Turning It Up To 11

Headphone amplifiers are the audiophile’s secret weapon, able to take an already impressive set of headphones to the next level

- Evigan Xiao

The pursuit of audio excellence can be something of a rabbit hole. Broach the subject with any sound engineer worth their salt, and you’ll likely find yourself sitting through a series of lectures on the ideals of sound quality. Tone may be subjective, but no audiophile will deny the function and appeal of a discrete headphone amplifier.

Impedance Matching

Walk into any audio electronics store and you may be overwhelmed to see just how much variety there is when it comes to headphones alone.

There are high-impedance headphones, which typically see more utility in studio and audiophile settings, owing to the nature of their drivers and circuit design. Then there are the low-impedance headphones that are conceived with portable battery-powered music players like smartphones in mind.