Ludicrous to you, not myself and three other people I regularly listen to content with via headphones. Also based on what the OP typed, he can't know how much volume he likes because his A30 (180mw max power) suffers from distortion, and buying a balanced cable (50$) and AMP like the Magnius (200$) will provide beyond "ludicrous" amounts of distortion free volume for less than the price of the THX 887 (400$).
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Best Option for HD6XX: Archel 2.5 Pro, L30, or THX AAA 887
- Thread starter Bacchusoo7
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Ludicrous to you, not myself and three other people I regularly listen to content with via headphones. Also based on what the OP typed, he can't know how much volume he likes because his A30 (180mw max power) suffers from distortion, and buying a balanced cable (50$) and AMP like the Magnius (200$) will provide beyond "ludicrous" amounts of distortion free volume for less than the price of the THX 887 (400$).
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Lines like this are what really hack me off. This isnt referring to your preferences, this is phrased as a rule :
"If you stick with the un-balanced headphone cable you're going to have to pay way more for an AMP powerful enough to drive them."
This is objectively untrue. The L30 is the cheapest the OP suggested and objectively provide ample clean power for the Sennheiser HD6 family. Hence my objection to your nonsense post.
It's not untrue if one has similar power requirements to myself, or wants a quarter of that power since the L30 peaks at 117mw into 300ohm.
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Why you do not like your devices? I think HD6xx, D30 & A30 are very good devices.
Veri
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So 0dB is loud enough for you with -5dB preamp, yet the other dude is saying L30 in high gain is not loud enough.
Hmmmmmmmmmm.
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So 0dB is loud enough for you with -5dB preamp, yet the other dude is saying L30 in high gain is not loud enough.
Hmmmmmmmmmm.
Its a mystery alright. I have some 300 ohm Senns that the L30 handles fine , with some preamp reduction and EQ too, in 0 gain.
Human Bass
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Get a balanced cable and A50S.
OP
Bacchusoo7
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I ended up going a different direction. Sweetwater had the RME ADI-2 DAC FS on sale, like $250 off. So, I went for that. Now I've got an updated DAC, a nice headphone amp and my system is fully balanced (except to the headphones). Thanks again tp everyone for their help and suggestions.
OP
Bacchusoo7
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Really, it was just the A30. The phones and the DAC were fine. I had to bump up the gain on the A30 to properly drive the HD6xxs and that raised the noise floor in a way that irritated me. I replaced the D30 now as well, but that just circumstance. I also have a pair of HD558 which are like 50ohms and the A30 drove them fine. So I wouldn't call any of it bad by any stretch.
solderdude
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I would say it is the other way around.
HD558 is more voltage sensitive (so would be bothered by noise earlier than HD6xx) and the HD558 will elevate the bass (100Hz) by 1dB where the HD6xx won't.
There is more than enough power for high impedance headphones and there is plenty of gain available.
English is not my native speak language. HD558 is fine but HD6xx is not. Bacchusoo7 is satisfied by HD558( with A30 & D30) but not HD6xx( with A30 & D30).
I agree with you and my personal opinion:
1. The quality HD6xx is better than HD558.
2. Topping A30 should have enough power; Topping A30: 291mW x 2 (6.35mm Hi 300Ω, 1% THD + N) & 258mW x 2 (3.5mm Hi 300Ω, 1% THD + N)
Then, it is the time to buy new devices.
OP
Bacchusoo7
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But I can use the 558s on the lowest gain setting which keeps the noise floor down, whereas on the 6xx I have to use the second gain getting which pushes up the noise. That said, I don’t use the 558s all that often for listening because I usually use them for silent practice with my piano on the other end of the house. For me, it’s more about clean power than absolute power. Also, I’ve spent enough years in rock ‘n’ roll to know that my ears are not in perfect shape so everything is colored by that. So far I’m enjoying the adi-2 (other than saying and typing the name, of course) into my ears it sounds better, cleaner. Of course, now I have to figure out what to do with the A30 and the D30.
solderdude
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The point is that between low gain (0dB) and medium gain (+9dB) the background noise of the amp does not increase +9dB but will be much less.
Noise in the recording will be amplified 9dB (about twice as loud) though.
On low gain the HD558 will play 5dB louder than the HD6XX.
When you set the gain to M the HD6XX will play 4dB louder than the HD558 at low gain.
You will also increase the noise of the recording by 4dB which is what you may be hearing.
Noise in the recording will be amplified 9dB (about twice as loud) though.
On low gain the HD558 will play 5dB louder than the HD6XX.
When you set the gain to M the HD6XX will play 4dB louder than the HD558 at low gain.
You will also increase the noise of the recording by 4dB which is what you may be hearing.
OP
Bacchusoo7
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Oh, I see. Yeah, I am not great at the EE/math side of this, so I assume all of that is correct. It's also possible that whatever I'm hearing and labeling as "noise" is really something else (recording noise or something else altogether).
All can say is that to my ears the HD6xxs never sounded as "clean" through the A30 as they do through the RME (or for that matter an old Dragonfly 1.2 I have around) whereas I enjoyed the 558s on the Dragonfly and the A30. [as an aside the 558s sound good through my digital piano but the 6xxs are dull and muffled but again I assume that's because the headphone amp in the piano isn't very good] I fully admit that what I'm hearing and what I'm calling it could be mismatched. I always assumed that the difference was attributed to the Ohm difference. But whatever I was hearing was immediate from the moment I opened the box of the HD6xx and plugged them into the A30 and every time thereafter.
None of this is to be construed as a knock on the A30, it's a fine little box, but in my system to my set of 6xxs to my ears I was underwhelmed with the pairing.
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