Headphone amplifier?

Some of the CDs that I own are from the early days of CDs, the days when recording engineers were very careful not to approach the 0dB level. This was a good thing, given the level of experience at the time, but it also means that I have a number of MP3s that are fairly quiet.

My current work machine unfortunately has an inadequate amp on the sound card, so even with all the volume control sliders on 11, I can't get enough volume.

I have a set of Altec Lansing speakers on my desk that can achieve impressive levels of sonic masking, so using the headphone jack on those isn't really a solution.

Does anybody know of a nice headphone amplifier with good sonic performance, preferably with volume control?

Or should I just stuff a decent sound card in the machine, and get better volume and performance? Or use a USB sound card?

Comments?

Comments

• Anonymous
  April 28, 2005
  These are, however, pricey audiophile models. I own one and they're really really good:
  http://headphone.com/layout.php?topicID=3&subTopicID=27
• Anonymous
  April 28, 2005
  check these guys out:
  
  http://www.headphone.com/layout.php?topicID=3&subTopicID=27
  
  I have a total airhead that is great...
• Anonymous
  April 28, 2005
  This http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=204&product=9103
  is a pretty clean sounding USB sound device. And not bad pricing.
• Anonymous
  April 28, 2005
  Are you using a software mp3 player like winamp, or playing a hardware mp3 player through your computer sound system?
• Anonymous
  April 28, 2005
  ArsTechnica reviewed the AirHead and BitHead amps. You can check out their review at http://arstechnica.com/reviews/other/HiFiHeadphones.ars/5
• Anonymous
  April 28, 2005
  The comment has been removed
• Anonymous
  April 28, 2005
  Nothing beats HeadRoom.
• Anonymous
  April 29, 2005
  I've had very good results using a software solution to this problem
  in the form of MP3Gain: http://mp3gain.sourceforge.net
  Quoting the web page:
  MP3Gain does not just do peak normalization, as many normalizers
  do. Instead, it does some statistical analysis to determine how loud
  the file actually sounds to the human ear. Also, the changes MP3Gain
  makes are completely lossless. There is no quality lost in the change
  because the program adjusts the mp3 file directly, without decoding
  and re-encoding.
• Anonymous
  April 29, 2005
  I've used the Boostaroo, I think its exactly what you're looking for:
  
  http://www.boostaroo.com/
• Anonymous
  April 29, 2005
  I got the OPTOPlay from AudioTrak. http://www.audiotrak.net/optoplay.htm. It works great. It plugs in USD, and looks like a new sound card. It has either headphone or optical out, and includes an amp. Sounds great, simple, and under $50.
• Anonymous
  April 29, 2005
  http://www.mindspring.com/~mrichter/dynamics/dynamics.htm
  
  has good info on the volume increase in recorded music.
• Anonymous
  April 29, 2005
  The comment has been removed
• Anonymous
  May 20, 2005
  I talked about improving my computer sound volume a while ago.
  After thinking about it a bit, I decided...
• Anonymous
  May 29, 2009
  PingBack from http://paidsurveyshub.info/story.php?title=eric-gunnerson-s-c-compendium-headphone-amplifier