gofar99 Messages: 1949 Registered: May 2010 Location: Southern Arizona
Illuminati (5th Degree)
Hi, Maybe. I would select the phones and try them first without an external amp. There is a fair probability they will work fine. The biggest difference between internal and external phone amps is generally the output power. Since most phones are fine with just a few milliwatts this is a good thing and an external amp is not needed. Now moving on to an external DAC and phone amp ...then there may be some benefits. Externals can have more processing power and better components so the sound can be better. To a large extent it depends on the source material. If all you have is MP3s then the external DAC will not do much. If your source is high resolution stuff then you could notice significant benefits. All my phones are various models of Sennheisers. I don't find it necessary to use an external amp or DAC with the stuff I listen to. YMMV.