Beyerdynamic headphones are quite popular and are considered audiophile audio equipment.
However, most of their headphones require amps to drive them because of their high impedance.
In this article, we list the best headphone amps for Beyerdynamic DT 770, DT 880, and DT 990 Pro 250 Ohms.
Highly recommended amps to drive 250-ohm headphones.
A solid and powerful tube amp for DT 990 Pro.
Best Amp To drive 250 Ohm Headphones
Plenty of power to drive the DT 770 Pro headphones
A solid and powerful tube amp for DT 990 Pro.
Best Amp To drive 250 Ohm Headphones
Plenty of power to drive the DT 770 Pro headphones
Last update on 2024-04-25 at 16:50 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
Do You Need an Amp For Beyerdynamic DT 770 PRO 250 Ohm?
For the best audio experience, you need an amp for the Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro 250 Ohms.
It’s a high impedance headphone that requires sufficient power to drive or power it.
You can use it without a headphone amp but it’s not going to be loud or sound as good as when paired with a great headphone amp.
What Amp Do You Need For Beyerdynamic DT 990 PRO?
The Loxjie P20 and SMSL M500 are great headphone amp options that you can pair with the Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro.
Can You Use Beyerdynamic DT 990 PRO Without an Amp?
For the best audio experience, you need an amp for the Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro 250 Ohms.
It’s a high impedance headphone that requires sufficient power to drive or power it.
You can use it without a headphone amp but it’s not going to be loud or sound as good as when paired with a great headphone amp.
Does DT 880 Need an Amp?
To get the most out of these headphones. You need an amp for them.
The DT 880 are high impedance headphones that require sufficient power to drive for them to sound great and loud.
How Do I Choose a Headphone Amp?
So you have gotten yourself a high impedance audiophile headphone. Now the next thing is to know how to successfully drive it to provide the best listening experience.
And how do you do that? You do it with a headphone amp. Here’s how to choose a headphone amp for your high impedance headphone.
Portable or Desktop
This is the biggest thing you have to consider when getting a headphone amp – portability or stationery.
Portable amps are smaller so you can put them in your pocket or bag. Portable amps run on battery power. These are great options if you like to move around a lot with high impedance headphones.
Desktop or stationary amps as the name suggests are for one place only and plugged directly into a power source. Desktop amps are preferred when you have a complete audio setup or studio.
No rule says you can’t get both. In fact, having a portable and desktop amp is highly recommended.
DAC Included or Excluded
DAC short for digital to analog converter is responsible for converting digital sound (which is stored as 0s and 1s) into analog before outputted.
You could buy a DAC separately from a headphone amp or can get a headphone amp with an in-built DAC.
Most electronic devices that play audio have built-in DAC so it might not be necessary to get a headphone amp + DAC.
However, just to be on the safer side getting a headphone amp + DAC will be a better option than a headphone amp without a DAC.
Bluetooth or wired
A Bluetooth headphone amp takes convenience to another level. You connect your headphones to your Bluetooth headphone amp and then connect the amp to the phone by Bluetooth.
One less cable if you find your wires getting tangled a lot. Portable amps mostly have this feature of Bluetooth or wired connectivity.
Budget
Most headphone amps are in the USD50 – 120 range. Headphone amps with more features and capabilities easily surpass the USD500+.
How much you are willing to spend or your budget controls what type of headphone amp you want. The higher your budget the better amp you can get.
Low budgets require you to make some compromises. The good news is that most headphone amps in the USD50 – 120 range are good quality.
Best Headphone Amps For Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro
➕ Pros
- Affordable
- Compact size and made from high-quality materials
- Plenty of connectivity options
- Easy to set-up
- Great sound
➖ Cons
- Better AMP/DAC combos out there although they are more expensive
- Not the strongest 3.5mm jack
The Fosi Audio Q4 is a solid budget amp/DAC. But with most budget equipment there are a few compromises to bring it to that price.
First is the 3.5mm output, one of the most important and used components of audio equipment.
Improper handling can easily destroy the jack and the Fosi Audio Q4’s jack is not particularly strong.
So, you have to take extra care when using it. The last one is that there are better amp/DAC combos out but at a more expensive price point.
As mentioned earlier, this is a budget device and so there will be compromises. Aside from these two, the Fosi Audio Q4 gets a lot of things right.
The construction is solid being made from high-quality materials. The amp will last a long time. Next is the numerous connectivity options allowing you to connect to multiple devices.
It’s also easy to set up – truly and plug and play device. Finally, for a budget amp/DAC the audio quality is great. Awesome for general uses and if you prefer a lot of bass and treble in your music.
To sum it all up, the Fosi Audio Q4 is the best amp/DAC for Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro.
Plenty of power to drive the headphones with great sound quality.
➕ Pros
- Full workday battery life
- Very small and portable
- Superb EQ
- Powerful amp for a portable device
- Great sound quality
➖ Cons
- Plastic body
- Small buttons
- Micro USB
- Your Bluetooth source has to support LDAC or AptXHD for the best sound quality
- Headphones with microphone cables won’t work
Portable amps solve the problem of listening to music with high impedance headphones. However, the ones on the market are not done right.
But, the EarStudio ES100 MK-2 is an exception – a portable amp done right with a few downsides. This portable amp can drive high impedance headphones.
It will easily drive the Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro and comes with a ton of functionality that can be done on the app.
