Gain in headphones amp?

[davidebond]

Hi. Is it better using the gain in a headphones amp, or to increase the volume? The gain has more power and space, but it can produce distortions.

Thanks and best,

Davide

P.S. I use a low volume, or not high, with the gain. My amp is a jds lab headphones amp and my dac a Topping dx3 pro.

 

[solderdude]

Best to use low gain. When you can't get loud enough at full volume control setting use high gain.

 

[amirm]

There is usually a penalty for high gain so as solderdude says, stay with lowest gain until you run out of power. Then switch to high gain. This said, some headphone amps I have tested are so good that I just run them in high gain.

 

[davidebond]

OK. Thanks to @amirm and @solderdude. I'll follow your suggestions.

Best,

davide

 

[Zamiel]

Ragarding this topic, i have a pair of sennheiser hd650 driven by a topping dx5.
I usually end up driving them at -10db or more at low gain, would it be better to use high gain?
i've read that they have almost 450 Ohm of impedence around 100Hz, does low gain impact performance in that region even if they get loud enough?

 

[solderdude]

Ragarding this topic, i have a pair of sennheiser hd650 driven by a topping dx5.
I usually end up driving them at -10db or more at low gain, would it be better to use high gain?
i've read that they have almost 450 Ohm of impedence around 100Hz, does low gain impact performance in that region even if they get loud enough?

At higher volume control settings the channel imbalance usually is better. When you still have 10dB 'volume control' range left I would use it on the low gain settings for the reasons explained above.

The impedance is of absolutely no importance with this amp. In fact a higher impedance is more desirable as the distortion is lower (less current is drawn = less distortion).
An amplifier is a voltage source and unless the current becomes too high (very low imp headphones) the output voltage will not be affected by a varying impedance.
The DX5 is very close to an ideal voltage source (very low Rout) by the way.

 

[davidebond]

Thanks. Now I purchased also the JDS atom dac+. For me the jds sound is warmer, but it is not very clear in the details. The topping dx3 alone is better, also if its sound is a little cold.

Thanks,

davide