Matthh

I'm quite astounded about the greater support for the Amps. I would expect the opposite and it would seem more reasonable. Maybe they're both "important", but definitely I would expect the difference of "cheap" vs expensive to be much more substantial in DACs or the source. I imagine a cheaper amp that does a solid job still presents the original sound better than a poor sound signature with great amplification. I'm wondering if it's even an effect of the prevalent "loud" music listening habits more than anything else. By the way, I wouldn't put a headphone or speakers behind "source" per se, in a way it's synonymous, whereas the amp seems by definition a go-between. In a way you may find it "lacking", but what makes a "good sound" seems to be more defined by the quality of the DAC. Fo infomration, I'm looking for an external headphone DAC/Amp for a laptop. The laptop has awful sound and I can't imagine just going with an amp, unless it creates a completely different sound distribution, space etc all by itself and I just happen to doubt it because it's called an "amp" and not "dac"...