Audio Application Notes

Headphone Amplifier Whitepaper

Recording Engineers and Audiophiles often distrust audio measurements and specifications. It is not uncommon to hear claims that a product measures poorly but sounds good. Occasionally we also hear claims that a product measures well but sounds bad.

This whitepaper documents significant differences between three headphone amplifiers that have nearly identical published specifications.

An Introduction to "The 0-Ohm Headphone Amplifier" White Paper

The circuits used to drive headphones are often added to a product without careful consideration of the difficult loads presented by high-quality headphones. The most common circuit is an opamp driver followed by a 30-Ohm series resistor. The series resistor provides short-circuit and overload protection while isolating the opamp from the inductance and capacitance of the headphones. The series resistor protects the opamp while keeping it stable. In contrast, today's state-of-the-art headphone amplifiers eliminate the series resistor, and use a high current driver. This change reduces distortion and flattens the frequency response when a headphone is driven. These new high-end designs are often called "0-Ohm" headphone amplifiers, and are ...