Is It Worth Investing In A Headphone Amp?

[DiscoDeeJay]

Merry Christmas everyone. :cheers:

Heading out tomorrow to invest in a new set of headphones. Have more or less settled on a pair of AKG K550's.

They will mainly be used at home for Spotify via a Samsung Laptop, or Pioneer SCLX-56, or on the move with a Sony Walkman MP4 player or Ipod Classic.

Music played will be mainly Disco, Soul and Jazz Funk.

Would I see any benefit in purchasing a Speaker Amp for use with my laptop/Walkman/Ipod?

If so, I would be willing to spend around £100, which brings the Cambridge Audio DacMagic XS, Audioquest Dragonfly or FiiO E12 Mont Blanc into consideration.

Any advice, experiences with my shortlist or suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[Anonymous]

Yes. Audioquest Drogonfly is now a bargain and the one for portability. 🙂

 

[quadpatch]

Merry Christmas everyone. :cheers:

Heading out tomorrow to invest in a new set of headphones. Have more or less settled on a pair of AKG K550's.

They will mainly be used at home for Spotify via a Samsung Laptop, or Pioneer SCLX-56, or on the move with a Sony Walkman MP4 player or Ipod Classic.

Music played will be mainly Disco, Soul and Jazz Funk.

Would I see any benefit in purchasing a Speaker Amp for use with my laptop/Walkman/Ipod?

If so, I would be willing to spend around £100, which brings the Cambridge Audio DacMagic XS, Audioquest Dragonfly or FiiO E12 Mont Blanc into consideration.

Any advice, experiences with my shortlist or suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Merry Christmas 🙂

So, is it worth getting a headphone amo for the K550? Well, despite me not liking the K550 for fit and bass response, some people seem happy with it so I'll assume you've done your research on that front. As for the headphone itself - it's a pretty efficient one, so for volume you generally won't need one. Will £100 worth of amp improve your music? Hmm, perhaps, a little, but it's best to feed an amp a line-out for best results (avoid dual amping). This will work best with the iPod I think. I'd recommend living with only your headphones for a while anyway.

The first two options you suggest are USB DACs more than amps, which is fine accept that they'll only work with your laptop.

NOTE TO WHF MODS: Having to constantly do word verification to post comments is really, really annoying and putting me off coming here. Please fix this!!




Note from mods: Fixed!

 

[dalethorn]

Not sure what is meant by "speaker amp" - the small USB DAC or amp won't drive speakers unless the speakers are self-powered, or there's a power amp in between.

But if you were to get a FiiO E07k for example and connect the iPod from its LOD (using a FiiO LOD cable) to the E07k "Aux" input and the headphone into the E07k, you'd get a major improvement over the iPod alone. Connecting the E07k to a laptop computer via the USB and then plugging the headphone into the E07k, you'd also get an improvement, but not as big an improvement as with the iPod (although the end result with the computer is better sound).

Using a mini-DAC like the Dragonfly instead of the E07k with the computer would be significantly better, but then you would have no option to improve the iPod sound.

 

[DiscoDeeJay]

Thanks for the replies.

After settling on the AKG 550's (or so I thought), due to a friends recommendation and reviews, I was very disappointed with them.

I'm 6'4", 17st and have a fairly large head and struggle to find a hat to fit me, yet even when set to the tightest setting the 550's were still loose on my head. The cups were not even close to clamping on my ears. The sound was very good, when I clamped them to my ears with my hands, but the thought of holding them to my ears, or strapping them to my head with Duck Tape for hours on end, was not particularly appealing and without clamping them, the sound was very poor.

After testing several other pairs of cans, I settled on a pair of Sennheiser Momentum's (the larger over the ears version). I also added a Cambridge Audio DacMagic XS (USB DAC/Headphone Amp).

I am currently listening to Standing On The Outside by Kazu Matsui, on Spotify as I type and it sounds absolutely amazing. The

The Momentum's are a brilliant set of headphones and the DacMagic improves them to a level that is blowing me away.

I can't wait till they are fully run-in.

 

[quadpatch]

It sounds like you had a very similar experience with the K550 as I did. Glad that you found peace with the Momentum and DACMagic 🙂

NOTE TO WHF MODS: Having to constantly do word verification to post comments is really, really annoying and putting me off coming here. Please fix this!!

Note from mods: Fixed!

I noticed this already, so much happier! Thank you 🙂

 

[Toolpusher]

I've got a Pro-Ject Headbox S connected to my blu ray player in the bedroom, absolutely transformed my lower-end Sennheisers, never regretted the purchase for a second, 100% recommended. 🙂