So i got to thinking, and figured i would drop this post here before i headed off to work and check on it later to see what folks think. One of the purposes of this forum is to help folks make better buying decisions and as i gain hands and ears on experience a topic that has caught my curiosity is amplifier headroom for headphone amps. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headroom_(audio_signal_processing)
I hear the words, don’t worry you won’t need the extra power xxx brnd offers beyond yyy brand often and my personal opinion is that i am beginning to disagree based on my own hands and ears on listening experience and equipment experimentations. I can fully understand why some folks simply gloss over having extra headroom power in a headphone amplifier but i am finding that there are plenty of headphones that “scale” for the better of my enjoyment w/some added power. Has anyone else experienced this? Just curious, i’m sure there will be debate both ways, i can only speak to my own limited but real experiences with my own equipmemt.
So more headroom is always better, but that being said, I would rather have a better quality amp over tons of headroom. Also for people on a budget, sometimes it makes more sense to go for the better quality amp even if it doesn’t have as much power. You just gotta find a balance and it depends on your headphones and your budget
Pretty much the same way for speakers and speaker amps too
My ifi Micro seems to have enough ‘headroom’ to power all my headphones and iem’s on the eco setting (normal for my P1’s with a lot to spare) god knows what everyday headphones need the turbo setting?
The turbo is good for headphones like the t50’s or something like a he560 or other headphones that benefit from more power. You should try running turbo with the p1’s for a couple of days lol
Surprised at how much you can juice the P1’s…turbo setting which starts at 20 to o’clock “wtf is that all about”…11 o’clock is about max on Joni Mitchell’s Dog eat dog where as the fh7’s never see turbo lol
I think the Micro’s an awesome piece of kit period…funnily enough I prefer P1’s not pushed too hard, yeah they need but you can over do it imo …(this the only iem I use the bass boost with) with bass boost on, normal setting at 12-2 o’clock setting is the sweet spot for most my listening
That would be interesting for sure but it would depend on two things for me, the and me having a good enough high end iem that could do it justice… then i’m in
“wtf is that all about”…11 o’clock is about max on Joni Mitchell’s Dog eat dog where as the fh7’s never see turbo lol
but you can over do it imo …(this the only iem I use the bass boost with) with bass boost on, normal setting at 12-2 o’clock setting is the sweet spot for most my listening 
and me having a good enough high end iem that could do it justice… then i’m in