The app doesn’t just control the volume but gives you full functionality over every aspect of the device. For a portable amp, battery life is important.
Poor battery life means less time to listen to your favorite music. To our surprise, the EarStudio ES100 can last on average 14 hours.
A pretty decent amount of time compared to the competitors. The biggest strength of the amp though is the sound quality.
Portable amps are notoriously known for poor sound quality. But this sounds great. With the latest Bluetooth connection, the sound quality sounds almost as good as wired connections.
Overall, the EarStudio ES100 has a lot going on making it the best portable headphone amp for Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro.
It does have a few downsides like its plastic body, small buttons that are hard to press, and a micro-USB port in this day and age.
However, this is a piece of solid audio equipment.
Best Headphone Amps For Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pro & Premium 250 Ohms
➕ Pros
- Nice looking amp/DAC combo and fantastic build quality
- Lots of power
- Lots of connectivity options
- Plug and play
- Balanced and amazing sound quality
➖ Cons
- None
For under USD150, the FiiO K5 Pro amp/DAC combo comes close to perfection. In its price range, nothing comes to it.
A powerful amp/DAC that will easily drive the Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pro and other high impedance headphones including magnetic planar headphones.
And the sound quality is amazing presenting a neutral sound profile with no distortion and a quiet sound floor.
Moreover, the FiiO K5 Pro is beautifully designed and has a fantastic build quality. You also get plenty of connectivity options to connect to multiple devices.
And setting it up is very easy – plug and play to be precise. Look, just buy this DAC/amp. You won’t be disappointed.
Easily one of the best amp/DAC for Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pro and other high impedance headphones.
Where To Buy
➕ Pros
- Beautiful design
- Lots of power
- Built like a tank
- Produces clean and accurate sound with detailed soundstage
➖ Cons
- Very hard to drive planars
- A balanced DAC is recommended for this
- Pricey
Made and designed by one of the most renowned audio engineers – Rupert Neve. The same person who had the Beatles, Aerosmith, and Nirvana as his customers, has brought his expertise to you.
This headphone amp is built for a thing only – provide excellent sound and detailed soundstage.
This audio equipment has been optimized to drive and power your headphones to provide sound like no other. Once this amp is plugged in.
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You will listen to your music all over again. Because this will reveal sounds that you have never heard or known didn’t exist.
In short, Rupert Neve Designs headphone amp is a precision headphone amplifier for producing excellent sound quality.
Just make sure to get a balanced DAC for it. This is easily the best headphone amp for Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pro.
This also makes it perfect for high impedance headphones.
Best Headphone Amps For Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro
Where To Buy
➕ Pros
- Great price-to-value
- Solid construction & components
- Balanced & Unbalanced outputs
- Tubes can be changed
➖ Cons
- Stock tubes suck
- Focus is more on the balanced output
The Loxjie P20 is a hybrid headphone tube amp that has a great price-to-value ratio. This headphone amp can deliver balanced & unbalanced outputs.
However, the headphone amp leans more on the balanced output and delivers that better. It powers the balanced mode better and more efficiently than the unbalanced mode. 4
This headphone amp will easily power high impedance headphones. Moreover, the Loxjie P20 has a solid construction.
Very good build quality with compact size. These also come with stock tubes that are decent but can be changed for better ones.
Doing so, will greatly improve the audio quality and performance of your Loxjie P20. Furthermore, it’s available for under USD100 which makes it a great buy.
Because at that price point, it’s difficult to find a solid headphone amp that gets the job done.
Overall, the Loxjie P20 is a headphone amp that sounds great, affordable, and can drive high impedance headphones.
We highly recommend this as the best headphone amp for Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro 250 Ohms.
Where To Buy
➕ Pros
- Great build quality
- Plenty of power and can drive dynamic and planar magnetic headphones
- Great value at its price point
- Amazing sound quality with detailed soundstage
➖ Cons
- No gains control
- Remote is required to properly program the device
The SMSL M500 is a DAC/amp combo done right. This device supports MQA audio short for Master Quality Authenticated.
MQA audio is a method of digitally storing and capturing master recordings as files that can be downloaded and stream.
The majority of MQA audio or music can be found on Tidal. The SMSL M500 has plenty of power to drive high impedance headphones.
This will easily drive the Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro. It will also provide more than enough power for dynamic and planar magnetic headphones known to be notoriously difficult to drive.
The sound quality of the SMSL M500 is fantastic with a detailed soundstage. And it has an in-built DAC making it the perfect audio equipment if you like to stream your audio online.
When it comes to build quality, the SMSL M500 is built like a tank. All in all, the SMSL M500 is like a dream come true in terms of it being a DAC/amp combo audio equipment.
But, it does have its downsides. First is the lack of gains control.
The second one is the remote is required to properly program the device. Losing the remote means you can’t program it the way you want to.
Still, with these downsides, the SMSL M500 remains the best amp/DAC for Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro 250 Ohms.
Final Thoughts
You can use high impedance Beyerdynamic headphones without a headphone amp. But, that will set you up for a poor listening experience.
Because most audio sources do not have the power output to drive them.
Headphone amps provide that power output for your headphones to sound great making them necessary equipment for your audio set-up.
The good news is that if you have Beyerdynamic headphones (80 Ohms +). These amps will sufficiently power them.
That’s it for the best headphone amps for Beyerdynamic DT 770, DT 880, and DT 990 Pro 250 Ohms.
