If you want to improve the sound quality of your headphones and power some power-hungry headphones, a DAC and headphone AMP should be on your list. If you’ve invested your money in a pair of good audiophile-quality headphones, your next purchase should be a DAC, headphone amp, or both.
Both a Headphone amp and a DAC work differently. In this article, I’ll explore these two audio gear options to help you make an informed decision. Let’s take a look and each of these individually.
What is a Headphone Amp?
Headphones are miniature speakers; like speakers, they need amplification to reproduce the best sound you’ll hear. All playback devices have miniature amps, so you hardly need to connect an external headphone amplifier. However, in-built amplifiers are a little underpowered, so you need an external amplifier when working with headphones.
An external headphone amplifier provides enough power for power-hungry high-impedance headphones. Some headphones that require an external amp are Sennheiser HD800S (300 Ohms), Beyerdynamic Dt990 PRO (250 Ohms), Sennheiser HD 600 (300 Ohms), Audeze LCD-3 (110 Ohms), and other high impedance headphones.
If you’ve decided to get a headphones amplifier, there are three types you’ll come across – tube, solid state, and hybrid.
Tube or vacuum tube amplifiers are the ones you see with glowing bulbs, such as the little dot MKII, Schiit Valhalla, Woo Audio WA7, and Bravo Audio V2. The glowing tubes in a tube amplifier form part of the audio circuitry, giving your sound a rich, warm, and analog sound, which is very addictive. Tube rolling is also a thing with tube amplifiers, which replace tubes to alter the sound.
Solid-state amplifiers use the traditional circuitry to amplify an audio signal. For sound quality, solid-state amps are known for detailed, sharp, and accurate sound quality. Most portable headphone amplifiers are solid-state, and some good examples include the FiiO K3, FiiO BTR5, and Audioengine D1.
Hybrid amplifiers combine both tube and solid-state amplifiers into one package. In most hybrid amplifiers, the tube is in the input stage, and the solid state is in the output stage. Some examples of hybrid amplifiers include Schiit Mjolnir 2, Schiit Vali 2++, Fosi Audio T3, and Dayton Audio HTA100.
Check out our best headphone amps under $100 if you’re looking for a cheap or budget-friendly amp to drive your headphones.
What is DAC?
Every audio playback device that can play music through speakers or headphones has an in-built DAC. Until recently, standalone DACs were not a norm in the audio world, and you would only spot them in recording studios. However, with most people seeking better audio quality, DACs have grown to become a common gear most people use in their audio chain.
A DAC, short for Digital-to-Analog Converter, takes digital audio (ones and zeros) and converts it to analog audio.
When recording music, the audio and instrument sounds first enter the digital domain by being converted from analog to digital. When digitized, the audio is stored in different bit depths, most commonly 8, 16, or 24bit. A higher bit depth means the signal will be more accurate when being converted due to less quantization (rounding up or down).
Once analog audio has been digitized, it needs to be decoded back to analog form so it can be played via your headphones or speakers. A DAC takes the digital signal and rebuilds the analog wave. The better your DAC, the better the conversion will be closer to the original.
The difference between a $100 DAC and a $1000 DAC is how well they convert digital audio back to analog audio. A high-quality DAC converts digital audio better and closer to the original analog audio. The difference between a cheaper and expensive DAC is clear. However, having an external DAC, no matter the cost is still an upgrade better than an in-built DAC. We have a list of the best DACs under 100 you can check out.
DAC/Amp Combos Explained
DAC/Amp combos combine a DAC and headphone amplifier into one device. The major advantage of this setup is you have a portable gadget that is relatively small and has everything you need.
However, separates allow more flexibility, especially if you like tweaking things to get the best possible sound or just experimenting.
A DAC/Amp combo also comes with disadvantages from combining these gears. First, the power supplies don’t match, and it’s not easy to design a combined power supply that will handle both sufficiently.
Second, the voltage of a DAC needs to be clean and have an extremely low noise floor. On the other hand, an amplifier needs a lot of voltage and current, which can generate noise. Combining these two means a DAC can pick up electrical noise generated by the amplifier, thus degrading the audio quality.
For the best sound quality, it is better to go with a separate, that is, a standalone DAC and headphone amplifier. However, if you’re looking for convenience and to save a little money, a DAC/Amp combo is a good option.
Which Should You Buy?
To improve your headphones’ sound quality, getting a headphone amplifier and DAC is the best way to go. However, if you choose between these two, a headphone amplifier would be the gear upgrade to go for compared to a DAC.
If you’re starting out and on a budget, a DAC/Amp combo is a better choice. There are so many good options out there, and we’re also testing some for a roundup post coming soon.
Ultimately, getting either a headphone amp or a DAC will improve the audio quality of your headphones. There are so many good options out there that are cheap and will deliver good results.
