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Are Headphone Amps Worth It?

Juan Stansbury April 23, 2023

You must know that headphones are one of the important components of your studio or audio system. So a Headphone amp is one of the second most important components, which you should focus upon.

But are headphone amps worth it?

We will find out in this article.

Headphone amps can provide significant clarity to the audio. They can improve the sound quality only if the headphones are of high-quality.

Headphone amps are of no use for damaged or broken headphones.

Whether you should purchase a headphone amp or not, depends upon the type of headphones you are using and their condition.

If you are looking for a detailed guide on headphone amps, you landed in the right place.

What is a headphone amp? Should I buy it or not? Are they worth it?

Whatever your question is, you will get all your answers in this article. Stick to the end to find the answers to your questions.

What is A Headphone Amp?

Video: “Headphone Amplifiers: Explained”

Headphone amps are built mainly to drive headphones. They are low powered audio amps.

So a headphone amp is basically a device that is responsible for delivering the electrical power to your headphones.

Headphone amps are already present in any sounding device like speakers, televisions, and even in your phones.

Then why is there a need to purchase a headphone amp separately?

Amplifiers have to deliver lots of power to the speakers so that they can operate at high volumes.

Similarly, headphone amps are responsible for delivering power to big earphones. Without headphone amps, most of the headphones start to distort at higher volumes.

This is where a headphone amp comes to the rescue.

How Does It Work?

Let us see how does a headphone amp work.

The power supplied to your earphones by a phone or a PC is not sufficient for the headphone to operate on a maximum level.

Portable devices like mobile phones are small, and so the amplifiers inside them are not good enough to provide you with a good quality sound.

A loudspeaker, on the other hand, holds a stranger amplifier, and thus it gives off a better output.

A headphone amp, therefore, works to make your phone sounds better by making the sound richer, louder, and smoother.

Many headphone amps have knobs and sliders so that you can adjust the sound in terms of bass and give it special effects.

When Do I Need A Headphone Amp For My Headphones?

Video: “Amplifier Impedance matters! Why it is important to have a low output impedance (explained)”

Headphone amps are essential for raising the low-voltage audio signal from your PC or smartphone to such a level that it can be converted to sound waves by your speaker inside the headphones.

The headphones which are used nowadays are built with really low impedance. For those who don’t know, impedance is a type of resistance.

So low impedance means that the headphones will consume less power. Headphones today are kept at low impedance purposefully so they won’t consume more battery of your computer or phone.

To power the headphone of low impedance, the headphone amps used in such devices are also made to supply little power. These amps cannot supply a lot of power even if needed.

In cases like studio headphones, these amps cannot supply enough power to overcome the impedance.

For this reason, you need to purchase a headphone amplifier separately.

Are Headphone Amps Worth It?

A headphone amp is really worth it either when your headphones are not producing enough loud sound, or when your source device is not able to give sufficient output.

Using a headphone amp will give life to the music by making everything balanced.

Since music lovers are very conscious of keeping the balance between lows, mids, and highs, a headphone amp would do the best in this case.

However, headphone amps are of no use if you own Bluetooth headphones or noise-canceling headphones.

Headphone Amps For Wireless or Noise Cancelling Headphones

If you are thinking of spending on good quality Bluetooth headphones or if you already own one, then there is no need to purchase a headphone amp for it.

Headphone amps work like those amplifiers that are used for speakers; the only difference is that they work at a lower scale.

The downside of purchasing a Bluetooth or any other wireless headphones is that the sound is limited. You cannot enhance it at any cost.

It is physically impossible to get a headphone amp connected to wireless headphones to give them more clarity.

It’s because the amplifier has to amplify the given input, which then drives your headphones by providing them more power and make them louder at different frequencies.

Simply, if you own wireless headphones, then there is no need to get a headphone amp. It will be useless.

But if you want to get a loud sound from the headphones, consider buying good quality wired headphones.

Conclusion

Headphone amps are a low-powered amplifier that gives clarity to the audio and bless music with a life.

For your question, are headphone amps worth it? Here is the answer.

Headphone amps are worth it if you have wired headphones and want to listen to the music with well-balanced instrumentation.

Headphone amps will be of no use to you if you have Bluetooth, noise-canceling headphones, or other wireless headphones.

These amps will provide more clarity and definition to the sound. They can be pricey but are worth it for the function they perform.