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Topic: Amp for laptop (Read 2653 times) previous topic - next topic
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Amp for laptop

Hi everyone,

I was happy with my purpose built PC and a Soundblaster card for my listening pleasure, but now my life is going to be spent most of the time on the road, so i want some tips on equipment i can buy to drive my Grados other than through the standard headphone jack on a laptop (which really sucks). I'm not very tech savvy so i dont exactly know what i need, but i'm guessing some sort of combination of a DAC with a preamp. Ive heard good things about Little Dot and Apogee, and their stuff seems to be small enough to carry around in a bag for traveling. Can someone please help me on what i need?

Things to have in mind before commenting:
Macbook Pro 15"
Grado RS325is
I use VLC to listen to my music, of which virtually all of it is CD quality FLAC, with some 24BIT and mp3 stuff here and there

Thanks
 

Amp for laptop

Reply #1 –
Quote
...through the standard headphone jack on a laptop (which really sucks).
What's wrong with the sound, specifically?  Noise? Distortion? Poor frequency response? 

From what I've read, most Macs have pretty good audio.  I wouldn't expect you to need an amp unless you need to amplify... unless you aren't getting enough volume.

I don't have a separate DAC or headphone amp,  I think you can get one with a built-in DAC, and if you can find one that connects via USB you won't need a separate power supply (or batteries).

If you search the forum there are a couple of threads about headphone amps, and I think there are some specific recommendations.