best budget amp for he400se?

[cmtali]

hey so im rocking an apple dongle and an he400se as my setup and i thought i needed an entry level amplifier to suit it best, any recommendations for around 100$? can go up to 150.
also i live in the middle east if thats going to help with the recommendations

 

[DVDdoug]

hey so im rocking an apple dongle

If it goes loud enough a headphone amp won't make it sound better.

Or, the review here for the Hifiman says the bass is a little weak and if you are boosting the bass that may require more power than you can get out of the Apple dongle.

...If you do need more amplification I can't make a recommendation but you can check the reviews here and compare the output voltages.

 

[cmtali]

i mean its really weird yeah it has kind of low impedance but also its still not loud enough when i EQ it, maybe its on my side but i thought originally that basically low volume means it needs more power to drive it

 

[solderdude]

You could state which brands you can easily get.
Specs should be > 150mW in 32ohm and the amp should have 3x gain (+9dB) when using a dongle or phone headphone out as source.
Gain is what you need.

if you occasionally want to play really loud and EQ the bass up then an amplifier of > 0.8W (32 ohm) will be more than enough.
For that (when driven from your dongle you need an amplifier with 5x gain (+14dB gain).

Distortion better than 0.01%

 

[cmtali]

You could state which brands you can easily get.
Specs should be > 150mW in 32ohm and the amp should have 3x gain (+9dB) when using a dongle or headphone out as source.
Gain is what you need.

if you occasionally want to play really loud and EQ the bass up then an amplifier of > 0.8W (32 ohm) will be more than enough.
For that (when driven from your dongle you need an amplifier with 5x gain (14dB gain).

thank you that was very informal! the brands that are accessible to me are fiio, fosi and ifi. the price might be higher here than i initially thought but its worth it

 

[Mike_Trueman]

More help in this forum.

Headphones and Headphone Amplifier Reviews

Discussion, reviews, measurements and tests of headphones and headphone amplifiers.

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[DVDdoug]

i mean its really weird yeah it has kind of low impedance

It's true that lower impedance headphones usually go louder but that's not the whole story. And it's a planar headphone which tends to be less efficient/sensitive than a regular dynamic headphone...

Power (wattage) can be calculated as Power = Voltage squared/Impedance. So power in inversely proportional to impedance (when voltage remains unchanged) and you get usually more electrical power into a lower impedance. With equal efficiency (converting electrical power to acoustic power) a lower impedance headphone (or speaker) will be louder, as long as the amplifier can "hold up" the voltage and put the increased current and power.

 

[staticV3]

any recommendations for around 100$? can go up to 150.

Topping L30 II Review (Headphone Amp)

This is a review, detailed measurements and listening test of Topping L30 II. It was sent to me by the company and costs US $149. It comes in a number of colors. Usability could not be better with positive clicking switches for power/pre and gains. Three gains are provided with the low gain...

www.audiosciencereview.com

In High gain, it'll 3x the perceived volume.

Good alternatives are Atom Amp 2 and Magni Unity.

 

[cmtali]

Topping L30 II Review (Headphone Amp)

This is a review, detailed measurements and listening test of Topping L30 II. It was sent to me by the company and costs US $149. It comes in a number of colors. Usability could not be better with positive clicking switches for power/pre and gains. Three gains are provided with the low gain...

www.audiosciencereview.com

In High gain, it'll 3x the perceived volume.

Good alternatives are Atom Amp 2 and Magni Unity.

thank you for these recommendations, i might opt into the schiit since it also has a built in dac option!

 

[cmtali]

It's true that lower impedance headphones usually go louder but that's not the whole story. And it's a planar headphone which tends to be less efficient/sensitive than a regular dynamic headphone...

Power (wattage) can be calculated as Power = Voltage squared/Impedance. So power in inversely proportional to impedance (when voltage remains unchanged) and you get usually more electrical power into a lower impedance. With equal efficiency (converting electrical power to acoustic power) a lower impedance headphone (or speaker) will be louder, as long as the amplifier can "hold up" the voltage and put the increased current and power.

that explains alot thank you so much!!. really learned something new today

 

[Roland68]

thank you for these recommendations, i might opt into the schiit since it also has a built in dac option!

As a good, affordable solution, I recommend the JCALLY JM20 MAX headphone dongle. You can find the really good review here.

I would avoid the Schiit DAC option. It usually doesn't reach the performance levels of a dedicated DAC like the SU-1, which costs almost the same.