HD 660s, how much power do they need?

[renoxd]

Hey!

I have DX7 Pro which is balanced and HD660s with 4.4 pentaconn.
Headphones Impedance: 150 Ohm.

I don't actually hear any difference between when i use balanced cable and set gain to High and when i set gain to Low and I will turn up the volume.
Are there any benefits in the high gain setting? (of course, except that it can be much louder)

 

[Berwhale]

There is not a lot of difference between Low and High gain. Low gain has slightly less distortion, so I would use that setting if it provides sufficient volume on your HD660s...

Graph from Amirm's review here: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...-dx7-pro-dac-and-headphone-amp-reviewed.9446/

 

[solderdude]

Hey!

I have DX7 Pro which is balanced and HD660s with 4.4 pentaconn.
Headphones Impedance: 150 Ohm.

I don't actually hear any difference between when i use balanced cable and set gain to High and when i set gain to Low and I will turn up the volume.
Are there any benefits in the high gain setting? (of course, except that it can be much louder)

Higher gain just means it can get louder at the same volume setting.
When you can play loud enough on low gain I would use the low gain setting.

HD660S is 150 Ohm and 104dB/1V so an output that can deliver 6V is enough (240mW) = 120dB SPL peak.
The driver is rated for 500mW so Heresy or Atom (8.5V) will be more than enough.
I would not recommend to use amplifiers that deliver more than 18Vrms (2W in 150 Ohm).

 

[renoxd]

Higher gain just means it can get louder at the same volume setting.
I would not recommend to use amplifiers that deliver more than 18Vrms (2W in 150 Ohm).

So, based on the screenshot below we can say that there is no chance to get close to 2W with my 150 Ohm HD660s with DX7 Pro

As i still don't understand many things i thought that maybe something else change together with more power.
Some people call such changes as: more air, better sound stage. Maybe it is a true but only when Headphones doesn't have enough power.
I learned from this forum already that such opinions have nothing to do with the numbers and they are only subjective feelings.

So, the most important changes are: distortion and loudness level


Thanks!

 

[JohnYang1997]

All I have to say is hd660s is pretty efficient. And the impedance lies in the range that most amplifiers are comfortable with.

 

[JohnYang1997]

Also high gain only increases noise and degrades performance. Using higher gain almost never gives better performance. (exception: unless it's unity gain vs attenuation OR the input common mode distortion of the amplifier is very bad.)

 

[LTig]

So, based on the screenshot below we can say that there is no chance to get close to 2W with my 150 Ohm HD660s with DX7 Pro.

And you should be glad about it. Applying too much clean power will damage your ears faster than you'd like.

 

[renoxd]

And you should be glad about it. Applying too much clean power will damage your ears faster than you'd like.

I didn't even think about applying too much power. I was just curious about benefits.

 

[solderdude]

So, based on the screenshot below we can say that there is no chance to get close to 2W with my 150 Ohm HD660s with DX7 Pro

It reaches 0.8W in 150 Ohm.

As i still don't understand many things i thought that maybe something else change together with more power.
Some people call such changes as: more air, better sound stage. Maybe it is a true but only when Headphones doesn't have enough power.

With more power comes louder sound. With insufficient power headphones simply don't sound that great when the volume is turned up.
When you play the HD660S on 'normal' levels from a phone it will sound exactly the same as from a 10W amp at the exact same level.

Turn it up to impressive levels and the higher powered amp (0.5W is already enough) and you will notice the powerfull amp sounds great and the phone looses out on several different aspects.

The attributed 'improvements' about more available power is nonsense.

 

[Tobbi]

Some people call such changes as: more air, better sound stage.

You ate marketing snacks when you bought the 660s. These simplified sound headphones are for the sake of not very demanding amplification. You will not hear the air in them, the 660s are for boys to listen to black rap.

 

[Tachyon88]

So what if you're using a thx789 and you have suffecient volume at 90% of medium gain. Would it be better to click over to high gain then ?

 

[Berwhale]

So what if you're using a thx789 and you have suffecient volume at 90% of medium gain. Would it be better to click over to high gain then ?

Why would you increase the gain if the volume is already sufficient?

 

[KeithPhantom]

Are there any benefits in the high gain setting? (of course, except that it can be much louder)

There are no benefits other than volume (and maybe, just maybe better transient response in terms of avoiding clipping if the peaks of your music exceed the maximum peak output at that setting, a thing I wouldn't worry with the DX7). The problem is by using high gain settings, you get more power at worse distortion, if your headphones are loud enough and you don't notice anything weird, just use them in the lowest gain that you can get satisfactory loudness.

 

[KeithPhantom]

So what if you're using a thx789 and you have suffecient volume at 90% of medium gain. Would it be better to click over to high gain then ?

If you don't notice anything weird with peaks in music, it should be fine. If you are noticing clipping, go to the next setting.

 

[Jimbob54]

You ate marketing snacks when you bought the 660s. These simplified sound headphones are for the sake of not very demanding amplification. You will not hear the air in them, the 660s are for boys to listen to black rap.

Does white rap have a different sound ? Can girls not listen to rap, or just not to HD660s?

You were doing so well until that final half a sentence. Actually, no you weren't . That was mostly gibberish.

 

[KeithPhantom]

Does white rap have a different sound ?

Rap sounds weird out of my HD 6XX, especially the bass (can be explained by the distortion in those frequencies). My LCD-2 seem to handle that genre better.

 

[Tachyon88]

Why would you increase the gain if the volume is already sufficient?

I'm asking in regards to distortion and amp clipping. Just wondering what the most effective procedure would be.

 

[Tachyon88]

You cant spell crap without rap.....shots fired ! lol Listen to what you want peeps.

 

[Tachyon88]

If you don't notice anything weird with peaks in music, it should be fine. If you are noticing clipping, go to the next setting.

Ok, I read that some people liked to increase the gain setting so that the volume knob was never more than 50%, so that way the amp was never working as hard and minimized distortion.....dunno how true that is though.

 

[KeithPhantom]

Ok, I read that some people liked to increase the gain setting so that the volume knob was never more than 50%, so that way the amp was never working as hard and minimized distortion.....dunno how true that is though.

Even if the amp is working "harder" in a lower gain setting, it usually has lower distortion (look at the DX7 Distortion vs Power).