I am just reading up on the balanced vs unbalanced input/output, still have not fully understood. If I connect a new balanced amp in between, can I get a balanced signal from the line out on the ID4 using 2 x 1/4 inch (L + R) to input to a balanced amp (for instance the topping L50 or schiit magnius)? And then I get a balanced cable and connect to the headphones?
Yes, you would be using two 1/4" TRS to 1/4" TRS cables between the iD4 monitor out and E50 input.
You can have balanced interconnects and unbalanced headphone cabling or vice versa, both generally have nothing to do with each other. In amps like the E50, the balanced output is provided just for convenience; they are unbalanced internally but provide high power and super low distortion regardless, which is what ultimately matters. Headphone drivers are floating so it's not like you could get into trouble with ground loops.
You do not really need balanced headphone wiring otherwise - it does not matter much whether the left and right headphone grounds are combined at the plug or right before the output jack, we are talking tens of milliohms in between here. The important part is the cable between the plug and the headphones. A 3 m cable can easily rack up 1 ohm per conductor, and you don't want that much as shared ground return resistance if your drivers are below 100 ohms nominal as a rule of thumb. Sennheiser is generally doing it right (they have a tradition of using thin and light cabling to prioritize comfort, so wire gauge has to be modest), Beyerdynamic or Philips tend to care less.
That would be my guess. You can look at the Julian Krause chart on this post and look up your impedance, which I’m guessing at 300ohms will result in 80mW, which is plenty of power.
https://audiosciencereview.com/foru...e-2-review-audio-interface.33683/post-1176950
Yeah, the MkII Audients are among the most powerful audio interfaces for mid-high impedance headphones you can get, and not overly stressed by lower-impedance loads either. They are really nothing to sneeze at. Granted, 80 mW might pale in contrast to a dedicated amp, but when you've got some 97 dB/mW cans like your average 300 ohm Sennheisers, that's still 116 dB SPL peak after all! The Arya would be a harder load to swallow but should still make it to about 108 dB; I would consider an L30 II as an "afterburner" just in case.
Neither headphone should care very much about the 22 ohm output impedance. The Arya is a planar and those have essentially ruler-flat impedance responses, and a lot of 300 ohm cans essentially don't care either. With a HD800S (Zmin = 340 ohms, Zmax = 670 ohms), that's 0.26 dB of deviation compared to a 0 ohm output, which should be a hair under the limit of perceptibility (around 0.3 dB).
So it's clearly not a case of
"OMG you must buy a headphone amp, now!!!1" here. (Mind you, if you consider dropping 1.5 grand on cans you can probably afford one. I can still remember the days when headphones that expensive weren't even a thing outside electrostats, and the HD650 was king of the hill. The standards for headphone driving sure have come a long way since then, too. Unless you're a Focusrite Scarlett gen 3, that is - that's
basically a cMoy...)
The funny thing is, the HD560S would care the most of the bunch. At about 135 ohms min, 240 ohms max, we are talking a 0.55 dB deviation, still not exactly
earth-shattering and dramatic but probably audible in a direct comparison.
