Headphone Amp
Headphone Amp
What should I know about headphone amps?
I am a budding audiophile, and I am saving up for the Denon ah d5000. My question is: should I get a headphone amp, what kind of improvement will I get out of it, Is the sound going to be the same if I say (highest digital quality files of course) hook up a ipod to the amp to the cans, and if I hook a high quality sound system to the amp to the cans?
Also, what model do you recommend?
Compressed digital audio files are not a high fidelity source, let alone "audiophile" quality. For such a level of quality, you will need a quality CD player or analog turntable setup (say, $900 each, at least). Once you have such a source, then it would be worth having good headphones--Grado, AKG, Stax, etc.
Note that the elecrostatic models run off the speaker outputs of an amplifier, not the headphone jack, so a headphone amplifier won't run them.
I have owned a pair of Stax 'phones for about 20 years. I am happy with them, and they have been trouble-free. The downside is that repairs and parts are expensive, should you need them, so it is worth taking good care of them.
IMHO, a quality headphone performs about as well as speakers worth about 7 to 10 times as much.
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PreSonus HP4 4-Channel Headphone Amplifier @ FrontEndAudio.com
