Are headphone amps necessary ?

[admin_exported]

I have a ubiquitous cyrus 8vs/cd8x set up and am looking to purchase a pair of Grado 325i headphones. Do I need a headphone amp ? Even if I don't, would a headphone amp bring any benefits ? Cheers, Steve

 

[Andrew Everard]

If I had a Cyrus amp I'd invest in a headphone amp just to avoid scrabbling round the back every time I wanted to plug in my 'phones. But yes, a headphone amp will make more of headphones like the Grados.

 

[Thaiman]

for £100 you can buy Headphone amp and stand alone Dac (all in one) for £100! and I am happy to report that it's a very good one. Do a serch on Ebay for Beresford Dac version 6 and read the feedback for yourself, I have one and it's not far off my MF X-can for less than half price.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the suggestion - do I need a DAC if there are twin DACs in the CD player ?
Anyone got any other recommendations for headphone amps ?

 

[Thaiman]

[quote user="stewartc"]Thanks for the suggestion - do I need a DAC if there are twin DACs in the CD player ? Anyone got any other recommendations for headphone amps ?[/quote]

I guess the Beresford DAC wouldn't be as good as Cyrus build in DAC but I feed the sky box digi out through the DAC and MTV (or more like a Kerrang for me) never sound so gooooood! Other headphone amp you should consider is MF X-can (valve like sound) or Creek (forgot the model number, the £250 one) should be on top of your list.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the tip