Headphones need an AMP?

[wvsoulja]

I plan on investing in a sweet ass pair of headphones.. I have a soundblast audigy 2, will I need an amp or something for the headphones, or can they plug into the soundcard?

 

[Innovations]

I plan on investing in a sweet ass pair of headphones.. I have a soundblast audigy 2, will I need an amp or something for the headphones, or can they plug into the soundcard?

You generally only need an headphones amp when you are going to be powering multiple headphones and the signal would be diluted too much as a result.

 

[OnTheBlackRock]

you only need an amp if you want to hook up numerous headphones so a whole band could hear themselves record...

 

[Douglas256]

I'd say it depends on what you mean by a ``sweet ass pair'' of headphones. Some headphones sound a lot better with a good amp, others aren't helped nearly as much. (For instance, a pair of Senn. HD 600s or Etymotic ER-4Ss scream for a good amp while virtually anything from the Grado lineup could care less.)

What are your objectives when it comes to your headphones? Is this for listening to music in general? Or, is this for recording/mastering/etc.?

 

[Jeyan]

In soundblaster you can plug a headphone without any amp, if you use many headphones, then you need an amp. By the way, some headphone like the AKG K240 need more than an amp to get loud sound, since they are 600 ohms.
So for a regular headphone in audigy, you dont need any amp.