Should I buy an amp for my new headphones?

[NORSMEN]

So I got a new set of Philips SHP9500s headphones with an impedance of 32 ohms.   I was wondering if I should buy a cheap amp so I can maximize their sound quality, but I'm not sure if I would actually get any kind of improvement.  Does anyone know if I should just plug them in to the motherboard, or get an amp for them?

 

And yes, they sound fine on the motherboard.  I just want to know if getting a cheap amp would be a waste of money or not..

[Tarun10]

I believe its priced at around 150$ or so. If your motherboard sound good then maybe it's not necessary to get an amp. However if you find a good deal on a reputed brand then you can maybe buy one for around 50$ max. Anything beyond that will probably be bottlenecked by the headphones, If there is no difference in quality or it sounds worse you can easily repackage it and return it.

[Guest]

I have a pair, but never actually tried them just on mobo. Let me try it real quick. Don't think you'll need an amp, but give me a few mins.

[NORSMEN]

11 minutes ago, Legendarypoet said:

I have a pair, but never actually tried them just on mobo. Let me try it real quick. Don't think you'll need an amp, but give me a few mins.

Okay great, thanks!

 

[Guest]

Hmmm. Onboard was fine. A little softer than I'd listen to music, but it sounds good.

[NORSMEN]

9 minutes ago, Legendarypoet said:

Hmmm. Onboard was fine. A little softer than I'd listen to music, but it sounds good.

Okay thanks man, I'l probably stick with on-board if it doesn't make a difference. ^^

[IrwinAllen13]

Just as a FYI, an AMP won't do anything for audio quality. They will only adjust the amplitude of the signal...hints the name AMP (amplitude). As long as your headphone impedance does not exceed the spec of your chipset then you should be fine with amplitude.

 

If you ever want to expand the quality, then you need to look closer at your audio chipset. This will tell you the max sampling rate supported, Signal to Noise Ratio, as well as the frequencies response of the output device. If you are still interested in maxing out your audio quality, then please supply us with the current MB audio chipset information.

[Spuriae]

59 minutes ago, IrwinAllen13 said:

Just as a FYI, an AMP won't do anything for audio quality. They will only adjust the amplitude of the signal...hints the name AMP (amplitude). As long as your headphone impedance does not exceed the spec of your chipset then you should be fine with amplitude.

 

If you ever want to expand the quality, then you need to look closer at your audio chipset. This will tell you the max sampling rate supported, Signal to Noise Ratio, as well as the frequencies response of the output device. If you are still interested in maxing out your audio quality, then please supply us with the current MB audio chipset information.

All headphone transducers do is convert electrical signals to vibrations, they don't do anything for sound quality either.

 

/s