You'll often have to look out for the impedance of the headphones. The impedance is the resistance to the current that flows as an audio signal. The majority of open-backed and closed-back headphones have an impedance in the range of 15 to 32 ohms. These headphones will be able to play your music to the proper volume levels, without needing an external amplifier.

Headphone amps are able to drive headphones up to 100 ohms +.

• Check the impedance of your headphone and whether they are a good match for your headphone amp.

• Is the jack connected to your headphones compatible with the amp?

• Also check the compatibility of your Amp with your DAC and also with your headphones.

The DAC can be used to access music from your source - it'll then convert it without loss of quality and make it sound like it should.

Mobiles & laptops have built-in DACs, however, they are not good enough to produce the original quality of your music. An external DAC converts at the best rate possible. The amp then multiplies that signal to the volume level required.

Chord Mojo 2 is our favourite portable DAC/Amp combination.

And the Chord Anni is an outstanding portable integrated amplifier.