I am having a bit of a conundrum. I'm using the UMC404HD audio interface, which has an excellent audio interface, good micro preamps, and inserts ( I do a lot of live conferencing and have a channel strip (DBX 286s) and an EQs in the sound chain). Where it sucks spicy banana peppers is on the outputs. They are anemic 2 volts rather than the 4 volts that I wish they were.
I have been using my trusty MDR-7506s for the last 20 years and being low impedance this has never been an issue. But now I'm thinking it would be nice to get a pair of HD600 (300ohms) or the cheaper drop HD6xx. I'm more of a diffuse field than Harman curve kind of guy.
First I thought I would just replace the interface, BUT... An interface with the same feature set as the UMC404HD with good outputs is about 4 times the price of my old UMC404HD. doh!
So my next thought was to go with a headphone amplifier and use the line out from the UMC404HD. I then found out from a review here that the darn thing outputs half the electricules needed to play with the big boys.
I did a bunch of reading here and elsewhere and after much confusion came up with the idea that the balanced output amps send more juice and are convenient from an audio interface (ignoring any noise improvements/degradations).
In the case of the EL Amp II+ Balanced JDLabs will double the gain as a special order ( wow I didn't expect that response from them, incredible customer service response) so that 2 volts will work with their AMP OR for the same price, I can order the Topping L50 that has the output gain to make up for my anemic audio interface.
I think (but am not sure) that I am probably better off going with the L50 from a specs perspective (but probably not an audible difference) and from a one-day being able to upgrade my audio interface to something with 4 volts out but I'm looking for confirmation from those who have already gone down this path.
Thanks in advance,
T
I have been using my trusty MDR-7506s for the last 20 years and being low impedance this has never been an issue. But now I'm thinking it would be nice to get a pair of HD600 (300ohms) or the cheaper drop HD6xx. I'm more of a diffuse field than Harman curve kind of guy.
First I thought I would just replace the interface, BUT... An interface with the same feature set as the UMC404HD with good outputs is about 4 times the price of my old UMC404HD. doh!
So my next thought was to go with a headphone amplifier and use the line out from the UMC404HD. I then found out from a review here that the darn thing outputs half the electricules needed to play with the big boys.
I did a bunch of reading here and elsewhere and after much confusion came up with the idea that the balanced output amps send more juice and are convenient from an audio interface (ignoring any noise improvements/degradations).
In the case of the EL Amp II+ Balanced JDLabs will double the gain as a special order ( wow I didn't expect that response from them, incredible customer service response) so that 2 volts will work with their AMP OR for the same price, I can order the Topping L50 that has the output gain to make up for my anemic audio interface.
I think (but am not sure) that I am probably better off going with the L50 from a specs perspective (but probably not an audible difference) and from a one-day being able to upgrade my audio interface to something with 4 volts out but I'm looking for confirmation from those who have already gone down this path.
Thanks in advance,
T