listening to, though am wondering whether an headphone amp will actually "amplify" that.
> 
> What experiences do people have with these headphone amps? is it worth experiementing and getting one? I guess I would like a bit more clarity and deeper bass or do I need to improve my soundcard/headphones first off?




  NO, not unless you need to drive multiple sets.


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## Horrux (Jul 16, 2011)

BumbleBee said:


> AKG K514 don't need to be driven so why buy another sound card?



A better quality sound card will give him better sound.


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## streetfighter 2 (Jul 16, 2011)

Simple answer: 42. [No.]
Complicated but cheap answer: Cmoy pocket amplifier.
Simple but (outrageously) expensive answer: HDSPe AIO; Denon AHD2000.

Thanks folks, I'll be hear all week.


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## Frederik S (Jul 16, 2011)

The sound card is good enough. Get a better set of headphones if you do not like the sound of them a headphone amplifier will not change that.


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## Horrux (Jul 16, 2011)

Frederik S said:


> The sound card is good enough. Get a better set of headphones if you do not like the sound of them a headphone amplifier will not change that.



What is "good enough"?  The guy wants better sound.  A better sound card will help.


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## Frederik S (Jul 16, 2011)

A better sound card will not give nearly the same performance boost as another set of headphones.

There is nothing wrong the the Xonar it is not the bottleneck. Changing headphones is the cheapest way to get better sound quality.


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## twicksisted (Jul 16, 2011)

Frederik S said:


> A better sound card will not give nearly the same performance boost as another set of headphones.
> 
> There is nothing wrong the the Xonar it is not the bottleneck. Changing headphones is the cheapest way to get better sound quality.



+1

Though the "better" headphones will need to be low impedance headphones that dont require seperate amplification in order to take advantage of that... I also agree that the D/A convertors on that xonar DX are good enough to give him great quality sound from his PC


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## Thatguy (Jul 17, 2011)

twicksisted said:


> +1
> 
> Though the "better" headphones will need to be low impedance headphones that dont require seperate amplification in order to take advantage of that... I also agree that the D/A convertors on that xonar DX are good enough to give him great quality sound from his PC



there isn't any consumer grade cards these days that don't provide nearly perfectplayback quality.


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## Frederik S (Jul 17, 2011)

twicksisted said:


> +1
> 
> Though the "better" headphones will need to be low impedance headphones that dont require seperate amplification in order to take advantage of that... I also agree that the D/A convertors on that xonar DX are good enough to give him great quality sound from his PC



Impedance does not matter as long as it is not very high or low. What you are after is a set of efficient headphones.


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## Horrux (Jul 17, 2011)

Thatguy said:


> there isn't any consumer grade cards these days that don't provide nearly perfectplayback quality.



Well I beg to disagree. Just upgrading from a creative X-Fi to an Auzentech X-Fi made a staggering difference in my case even with a cheap amp attached. Not all sound cards are created nearly equal. Of course you can upgrade the chip on the Auzentechs to even greater levels of fidelity, but the basic model is good enough for me. Some people might need the $800 chip that goes on it though.

And of course what's downstream of the card is important, but to say all cards are equal even with a "for all practical purposes" clause is, in my experience, completely wrong.


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## Funtoss (Jul 17, 2011)

doesnt asus xonars have built in heaphone amp??


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## Conti027 (Jul 17, 2011)

Funtoss said:


> doesnt asus xonars have built in heaphone amp??



Yeah, Some of them do. My ASUS Xonar Essence STX has a built in headphone amp. Can power up to 600Ohms but the Asus Xonar DX cards do not have a built in amp.

With the AKG K514 being 32Ohms you don't really need a amp for them.


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## Frederik S (Jul 17, 2011)

All sound cards have a built in headphone amplifier, a line signal will not drive anything at all. The headphone amplifiers in most of the dedicated sound cards are plenty good for driving normal high efficiency headphones. The STX has an upgraded drive circuitry which allows you to drive medium to low efficiency headphones as well.


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## Thatguy (Jul 20, 2011)

Horrux said:


> Well I beg to disagree. Just upgrading from a creative X-Fi to an Auzentech X-Fi made a staggering difference in my case even with a cheap amp attached. Not all sound cards are created nearly equal. Of course you can upgrade the chip on the Auzentechs to even greater levels of fidelity, but the basic model is good enough for me. Some people might need the $800 chip that goes on it though.
> 
> And of course what's downstream of the card is important, but to say all cards are equal even with a "for all practical purposes" clause is, in my experience, completely wrong.



 you wanna take that blind listening test I keep offering up ?


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## Horrux (Jul 20, 2011)

Thatguy said:


> you wanna take that blind listening test I keep offering up ?



Sure, I'll pass it easily.


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## Widjaja (Jul 20, 2011)

If you want to hear a difference, get a decent sound card.
The DX will be fine.
Fork out the $ for an amp+preamp and eq.
Then run the headphones through those.

Pretty much what I am doing but I have a pro audio sound card.

I don't like using the sotware EQ on sound cards so I leave them at default.

But if you don't mind using the software EQ, you can just get a combo amp/pre amp.


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## BazookaJoe (Jul 20, 2011)

Are your headphones too quiet? 

A.) YES - Then get a headphone amp
B.) NO  - Then DON'T get a headphone amp

It's that easy


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## Grings (Jul 20, 2011)

I would consider a Headphone Amp with a built in DAC.

Depending how much you spend you may find one that will give a nice improvement to any other digital devices you have as well.

Plus, using one with a DAC onboard means pretty much any asus soundcard or half decent motherboard with a coax/spdif output will be good enough


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## Reventon (Jul 21, 2011)

If you want true sound, get a studio soundcard and studio headphones.


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## Thatguy (Jul 21, 2011)

Horrux said:


> Sure, I'll pass it easily.



Willing to bet $20,000 dollars ?


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## AhokZYashA (Jul 24, 2011)

The easiest and probably cheapest way is to sell that soundcard and get yourself a nuforce udac2, its only 100USD, small, USB powered DAC/AMP, which is very good in its class,


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