Headphone amplifiers come in many different configurations and sizes. All ultimately serve the goal of turning your ‘phones into an exceptional music-delivery medium. If you use headphones, a headphone amp will change the way you listen. Devoted to just one concern—reproducing music with premium warmth, detail, soulfulness, detail, and dynamics and delivering it through your headphones—single-purpose headphone amplifiers claim a sonic purity absent from multifaceted components. With every part working in concert toward same goal, dedicated headphone amps drive ‘phones with natural ease and turn recordings into 3D experiences that come alive between your ears.

Headphone amplifiers equipped with built-in DACs will help you find sonic sanctuary—and stay there. Providing an unflappable combination of convenience, practicality, and function, they are essential to excellent computer audio and high-resolution digital performance. These devices also drive ‘phones to their full ability, meaning you feel more detail, feel more spaciousness, sense more realism, and hear more dynamics. Once you experience the radical changes made by going from stock to custom, you may never want to take off your headphones again.

Not long ago, the thought of carrying around a high-resolution music library around in our pocket seemed the stuff of science-fiction novels and futuristic movies. But such a vision is no longer fantasy. Portable headphone amplifiers and DACs mean music lovers no longer need to live without great sound and soul-nourishing songs when they leave home. Compact, versatile, and packed with cutting-edge technology, these devices make our lives better by allowing us to retreat and drown out the noise of the outside world wherever we go.