Note that in amplifiers, doubling the power may seem impressive ... but it was just barely listenable when driving the HiFiMan headphones from its unbalanced output. The DS1 is powered off ...

[ErikaFluff] needed an amp for her Grado open cans. Rather than build yet another boring black box, she built what may be the most awesome headphone ... is via an LM386 driving a hand wound ...

You can of course plug wired headphones into a laptop or phone, a portable hi-res player (better) or a stereo amplifier (better still) – these sources have built-in amplifiers for driving headphones.

When it comes to listening on the best headphones, many hi-fi fans swear by the power of tubes. Amplifiers that use vacuum tubes instead of – or alongside – solid-state electronics are ...