A/V Silly amp question

Hello
I have a quick question
I see alot of people using small amps with there pc and headphones.
can somebody tell me the purpose of this is a dedicated sound card not good enough?
thanks

 

i'm no audio techie, but wouldn't it be about power output?

 

you'd still need a sound card to output to the amp, but it's just easier to connect all your devices to one box.

 

so it doesnt really do anything for quality?

 

Also Keir i'v seen that you have got a new system so if you decide to sell that 8800gt will you give me a shout?

 

You'll get better audio quality and simpler control by using an offboard amp (assuming it's reasonably competent). It's a pretty good upgrade to be honest - a pair of "hifi" bookshelf speakers on an amp will sound very impressive in games and make music more enjoyable.

 

If the small amp has digital input, you can use the integrated sound card via digital output to get great quality music without shelling out money for a separate sound card.

You also get the physical volume knob which is great.

You get the headphone amplifier (some hifi headphones have high impedance and sound cards don't really like that)

And you can connect other devices to the amp's inputs and have them easily accessible via the input selector.

Those are the first points I can come up with. Beside those you get a discrete amplifier and can easily/cheaply upgrade only the speakers if you feel like it.

 

Would this be the reason my bose headphones sound crappy on my pc but not in anything else, i even have a good sound card,Think i found what im buying next

 

Depends on the impedance of your headphones and what kind of sound card you have.

 

i have a X-fi Titanium Fatal1ty
these are my headphones
http://www.bose.com/controller?url=.../audio_headphones/on_ear_headphones/index.jsp
There pretty good with my ipod but not my pc

 

It might. Although it would kinda surprise me if the portable player had a better output than the sound card.

Although I can't say for sure as neither of those products' info pages tell absolutely none of the actual tech specs. Dolby this and that and how the headphones fold.

 

Correct.

Most soundcards do not have any built in amp for driving headphones.

A dedicated head amp gives superior sound quality for headphones.

 

Thanks for clearing that up fellas

 

You can build your own amp if you want. There are loads on HeadWise http://gilmore2.chem.northwestern.edu/projects/index.htm

I built the Zen Headphone Amplifier years ago, its quite good and not too expensive in parts.

Have fun
Mark.

 

I'd be extremely interested in trying out one of these cheap T-class amps over at ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Headphone-Amp..._HomeAudioHiFi_Amplifiers&hash=item3cae54056e

Some of them have the DAC as well.. Going by the pictures the build quality is superb, and at £10 you aren't really losing an awful much.

 

Not too cheap when you consider the 32 pounds postage

 

Looks good but maybe a bit challenging

 

Meh it was just an example and the first I found, ebay is full of similar amps.

 

But when buying an amp is there much of a difference?

 

That's what I'd like to find out. All the Tripath amps use the same amplified chip, and appear very much identical in the photos.. The T-class amps in general are known for acceptable quality for insanely low power consumption and price, so that might be a good purchase. Then again, it might not. I have only experience of these cheap amps in ghetto blaster use, where the sound quality isn't really the first priority.