Headphone Heights

RE: Pass Labs should have a headphone amp available by the end of the year.

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This Post Has Been Edited by the Author

In Reply to: RE: Pass Labs should have a headphone amp available by the end of the year. posted by Frihed89 on October 08, 2014 at 02:03:50

A resistor or transformer based adapter might work but it's not the best or most elegant solution, IMO. Dedicated headphone amps exist for a reason.
The typical lo-fi stereo receiver or integrated amp with a headphone jack tacked onto the faceplate uses a resistive adapter in most cases. The results are less than optimal, muddy bass being one of the most obvious colorations in resistor setups. A transformer-based adapter could sound slightly better than a resistor-based one, but as long as the signal is being routed through any adaptive device it is probably being diluted and degraded to an unnecessary degree.
OTOH, a good dedicated headphone amp draws directly from it's own transformer and provides the cleanest, clearest signal transmission possible. A dedicated headphone amp sometimes provides the user with an adjustable impedance switch too, which is great because some headphones like to be current-driven while others like to be voltage-driven.
While it's true that a good speaker amp used in conjunction with a headphone adapter might sound better than a very cheap dedicated headphone amp, the best results are going to be had with a good, dedicated headphone amp. Good headphone amps are "voiced" to sound good when driving headphones, while an adapter tacked onto a loudspeaker amp is likely to sound like the compromised setup it actually is.

Edits: 10/08/14 10/08/14 10/08/14

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