okay okay...hold on to the money train a second-)
extras like headphone amps are never a must have. The more you spend on more gadgets the more your return for your money diminshes. Headphone amps are for high quality audiophile or entry level audiophile headphones who's impediance or resistance are too high for non-amplified jacks. And a bunch of other stuff....
Read this for a basic overview of what headhpone amps do and what headhpones can benefit from them check out THIS link and the rest of the website after you read this page.
<A HREF="http://headphone.com/layout.php?topicID=20&subTopicID=79" target="_new">http://headphone.com/layout.php?topicID=20&subTopicID=79</A>
For info on headphones for gaming read this link, also very important for maximum gaming pleasure.
<A HREF="http://headphone.com/layout.php?topicID=2&subTopicID=125" target="_new">http://headphone.com/layout.php?topicID=2&subTopicID=125</A>
I personally use the Sennheiser HD580 headphones and a Total Airhead 9v amp. For listening to music, i use that on a Sony Discman since it gives much better sound than either a TBSC, GTXP, or Audigy can possibly output for music(but then i'm the rare guy that doesnt pirate mp3's). Setup works great on either...but most people can't afford the 440 or so bucks to listen to use that kind of gear. Then, many people also don't have the ears to hear the difference. The difference is not night and day on a pc. It IS night and day on high quality audio equipment. Unless your buying very nice high quality headphones dont even THINK about an amp. Read everything on the headphone.com site you find interesting, its all very good and accurate information. But, keep in mind, when they talk about a big difference, its barely noticable on anything remotely related to gaming. Your dealing with extremely fine audio equipment and a pc cannot compare to the sound SOURCES those guys use. For a gamer just looking for the best sound for gaming i would recommend something like the Beyer headphones listed at the top of that second link i gave you. They're 169.00USD and work okay with or without an amp.
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