FiiO E5 headphone amplifier looks like a Shuffle
I've never used a headphone amplifier and, in truth, I'm a little bit fuzzy on the advantages of using them, instinctively squinting at them as a form of audiophonic snake oil, at least for most people (audiophiles: feel free to school me in the comments), but FiiO's E5 compact headphone amps are, at least, eye-catching, even if the lapel clip design obviously channels a Shuffle aesthetic. The E5 is powered by a built-in 200mAh battery that's recharged via USB and specced for about 20 hours per charge. It'll sell for under $20.
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A headphone amp is usually used to drive headphones with higher impedance that otherwise wouldn't be loud enough. Basically you are changing the damping factor, which has a noticeable effect on sound quality as well. Headphone amps by themselves aren't snake oil, although I'm sure you can spend way too much money on one made out of fossilized dryad skin that makes fairies fly into your brain when you listen to The Pixies.
Headphone amps are necessary for higher draw headphones, such as studio cans. For earbuds, they are obviously unnecessary. They also allow for compensating for the additional load when splitting the headphone signal, as opposed to listening at half the volume.
Perfect timing, I was just searching for something like this last week and couldn't find anything decent. I have an old stick-style iPod shuffle and the output on it is too low to work over the line in adapter I have on my car stereo. I end up cranking the volume knob all the way up, and then inevitably forget to lower it when I switch back to radio. Thanks!
QUESTION QUESTION
hi , I have same issue as PJAMESTX and would like to amplify the out put of MP3 player in my glove compartment over a lenghty RCA line-in to my car stereo in the trunk. would something like this work.
also does it need external power, if not how does it work.
This device isn't one of them; but there is a class of headphone amps(mostly for Real Serious Audiophiles) that are designed to bypass the internal amp and/or DAC entirely. Because mp3 players are mass market items, their DACs and amps tend to be adequate but not thrilling, hence the desire for aftermarket devices built around high quality DACs and amps(and occasionally some snake oil).
A while back, the iRiver IHP-120 and IHP-140 were popular for this, because they supported flac and supported optical digital out, in addition to ordinary headphone and line level outs. You could get little headphone amps with optical in and high quality DAC and amplifier chips. I don't know of anything similar today; but some of the headphone amps for iPods use the line-level signal from the dock connector, instead of the signal from the headphone jack, in order to skip the iPod's built in amplifier.
Never really my thing, I'm blessed with, shall we say, "uncritical" taste in audio gear; but it isn't just snake oil.
Ditto #3 and #4, I think this would work well. I'd like one if it's rechargeable.
Headphone amps do a lot more than compensate for insufficient volume. They greatly improve audio fidelity when you're driving any but the very easiest-to-drive headphones or earbuds.
Let me try to explain by analogy. Suppose you have reasonably good penmanship. And suppose I take away your pen, and give you instead a writing instrument that weighs a pound. You're surely strong enough to lift a pound, even write with one. But unless you've exceptionally strong hands, your penmanship will suffer.
Something much like this happens when you attach headphones (of virtually any size/cost, and even some higher-end earbuds) to a weak source such as an iPod. It can operate the headphones, even (in many cases) play them loudly. But it poops out on peaks and transients, it doesn't have the oomph to keep the transducers properly under control, and fidelity suffers. Adding an amp is like swapping your arm for a bionic one: now you have the power fully to control that heavier load.
The sonic differences amplification makes will not always be audible to a non-audiophile, but there are at least three reasons for that that have nothing to do with snobbery or claims or genetic superiority or whatnot. (Subtitle of the following section: you too can be an audiophile - ask me how)
The most important is simply habituation: we're accustomed to listening to things this way, and it's very noticeable when some of the audio quality is taken away. But you don't really notice this stuff until you become used to it. If you suddenly switched from earbuds to slightly better headphones and an amp, you might be only a little bit impressed. But if you did all your music listening that way for a solid month and then I took them away, I am quite sure you would feel the difference keenly indeed.
Two other reasons deserve mention as well: equipment, and file quality. Audiophiles have usually spent a fair bit of time (and, it must be said, money) finding equipment that they like (while some gear is deservedly good by reputation, enjoyment remains a matter of taste). With a headphone I really like, an amp makes a world of difference, while a headphone that just doesn't have my kind of sound won't really please me regardless of the amp. So it's anybody's guess whether the first amp/headphone combination you try will be your cup of tea at all.
And then there's file quality. Lots of files from the early days of MP3s - which probably still float around on sharing sites - are overcompressed to keep the sizes down, with bitrates as low as 56Kbps being fairly common. With a file like that, there's not a lot of extra fidelity for an amp to reveal. So to the extent that your music library consists of that sort of thing, sound quality won't benefit much from an amp.
[To continue: iTunes store purchases (and iTunes CD rips, if you haven't changed iTunes' default settings) at 128Kbps aren't _bad_, but they're middle-of-the-road, and definitely leave out some audible life and detail. Purchases from eMusic, the Amazon MP3 Store, and so forth, which are generally at 192Kpbs, are quite good - there's certainly plenty there for an amp to eke out on your behalf, even though true audio purists will generally find some fault with them. ]
Addtionally to the all of the good stuff above, a small headphone amp is just a useful thing to have around. I use one to drive the unpowered speakers I got for free at a garage sale, to run a line in from a low impendance guitar signal to record a quick riff on the computer, I've even used one at a live gig to put a little more oomph on vocals through a low-powered PA.
#4: It has an internal battery that recharges via USB, so it's powered. I have a cigarette lighter adapter that branches out into several USB ports, so if it can charge while in use, I'm totally set :)
Also note that many portable audio devices have *terrible* built-in preamps that begin to distort as soon as any real load is put on them.
Although this is again probably fine for earbuds, even normal-sized 'phones will display a measurable amount of distortion on bass-heavy tracks.
Because the amplifier itself puts very little load on the device's amp, you'll generally get a lot less distortion.
(This is only true of certain kinds of amplifiers. Ironically, the iPod Shuffle is reputed to have one of the best pre-amps out of mainstream MP3 players, while the iPod series itself is noticeably subpar. See here for detailed analysis.)
With snake oil, the dubious claims made by the seller are difficult to verified even after use.
With a headphone amp, it should be relatively easy to tell if the volume is louder.
These may possibly be crap, but it ain't snake oil.
Eleven comments into an audio thread and no posts dismissively conflating anyone who cares more about audio than the poster does with the suckers spending $400 on a volume knob or power cord? You're slacking, people!