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General discussion

Does anyone know about headphone amps?

Sep 5, 2009 4:25AM PDT

I have a Zune and I just bought a pair of Senn's HD Pro 280 headphones. I have found out that the Zune doesn't have enough power to properly run the Senn's, so I found out you can buy a amplifier, which not only increases power, but helps with sound quality. I don't need an amp for my PC, just for my Zune. I've looked at the cmoy and the ibasso t4. Can anyone give my any advice?

Discussion is locked

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Have You
Sep 5, 2009 6:04AM PDT
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Lots of choices...
Sep 6, 2009 6:43PM PDT

CMOYs are some of the cheapest solutions out there, and vary a bit in terms of quality. But for the most part they do pump out enough juice to run even the most power-thirsty set of cans. I have several CMOY designs: a couple or three built by others and purchased off of eBay and one that I actually built myself, though I freely admit it's not the best-sounding of the bunch (think I skimped too much on choosing some of the parts).

I don't know anything about the ibasso brand; the one I've come to really appreciate of late is the Ray Samuels Emmeline P-51 Mustang (he has a thing about naming his amps after airplanes, I guess); relatively speaking it's pricey but also it's one sublime-sounding unit that'll make just about any power-hungry headphone rig sound gratifying. Works really nicely w/ IEMs as well.

But you don't NEED to spend that sort of cash to get enough power to push the drivers of your cans. Virtually any decently built amp will do the job; the hardest part is trying to find one with the specs AND form factor to take care of what you want it for. My suggestion for you is to start with an inexpensive CMOY and see how that fits your needs before shopping for a more 'professionally' manufactured design.