Q. Do I really need a quality Headphone Amplifier?
A: Yes a good Headphone Amplifier would significantly improve your audio listening experience. A Headphone Amplifier takes the load off from your audio player, giving it the chance to reproduce sounds that would otherwise be left out. If you have a good Headphone Amplifier with a build in EQ that is well designed, the Headphone Amplifier would then be able to brighten and refresh the sounds that have been effected by encoding, audio player, parasitic capacitance and inductance and nonlinear headphones.
Q. Can a Headphone Amplifier improve sound quality when the source is already degraded?
A: In 2 ways it does, firstly when your mp3 player or audio device is driving a headphone or a earpiece with either low impedance or with high power requirement, the player begins to clip or it will be unable to reach the desired slew rate. Sound may well be heard but it is pushing the player device to its limits. Secondly with a well designed EQ integrated into the Headphone Amplifier, one would be able to bring up the frequencies that are attenuated due to encoding, audio player, parasitic capacitance, parasitic inductance, losses in cable and nonlinear Headphone or Earphones.