About headphone amplifiers

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About headphone amplifiers

Advantages of headphone amplifiers

Maximize the performance of headphones and improve sound quality
Headphone jacks such as those on portable audio have low output and many products are do not regard sound quality as important, so headphones cannot be fully utilized. Therefore, by outputting through a headphone amplifier equipped with high-quality parts and circuits, the original performance level of the headphones can be achieved and the sound quality can be dramatically improved.
Adding headphone output terminals
By using a headphone amplifier equipped with multiple headphone terminals, you can listen to the same sound source simultaneously with multiple headphones.

Types of headphone amplifiers

Deferred type
(for studio home use)

It is a table-top type headphone amplifier mainly used in the studio or at home. Some have only analog input / output terminals, and some are equipped with analog / digital input / output terminals.

USB-DAC type
(for PC)

It is headphone amplifier that can be connected to PC by USB. they are equipped with a circuit (DAC) for converting a digital signal to an analog signal, and the music data saved in the PC and the trending high res sound sources can be enjoyed with high-quality sound. In addition, USB-DAC types include both stationary and portable types. There are a relatively large number of inputs and outputs, and many products with both analog and digital are on the lineup.

Portable
(portable)

The portable type with built-in battery is the mainstream. A palm-sized headphone amplifier with excellent portability. With the spread of portable audio such as iPods and iPhones, and the rising popularity of high-priced earphones and headphones, the focus on the portable headphone amp is now on the rise.

Headphone amplifier accessories

USB cables

A cable used to transfer data to and from a PC.

Optical cables

An optical cable using S / PDIF, an interface standard for connecting digital audio devices. As sound is transmitted and received by digital signal, there is no deterioration of sound quality.

Dock cables

It is cable used to connect portable audio such as iPods, iPads with headphone amplifiers. Audio can be output from the Dock connector without passing through an amplifier installed in portable audio, and you can enjoy the performance and sound quality of the headphone amplifier.

Headphone amplifier terms

Frequency response：Indicates the frequency band that the headphone amplifier can play.
Maximum output level：The maximum signal level that can be output without distortion.
Signal to noise ratio：A value representing the ratio of signal (rated output) to noise. The larger the signal to noise ratio, the less the noise.
Distortion rate：A value that indicates how much distortion occurs in the signal amplified by the amplifier. The lower the number, the better.
Adaptive Impedance：The impedance of a headphone suitable for the headphone amplifier to operate.