[K3NT]

I am looking at getting some decent HiFi headphones for when I go off to University. I will be using them for listening to music, tv and also for use with my keyboard. I am currently looking at the Sennheiser HD595.

I have read that to get the best of HiFi headphones a headphone amplifier is needed. I already own an EMU 0404 usb soundcard which has a 'headphone amplifier' on it. Will this be suitable for these headphones? Also will the 'phones' jack on my Cambridge Audio Azur amplifier run them well? Sorry if this sounds like a dumb question, I'm assuming the answer to be yes for both... but I just want to make sure.

Regards
Leo

[timblanchard]

yeah your amp will run them.

your best bet would be to plug your amp into your soundcard, and then plug the phones into the amp.

[K3NT]

OK thanks. However the chances are I won't be taking the amp to University, would the audio interface's headphone amplifier be OK on its own?

[NicolasB]

HD595 'phones will be more than comfortable without a dedicated amp.

A headphone amp basically does two things:

1) They provide a bit more power than the average headphone socket is able to deliver. For high impedance 'phones (things like the Sennheiser HD650) this can be useful to get clear, pure sound; without an amp they can sound a bit "muddy" sometimes, especially if you're trying to drive them with something that's battery-powered.

2) For most headphone sockets on (speaker) amplifiers and similar devices the manufacturer uses the cheapest components that he feels he can get away with, because he thinks that people will mostly be using the amp to drive speakers, so why waste money on a feature that won't be used? Some (speaker) amps actually do have very good quality headphone output, but it can be a bit hit-and-miss. With a headphone amp you know the manufacturer won't just have a soldered a resistor across the speaker outputs or inserted a 50-pence op-amp chip. A headphone amp does exactly the same thing as the headphone stage in any other device, it just does it more expensively and hence (sometimes) with less noise or distortion.

HD595 'phones are sufficiently easy to drive that power output is unlikely to be an issue. A good quality headphone amp will probably make them sound better, but you'd likely get a better return on your money by upgrading the headphones and/or the source first.

[K3NT]

Thanks for your replies. I have just read a review of the audio interface I have and it seems to suggest the headphone amplifier is quite good. So hopefully I will just use that.