B&W P7 - Will a headphone amp/DAC improve anything?.

[Franklioni]

Morning! I've been read a fair bit on headphone amps and DACs recently and I'm still none the wiser if I could benefit from using one. Right now I use the P7's with an HTC One (and occasionally an iPhone 5s) with FLAC as the source material coupled with Spotify on "extreme" quality and soon I will introduce a pair of UE 6000's for flights and maybe the daily train journey. I guess I want to know if I'm going to get a boost of quality and detail if I go down this road or am I just going to make things louder? I've been looking at the FiiO range just now so you see my price bracket. Thanks...

 

[dalethorn]

If you connected a DAC/amp such as the Beyerdynamic A200p (same as AK10), the sound would be very much better than the phone alone. It would be obvious at home, but not so much in a noisy environment. Using FiiO amps you don't get the benefit of the DAC, and so the improvement is much less. A full answer covering all possibilities could run a few more paragraphs.

 

[Franklioni]

Thanks again for another good response!

When you mention Fiio missing the DAC, what about something like the E17 or E18? Should they just not be considered?

Cheers!

 

[dalethorn]

Thanks again for another good response! When you mention Fiio missing the DAC, what about something like the E17 or E18? Should they just not be considered? Cheers!

The E17 contains a USB computer DAC, doesn't work for iPhone.

The E18 DAC may work with Android devices, but not iPhone as far as I know.