I’ve given up being able to afford a good sounding stereo, especially a system that will sound good in the concrete rooms that we live in, so here in Taiwan headphones seem a good fit. I have at home now a wonderful pair of Beyerdynamic’s which I borrowed from the office and have fallen in love with the detailed sound that comes from listening to music on these slightly higher end “cans”. Seeing as my employer will likely want these back very very soon I have begun my search for a replacement.
Most of my music listening is either in front of a computer or via an iPod. Unless I am working with raw audio files the sound source is usually not of the highest fidelity, this is not so much of a concern for me, but when you use quality headphones such as mine you begin to notice that the amps in a computer or iPod are totally insufficient. In addition to buying quality headphones, buying a headphone amp becomes a necessity if I want to truly appreciate what the headphones can offer. Headroom explains it well, “Driving a decent pair of headphones with a portable player almost always results in a gutless mush of music. Hitting the “bass boost” switch only emphasizes the murk.
The fact is that headphones are miniature speakers and require a miniature power amplifier to drive them with fidelity. Headphones provide a complex electro-mechanical load; they may be small, but they still need a power amp with excellent stability and low output impedance (a good damping factor) to bring out their potential. Hook your headphones up to a HeadRoom amplifier and you