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PenisFly_AhhhhScary t1_iy53yb2 wrote

The whole amps don’t make a difference thing is one of the dumbest large takes i’ve heard in a long time. Can’t believe this view point is semi popular

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Clickbaitllama t1_iy54ujm wrote

Most modern solid state amps don’t make much of an audible diffrence to most headphones. As long as you have enough volume headroom and the distortion is under audible levels (which almost all amps are, unless they are meant to distort), most solid state amps are going to sound the same.

Basically they 100% make a diffrence, but those diffrences are usually so small, they don’t matter to the normal person with normal ears

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PenisFly_AhhhhScary t1_iy55w87 wrote

highly disagree having tried multiple different solid state amplifiers. A lot of them sound similar but most of them have discernible differences. I think it’s more of the headphone benefiting from more power or current rather than the actual sound of the amplifier. But to say there is no difference just means you haven’t tried multiple amps in multiple price points on headphones that scale well. A perfect example of amps making a difference are on the hifiman susvara. When I tried susvara for the first time I heard it on dcs lina. I thought it sounded like dogshit. Later that day I tried it on a benchmark hpa4 and I was blown away. To this day it’s still the best sounding thing i’ve heard. Amps make a difference more at the mid to high end. From seeing peoples profiles it seems most people who say this only own one or two cheap amplifiers or are fairly new to the headphone space.

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blargh4 t1_iy59js1 wrote

did you test them blind?

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PenisFly_AhhhhScary t1_iy59rjs wrote

no I was just like ooo this one looks cool. Most of the time It’s like ehh not much difference from zen can but sometimes there would be a really big difference like when I tried hpa4, nautilus, and iha6.

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Clickbaitllama t1_iy5henq wrote

The only way a headphone can benefit from more power is either having more headroom, or you just cranking it up louder than usual. Which for most headphones, from the low to high end, can be achieve with amps in the 100-200 dollar range/

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PenisFly_AhhhhScary t1_iy5hsxo wrote

Quick question but have you tried multiple different amps in different price points with multiple headphones?

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Clickbaitllama t1_iy5jmam wrote

Couldn't say I've tried the highest ends of audio amplifiers, but i've tried amps from the apple dongle to the balanced output of a thx 789. From the lighting apple dongle, I can definitely hear a difference from let's say my e10k-tc, since even with Iems, I have to max out my phone to get decent volumes.

But when comparing the e10k to other higher end and expensive amps, the only time I heard a meaningful difference was when the e10k either wasn't loud enough or had no headroom. This is with both iems, and open backs (though I don't own anymore open backs, as I sold them).

My question to you though would be have your volume matched, and blind tested your amps? Without that, placebo can very well be in play.

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coldchillin-nc t1_iy6ppmw wrote

The differences aren’t things like details or timbre. Although that could happen. The biggest differences I hear in scaling up is the stage becoming deeper/wider more holographic and much darker background and a sense of effortless performance. It’s so obvious. It’s not even in the realm of placebo it’s like a slap in the face. But a good one lol

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PenisFly_AhhhhScary t1_iy5khf4 wrote

i’ll definitely do some blind test when I get a new amplifier. My experience is just trying stuff at stores.

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CBSU t1_iy6vakt wrote

I blind-tested, to the best of my ability, my Enleum AMP-23R against an Atom amp (made of plastic!) with Hifiman’s Susvara and couldn’t tell a difference. I have mild hearing damage but it shouldn’t be that bad.

Besides the Susvara, I also tried Focal’s Clear and Audeze’s LCD-5. The Clear isn’t said to “scale” particularly well and I’m not familiar enough with LCD-5 to have heard differences there. This was done in my quietest room, which is acoustically treated and quite silent.

That said, I am not a practiced listener by any means and my audio pursuits are based on feelings of “this sounds like live”. I did this test alongside an upgrade-chaser with more discerning ears and we came to the conclusion that it didn’t make an audio difference but they look or feel nice. Our findings weren’t upsetting, I primarily upgrade for aesthetics and wasn’t aware that it was meant to sound better.

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Toronto-Will t1_iy5ixo2 wrote

It's not a "take", it's an observation. And it's an observation that goes against the bias that people who've bought expensive amps are inclined towards. Of course we want our expensive new amp to be an upgrade, that's why we bought it, but then you do an AB test with your "inferior" old unit, and what the hell is this, they sound the same? Or maybe like, if you squint really hard and channel every ounce of your attention into the headphones, it's maybe slightly different?

If you go from a $100 headphone to a $500 headphone, the difference is earth shattering, then you go from a $100 amp to a $500 amp, and you're scratching your head and checking the return policy. Or you just shrug and accept it as the price of a nicer volume knob (and the peace of mind that you're not "wasting the potential" of your headphones).

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PenisFly_AhhhhScary t1_iy5k3er wrote

I haven’t bought any expensive amps. I’m running zen can right now. I’ve gone out and tried different amps without knowing the price or anything and different amps i’ve tried have sounded different from each other. I get what you are saying about buyers remorse but I try everything out before I buy it. I don’t have any investment into any of the amps i’ve tried so why would I have any buyers remorse and placebo myself into hearing something that’s not there. Literally I would just see a amp, not know what it is, try it out, gather my thoughts on it, and then afterwards find out what it’s worth. I thought nautilus was meh even though it’s a $10,000 amplifier. There is no reason for me to placebo myself when I don’t know what it is in the first place.

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Gofa_Kirselph t1_iy7cqop wrote

You, sir or madam, are what everyone should aspire to become in this hobby. Someone who actually listens to gear instead of reading graphs, or parroting the same narrative without having much experience in said parroted narrative.

My gear isn’t the typical stuff you usually find. I got the Elekit TU-8200 tube amp and the Questyle CAS192D DAC. I also have a Peachtree Audio DAC•iT^x and a myriad of other amps. Why do I have such relatively esoteric gear? Because I listened to a bunch of different crap when I first started. That’s how I knew that DACs do in fact make a difference and how I learned that tube amps aren’t just distortion galore. My favorite solid state amps sounded similar to tube amps so I was like… I’ll just get a tube amp that’s easy to fix!

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