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- Apr 12, 2019
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Looking at the THD+N graphs which chart THD+N percentage vs power, it seems like distortion is quite high at low volumes. Is that accurate?
I often listen with the Sennheiser IE 800S, and it has a sensitivity of 125 dB SPL/V and impedance of 16 ohms. To try and estimate the mW at my typical listening levels, I used the following:
Doubling/halving power changes the output by 3 dB, so I need to divide 1000 mW by 2^13 to get from 125 dB to 85 dB and by 2^26 to get to around 45 dB.
That gives me a typical power output between 0.2 uW and 100 uW.
Here are some typical THD+N values at the far left of the charts (usually 0.3 or 0.4 uW) at 33 ohms:
Topping DX3Pro: 0.1%
JDS Labs Atom: 0.09%
Massdrop THX AAA 789: 0.2%
In @flipflop's post about audibility, he says that 0.05% is the lenient threshold for audibility, and 0.0001% is the strict threshold. So is it correct to say that even with the best-measuring DACs and amplifiers, I would be getting audible levels of THD+N in the IE 800S?
Is this an advantage of using harder-to-drive headphones which require more power and thus operate closer to the sweet spot of the typical headphone amplifier?
I often listen with the Sennheiser IE 800S, and it has a sensitivity of 125 dB SPL/V and impedance of 16 ohms. To try and estimate the mW at my typical listening levels, I used the following:
Doubling/halving power changes the output by 3 dB, so I need to divide 1000 mW by 2^13 to get from 125 dB to 85 dB and by 2^26 to get to around 45 dB.
That gives me a typical power output between 0.2 uW and 100 uW.
Here are some typical THD+N values at the far left of the charts (usually 0.3 or 0.4 uW) at 33 ohms:
Topping DX3Pro: 0.1%
JDS Labs Atom: 0.09%
Massdrop THX AAA 789: 0.2%
In @flipflop's post about audibility, he says that 0.05% is the lenient threshold for audibility, and 0.0001% is the strict threshold. So is it correct to say that even with the best-measuring DACs and amplifiers, I would be getting audible levels of THD+N in the IE 800S?
Is this an advantage of using harder-to-drive headphones which require more power and thus operate closer to the sweet spot of the typical headphone amplifier?