Overkill to amp the SMSL DL100?

[Steel Squirrel]

Is it overkill to add an Atom Amp+ onto the SMSL DL100? I’m only driving HD 600’s, so my question is: will the additional power add anything substantial to the DAC/Amp combo of the DL100 (better dynamics, bass, etc.) or is it just overkill?

Thanks!

 

[antcollinet]

As far as i can see, the atom+ delivers less power not more.

In any case if the SMSL can deliver the volume you want without clipping/distorting, then adding a device with more power won't deliver better sound.

 

[Steel Squirrel]

As far as i can see, the atom+ delivers less power not more.

In any case if the SMSL can deliver the volume you want without clipping/distorting, then adding a device with more power won't deliver better sound.

Thanks; I appreciate it! I'm only about a year into this black hole of information and am testing a few different devices to see which combo best suits my needs. I just want to make sure I don't have a setup that's overkill or redundant in some way.

 

[antcollinet]

I'm only about a year into this black hole of information

I've been on this site for just over 3 years, and Im still regularly learning new stuff. And that is after a full 37 year career in electronic engineering behind me. I aim never to stop learning.

 

[DVDdoug]

(better dynamics, bass, etc.)

Just FYI - There are different ways of thinking about dynamics. The musical dynamics (or dynamic contrast) is the range of quiet-to-loud, or sometimes the difference between the average loudness and the loudest parts. The electronics (or headphones) don't change that unless you over-drive an amplifier (or headphone) to its limit (clipping). Clipping is a very-bad kind of dynamic compression but we just hear it as "distortion".

Sometimes non-scientific "audiophiles" will claim that a piece of equipment has "better dynamics" but the dynamics are in the recording (or not) so sometimes it's just louder or it's their imagination.

The dynamic range of the electronics is the difference between the background noise and the maximum loudness. If you aren't hearing noise (hum, hiss, or whine) in the background, and you can go loud enough, it's not a problem.

As far as bass, almost all electronics have flat frequency response. Except sometimes "cheap" headphone amplifiers/outputs (and sometimes the headphone outputs on AVRs receivers) will "interact" with headphone impedance (which varies across the frequency range) and that can give you frequency response variations such as more or less bass. It's not a problem with the SMSL, and with higher impedance headphones like yours it's never a problem.

If your headphones have weak bass (or if you want to boost the bass to taste), boosting the bass can sometimes push the amplifier or the headphones into distortion.

Headphones (and speakers) don't have flat frequency response so almost every headphone (or speaker) sounds different from another.

 

[Steel Squirrel]

I've been on this site for just over 3 years, and Im still regularly learning new stuff. And that is after a full 37 year career in electronic engineering behind me. I aim never to stop learning.

I’m being cautious… I know that ignorance is bliss, but also near-perfect audio is another kind of bliss and it’s too late for me to go back to the former.

 

[Steel Squirrel]

Just FYI - There are different ways of thinking about dynamics. The musical dynamics (or dynamic contrast) is the range of quiet-to-loud, or sometimes the difference between the average loudness and the loudest parts. The electronics (or headphones) don't change that unless you over-drive an amplifier (or headphone) to its limit (clipping). Clipping is a very-bad kind of dynamic compression but we just hear it as "distortion".

Sometimes non-scientific "audiophiles" will claim that a piece of equipment has "better dynamics" but the dynamics are in the recording (or not) so sometimes it's just louder or it's their imagination.

The dynamic range of the electronics is the difference between the background noise and the maximum loudness. If you aren't hearing noise (hum, hiss, or whine) in the background, and you can go loud enough, it's not a problem.

As far as bass, almost all electronics have flat frequency response. Except sometimes "cheap" headphone amplifiers/outputs (and sometimes the headphone outputs on AVRs receivers) will "interact" with headphone impedance (which varies across the frequency range) and that can give you frequency response variations such as more or less bass. It's not a problem with the SMSL, and with higher impedance headphones like yours it's never a problem.

If your headphones have weak bass (or if you want to boost the bass to taste), boosting the bass can sometimes push the amplifier or the headphones into distortion.

Headphones (and speakers) don't have flat frequency response so almost every headphone (or speaker) sounds different from another.

Thanks! That’s super helpful info

 

[oleg87]

The DL100 can cleanly drive the HD600 to ~120dB SPL. If this isn't enough volume headroom for you, you are asking for a nasty case of tinnitus.

 

[AnalogSteph]

The DL100 can cleanly drive the HD600 to ~120dB SPL. If this isn't enough volume headroom for you, you are asking for a nasty case of tinnitus.

Indeed, that's probably about 10 dB than you'd ever need even with old fart hearing.
If you're like me, you can subtract another 10 dB (and aim to improve another thing: ambient noise levels).
Meanwhile, output noise is at -6 dB SPL, 20+ dB less than it needs to be in order to be utterly inaudible (uncorrelated L/R white noise in headphones tends to fade away somewhere around/under 20 dB SPL).
How much more "DC to daylight" does it have to be?

As a fellow HD600 owner, I have found I basically don't ever need more than the upper ranges of low (unity) gain on an Atom Amp+ fed by ca. 1 Vrms onboard audio at 80/100 (-3ish dB), even with the most gnarly of Mahler symphonies (Birmingham Symphony / Simon Rattle. 1997-2002ish, Nos. 3-5 + 10). Everything beyond that is just digging up the noise floor in very quiet parts, i.e. musical archaeology. I would decidedly not want to listen to the loud parts at these settings. Realistically, I could just listen to the onboard headphone output as-is.

Do keep in mind this is my bedside-fi, and for the most part ambient noise tends to be low there, plus I do not tolerate high levels particularly well.