Hi good folks! I have the Drop THX AAA 789 amp and I have two sets of headphones. A 35 Ω and a 23 Ω that I keep plugged in at all times both in the SE ports. I haven't noticed any volume change when I take one out while listening to the other one. Can the amp effectively drive both at the same time efficiently even when having different impedance? Could there be any issues on the long term if I do this or should I use just one at a time. I've noticed that the amp gets slightly warm. My use case is I work from home and I use one for music and the other one for meetings. Any potential issues driving 2 different impedance headphones from the SE outputs from the Drop 789 at the same time?
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Driving two different headphones from Drop 789's SE outputs simultaneously
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Mostly no issue.
It is not just plugging in two, it is the total load that matters. Two low-Z headphones is a pretty low load for most amps, but the Drop + THX AAA 789 is rated to output 6 W (!) and has <0.1 ohms output so should handle a 14-ohm load (your two in parallel). That looks like a powerful little headphone amp...
That said, I wouldn't leave both plugged in unless using both at the same time, just to save wear and tear on the 'phones and to let the amp run a little cooler.
That said, I wouldn't leave both plugged in unless using both at the same time, just to save wear and tear on the 'phones and to let the amp run a little cooler.
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Hi, I'm curious how does one calculate the parallel load of the 35 Ω and 23 Ω down to 14?
See previous answers, they are correct (natch). For just two resistors R1 and R2, you can also use Rtotal = (R1 * R2) / (R1 + R2).
If they are in series you add their values so Rtotal = R1 + R2 but I assumed (worst-case) the outputs are simply in parallel (most are).
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