I understand the point of an amp is to boost the power going to the equipment but everytime I look up what preamps do I just get confused on why they are nessecary and how they affect it differently than an amp. Is it just a separate signal booster in the chain? When would you need one? Why wouldn’t a stronger amp do the same thing or have it built in already?
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Speakers with more turns on their coils can produce sounds with lower noise and/or distortion. The problem is that more turns increases the impedance of the speaker which requires more power to drive at the same amplitude.
Your normal headphone outputs are designed to drive headphones with impedance of less than 50 ohms. Higher quality headphones will have a higher impedance–up to 600 ohms. Your headphone output just won’t have the power to drive that impedance–especially not to a high level. A pre-amp can boost the power, and have an output impedance closer to the headphone’s impedance (maximum power is delivered when the impedances match).
I have a headset with an 80 ohm impedance. While the headphone jack on my computer will drive it, it won’t get very loud even at max volume.
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