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Do AMPs actually vary in sound signature or is that snake oil? (alien.top)

submitted 1 year ago by General-Wrap-7858@alien.top to c/headphones@hi-fi.community

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I've seen people state both that they so not influence the tuning as long as they deliver the same power and others stating that they can make headphones "sound warmer" or "brighter". I don't see how that would happen though and a lot of audiophiles just hear things that I feel aren't there, like some noise difference between the Apple DAC Dongle and a 500 EUR DAC using an off the rack chip.

Take this comment from ASR:

Amps are more likely to make an audible difference than most DACs, but that certainly doesn't mean there are audible differences between most amps

I'm talking purely about AMPs here, not a DAC combination.

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[–] ThatGuyFromSweden@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

It depends on what amps you're talking about. In the ASR world, tube amps, R2R DACs, and Class-A amps is all broken garbage only enjoyed by suckers. More or less. So all "real" amps sound the same, because the rest doesn't count.

Most modern hifi gear that targets transparent reproduction do achieve it. These are your Schiit Magnis, JDS Atom amps, and anything from Topping. Their distortion figures are so far below the limits of human hearing that SINAD is mostly a marketing gimmick. I'm not going to say it's impossible to hear some differences between ostensibly transparent amps with enough ear training, but the reports are unreliable and the results, true or not, are irrelevant for the vast majority of users.

But you can stil find modern amps that have clear deficiencies. Many of the cheap DACs and amps from brands like Fosi do suffer from stuff like treble and bass roll-off. High output impedance can also be a problem when paired with low impedance dynamic driver head or earphones. I know one of the Focusrite interface models has significantly bad distortion when driving low impedance loads. And some well regarded amps might still have too much noise for very sensitive IEMs, or not enough power for very demanding headphones.

In short, if you're on a tight budget, take care in picking an amp that will fit the headphones you want to use. If you want something that's pretty much universal, then I recommend the JDS Atom amp.