If you’re wondering if a headphone amp can make your cheap wired earbuds, like Apple’s EarPods ($19), sound better — the answer is: probably not. Let’s explain.
The job of a headphone amplifier is to “amplify” the normally weak audio signal produced by the source — which in a desktop audio setup, is a laptop or computer — and sent to the headphones. Without an amp or a DAC, the headphones wouldn’t be able to play your computer’s audio.
(The digital-to-analog converter, or DAC, is the other vital component that’s usually built into most headphone amps. It converts the digital signal sent from the computer into an analog signal that the headphone amp can actually use. A DAC is only necessary when you have a digital source like a computer or smartphone, as opposed to an analog source like a turntable or CD player.)
“You can only improve to the limits of the weakest link in the chain.”
However, the headphone amp is just one link in the audio chain and according to Dave Evans, the co-founder of Audioengine, a high-quality amp isn’t going to be able to improve cheap earphones.
“You can only improve to the limits of the weakest link in the chain,” Evans explained “If the headphones (or earbuds) have more to give, [a headphone] amp will ‘let them’ give it. But if there’s no more to give, there’s no more to be had.”
If you have a nicer pair of headphones whose been plugging it into your laptop or computer, that’s a different story. Your laptop or desktop already has a built-in headphone amp/DAC, of course, otherwise your headphones wouldn’t work with it — but it’s not every good.
