Headphone Amp's

[calumowns]

Hi,

I currently have a pair of Audio Technica Ath-A900, with an x-fi soundcard (the one below the elite). I'm looking to improve my 'gear'. To fully utilize this set of headphones do I need to get an amp? If so could someone recommend a good one?

I'm also thinking of buying the x-fi elite, is it worth it? Btw, my budget is probably a maximum of £100 after buying the sound card.

 

[spaceman]

Not really much improvement with an amp in your case. I would get a Prelude and see if that makes it all better. The model headphone you have does not benefit much from an amp. A better sound card or external dac would make a bigger impact. Perhaps a Beresford 7510 which is a UK product and a decent dac/amp.

 

[schapman]

I've had A900s before and a couple different amps to try with them (had the amp for my MS-1s)

It made very little difference. The Millet I used just changed the tone as a tubey amp will, the M3 didn't do much at all.

 

[MrE]

The only benefit I can see in using a stand alone headphone amp would be for use with DAPs whose 30 Ohm impedance on headphone out messes with higher end low impedance headphones. In that case, I use a Headroom Micro headphone amp on a pair of Sennheiser HD650's and an iPod classic.

I use a Mackie 1202-VLZ mixing board out to a set of KRK Rokit 6's, and get better results than using a stand alone headphone amp for discrete listening. Its a good setup when running multiple sound cards from different sources.