About DAC & Amp Guide

Desktop DACs and Headphone Amps: Impedance, Sensitivity and Output Power

What this site covers

DAC & Amp Guide is a measurement-led reference for desktop audio. It explains what the published figures for a DAC or headphone amplifier mean, which of them predict audible behaviour, and how to match an amplifier to a specific pair of headphones.

• SINAD, THD+N and how to read a measurement sheet
• Output power against load impedance
• Headphone sensitivity and gain matching
• Output impedance, damping ratio and audible response shifts
• Diagnosing hiss, hum and ground loops in a desktop chain
• Building a desktop stack that is not over-specified

8 articles are published so far. New ones are announced on the RSS feed.

Start here

• Do you need a DAC and amp?
• Matching a DAC and headphone amp to your headphones
• Combo DAC/amp vs separates
• Headphone amp hiss and hum: causes and fixes

The site also maintains a free headphone DAC and amp power sizer, which converts impedance and sensitivity into the amplifier output power and RMS voltage a given pair of headphones requires.

How these articles are produced

Articles here are researched from primary sources: vendor and project documentation, published standards and specifications, research papers and preprints, and measurements published by whoever took them. Drafts are produced with AI assistance and then edited against those cited sources before anything is published.

No article on this site is based on first-hand testing in a private lab, and nothing here should be read as a measurement report of its own. Where a number appears, it comes from a source that is named, so you can check the original instead of taking this site's word for it.

Everything is published under a single editorial byline. That byline is a publishing identity for the site, not a claim about a named individual, and it does not carry professional credentials.

Corrections

Corrections are welcome. If something here is wrong, out of date, or attributed to the wrong source, email [email protected] with the page address and what it should say. Substantive corrections are made in the article itself rather than quietly dropped.

How this site is funded

This site currently runs no affiliate links, sponsored posts, display advertising or paid placements. If that changes, the disclosure page will say so.

Contact

Email: [email protected]
Site: dacampguide.com
Published by: DAC & Amp Guide Editorial

See also the privacy policy, the terms of use, and the editorial disclosure.