Understanding easy to drive headphones vs 600OHM monsters and the impact of/requirement for, a headphone AMP

[wrigglycheese]

So like, if I had a pair of 24 OHM Headphones (WTH?) and a Pair of 600OHM say, DT 990 - would the easy to drive low impedance headphones benefit in ANY WAY.... From for example, a basic headphone amp like the JDS Atom.

Obvoously with Cans like the T50rp and DT990 600 OHM you kinda 'need' a headphone AMP. Understood.

I am wondering if there is any benefit to a half decent amp like the JDS Atom to heaphones which are actually EASY to drive or 'efficient'

ALL headphones in question.

DT990 600 OHM
T50rp
Denon AHD5200EM (24 OHM????)

HERE TO LEARN and to not 'waste' money lol

This would be vs just jamming the Headphones right into a PC with cheap motherboard audio or straight into an Xbox One Controller.....

 

[kn0ppers]

Compared to what? How are you currently driving the low impedance headphones that would then be driven from a dedicated headphone amp?

Also, why do you make your post unnecessarily hard to read? Maybe a little more structure would help. Also, no need to post in ALL CAPS, when you can have parts of your post in bold or underlined text.

Edit: I see you edited your post while I was writing mine. I think we have seen few (if any) motherboards do well in testing and I have no clue about Xbox. I'd probably invest into one of the better tested dongles for efficient low impedance phones. I don't know about their compatibility to XBOX though.

 

[MZKM]

The impedance and sensitivity matter.

You can look over the headphone amps that Amir has reviewed and see how they change in wattage from low to high impedance:

Just like with speakers, the voltage^2 over impedance tell you wattage of an ideal amp. So, if an amp is 100mW into 33ohm, it should be 10mW into 330ohm. Again, this is the ideal.

The issue though is most headphones don’t have a linear impedance, many are kind of all over the place. Another issue is how to rate sensitivity, as headphones don’t measure like speakers either; Sennheiser uses 1Vrms @1kHz.

So, just being 600ohm doesn’t make it a monster, if the sensitivity is super high then even the Apple dongle could power it.

 

[wasnotwasnotwas]

You need to look at sensitivity as well as impedance. Some of the worst headphones to drive are low impedance (relatively- say 50ohm or less) but low sensitvity too (100dB/mw or less say)- The Denon's are easy to drive- but the "compared to what" question comes up regardless. Some motherboards/ phones etc have great , clean DAC and amplification- some dont. Some are low output impedance, others arent.

What any HP needs from any amplification is low enough output impedance not to affect its frequency response (so work on 1/10th or less of the impedance of the HP), clean power sufficient to drive to the required volume (so low distortion , noise etc) and enough power. The JDS Atom and other super new(ish) giant killer amps excel because they are very clean, low output impedance (1 ohm or less usually) and high power.

The issue you would maybe have with the Denon and a JDS Atom or similar is maybe too much power - so you spend all your time low on the volue knob- no scope to fine tune. This can be overcome by attenuating the signal before the amp, so with variable volume on the DAC/ phone/PC you use as source

 

[wrigglycheese]

Thanks for the replies guys...

Some motherboards/ phones etc have great , clean DAC and amplification- some dont.

Mine does not. Cheap Motherboard. Cheap Laptop too....

Hoping I will benefit from the external DAC+AMP combo.

This can be overcome by attenuating the signal before the amp, so with variable volume on the DAC/ phone/PC you use as source

I can do this, with EQ APO on the PC and easily enough on the Xbox Series X.

I prefer to avoid software attenuation where possible though.... Obviously. However I'd rather have an AMP with plenty of headroom vs having to turn up to 3 o'clock...

 

[Vini darko]

Topping l30 is a easy recommendation. If you you want more or less of somthing just eq to taste from the computer.

 

[wrigglycheese]

Topping l30 is a easy recommendation. If you you want more or less of somthing just eq to taste from the computer.

Why the L30 over the Atom ?

Cheers

 

[wasnotwasnotwas]

Why the L30 over the Atom ?

Cheers

One reason is its low gain setting, might be perfect for low impedance cans

 

[Vini darko]

Why the L30 over the Atom ?

Cheers

It has a lower low gain for very sensitive headphones.

 

[wrigglycheese]

Thanks for the replies - Isn't the Atom just 'better' quality ? Overall ?

 

[wasnotwasnotwas]

Thanks for the replies - Isn't the Atom just 'better' quality ? Overall ?

No. What gives you that idea?

 

[JohnYang1997]

600Ohm headphones ARE easy to drive.

 

[wrigglycheese]

No. What gives you that idea?

Bloody heck..... REVIEWS ???

So I need to hurry cancel my Atom order and save nearly 50% and buy the Topping E30 ??

DARN IT!???

(£140 for Atom. £100 for L30)

EDIT - I've done it...... I cancelled my order for the JDS Atom and ordered the L30.

................................................... ;0;

 

[JohnYang1997]

Bloody heck..... REVIEWS ???

So I need to hurry cancel my Atom order and save nearly 50% and buy the Topping E30 ??

DARN IT!???

(£140 for Atom. £100 for L30)

It's usually the other way around Atom being cheaper and saves a few bucks. If L30 is cheaper in your area then...yeah.

 

[wrigglycheese]

600Ohm headphones ARE easy to drive.

They really aren't ..

I plug those DT990 600OHM into my Xbox Controller or straight into my PC, and I am struggling to get half decent volume, and I am for sure not deaf.... It's everything maxed out to get JUST, JUST loud enough, depending on the source material.

Don;t feel like there's much headroom there!!

 

[wrigglycheese]

It's usually the other way around Atom being cheaper and saves a few bucks. If L30 is cheaper in your area then...yeah.

Yeah it's WAY cheaper here in he UK ?

IDEAL!????

 

[wrigglycheese]

Topping l30 is a easy recommendation. If you you want more or less of somthing just eq to taste from the computer.

I went for it - see above.

 

[JohnYang1997]

They really aren't ..

I plug those DT990 600OHM into my Xbox Controller or straight into my PC, and I am struggling to get half decent volume, and I am for sure not deaf.... It's everything maxed out to get JUST, JUST loud enough, depending on the source material.

Don;t feel like there's much headroom there!!

Being easy to drive and loud enough are two different things. You can get any ok amp to make them sound as good as they can but you can't say that for low impedance low sensitivity cans. It's not that they are difficult to drive but main stream devices aren't designed for them. Just choose anything with anything better than 2V swing and it will give you great sound.
It's a difficult concept to accept but hey you are here to learn, right?

 

[wrigglycheese]

It's a difficult concept to accept but hey you are here to learn, right?

I ABSOLUTELY AM I am new to this headphone stuff so please tell me am I buying the wrong amp ??

 

[JohnYang1997]

I ABSOLUTELY AM I am new to this headphone stuff so please tell me am I buying the wrong amp ??

You'll be enjoying.