What's a good headphone amp for an iMac?

Question

What's a good headphone amp for an iMac?

I need a headphone amplifier to drive my akg q701's better than the audio out on my 2011 21.5 inch iMac does. I have been looking at a couple of headphone amp's that are at a reasonable price. I've been looking at the fiioi e9, the nuforce icon 2, and the apogee one (even though it's more of a dac than an amp). I really like the apogee because of it's design and because it's made specifically for the mac, even though it's not made to be a headphone amp, I was reading about it and many people said that it's pretty decent to use as an amp. I like the e9 because I was going to get the e17 later (if i get the e9 of course) to use as a portable amp, and I like the icon 2 (even though it's over my budget) because of the design and because of the performance. Even though it's crazy expensive, I also really like the apogee duet 2 but I would rather not spend $500 for a headphone amp when I'm not even an audiophile. Which one is the best for a mac and for the akg q701's (also I will use it to get better quality out of my bose companion 20's)?

iMac (21.5-inch Mid 2011), Mac OS X (10.7.2), Intel Core i7

Posted on Jan 22, 2012 4:50 PM

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Answer 1

Király

Level 6

10,025 points

Jan 22, 2012 7:07 PM in response to walani4414@aol.com

The best headphone amp for a Mac will be the best one for any computer. The Mac has digital (optical) and line level analog audio outputs, just like any modern audio device.

I don't really have a specific answer to your question, but may I suggest you ask your question on a high end audio forum instead of here on the Apple forums. You should find more knowledgeable people and get better responses there. Don't mention the Mac when you post, since it isn't really relevant.

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Answer 2

hundun64

Level 1

4 points

Feb 8, 2012 2:17 PM in response to walani4414@aol.com

You say you are not an audiophile but you own a pair of AKG Q701s--pretty respectable kit if you are listening to 256kbps iTunes and, frankly, a waste of cash. You will not get your money's worth out of such a nice set of cans without a headphone DAC / amp. so I think you raise a good question.

I have a DAC/headphone amp (Nuforce Icon HDP) hooked up to a Mac Mini used as a music server then out to my ancient Hitachi main amp via USB2. I ripped CDs into lossless format (limited by CD format of 44.1 khz / 16bit) and iTunes is aided by a third party piece of software called Bitperfect (in the app store $4.99). That may be an option for you though it sounds like $500 is too much for your purposes. If not...

I play the same lossless library from my iPad and iMac using a tiny but excellent portable DAC/amp called the Fiio E10 (only US$80). Check out this review. Again you use your USB to output from the Mac. I would avoid the headphone jack unless you are using the optical option built-in. If you are not an audiophile but want to improve your sound considerably for little cash then this, for me anyway, has been a good solution. Again, lossless is the way to go. I do not buy iTunes anymore--life is too short to listen to compressed tunes, esp. Jazz, solo piano or string quartets. One extra tip--avoid the digital volume control in iTunes. Go into MIDI settings and turn the volume up to 100% then use the DAC/ Amp to control the volume. Here is a helpful article from Benchmark.

Cheers.

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Answer 3

Nov 13, 2012 1:27 PM in response to walani4414@aol.com

I just picked up an Icon-2 and to get to the point, it's awesome! I'm running at work, though, on a PC. But it's simply phenomenal. 'True audiophile level equipment. I bought the Icon-2 because it has a main amp capable of driving passive speakers. This gives me many more options than just having pre amp outs and needing active speakers. The unit also has pre amp out in RCA coax form so you can drive a separate amp if you like. When I first hooked it up, I could only run my Grado SR80's on it (which sounded really fantastic) because I needed to do some rewiring in order to use my regular headphones. That evening I did the necessary rewiring of my main headphone system and the next day I hooked them up to the speaker level outputs of the Icon-2. WOW! What a differenece. I would highly recommend any of the Nuforce products. And they've gotten really good reviews as well, from the audiophile community.

Oh, and for those who are wondering, my main headphones are a nearly 40 year old set of of Stax electrostatic earspeakers. SR-5 earspeakers and an SRD-6 adapter. The sound is really incredible.

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Answer 4

Mar 4, 2014 1:56 PM in response to hundun64

Hello

I only use my Mac Mini as my only audio source with FLAC/AIFF files in 16/24 bit 44/96 sampling so I know I need a DAC. My questions are this:

Here is a question I don't understand. I am new in audio and the cables/connections drive me crazy. If I purchase an amp with RCA inputs, how would I connect the amp to my Mac Mini if I did NOT use a DAC which has USB in/RCA out?

So I understand this configurfeagion: Mac Mini - Amp with DAC:

Mac MINI ====> USB out (USB cable)

DAC ====> USB in (USB cable)

DAC =====> RCA out (RCA cable)

AMP ======== RCA in. (RCA cable)

But if you use a Mac Mini with NO DAC ????? How do you cable this?

I know this is an elementary/stupid question but it really is perplexing to me.

Thanks

Joe

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