Are expensive Headphone amplifiers snake oil? I ask this because i recently heard an expensive HPA and then listened to my vintage Trio integrated amp via it’s onboard headphone outlet and found myself shaking my head.
It generally depends what you’re trying to drive. A pair of senny 650’s and you’ll probs not feel the full advantage of a headphone amp, but put a hard to drive pair of phones in the path and the extra current and drive of a proper HPA can pay dividends.
For example the headphone stage on my old chord dac was way way way better than the headphone output on my Luxman integrated, mostly because the former was designed to drive headphones properly.
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