Phoney
Senior Member
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- Nov 1, 2021
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While there are no specs on them, internal headphone amplifiers in digital pianos are usually not great. People are reporting issues with both high and low impedance headphones. My suspicion is that the amps are usually not very powerful and they might also have a high output impedance on top of that. I have a Roland FP-30x and decided to go with a Topping NX7, as people recommended using an external amp. I am using my DT770 Pro 80ohm for this purpose. So, I tried for fun to use the piano output and I did actually get sufficient volume, but I had to play at 90% volume or more. I really felt like the sound improved significantly when using the NX7 instead, but surprisingly I had to use high gain at around 12 o' clock. I'm not sure wether that's normal or not, I just thought that the DT770 would be very easy for the NX7 to drive, and while max volume was loud, it didn't really hurt my ears.
But then I started thinking; does it make sense that the sound improved by connecting another amp to the internal one, when the internal one had high impedance output? What is the effect of the original amps impedance output when I use the headphone output for the NX7, does connecting a NX7 nullify that issue and then the NX7s own low impedance output will drive the DT770 properly? It's just a bit hard to understand how a signal that didn't sound good to begin with (even with sufficient voulme) can turn into a "cleaner"/better one when amplified, but I'm sure there can be an explanation for it. Otherwise I could be imagining things, but the difference just seemed a bit obvious, even on lower volumes. I do know that a high output impedance can mess with the sound of dynamic HPs. Another question is if I'm running the risk of damaging anything by using an amp on top of another amp? Maybe a silly question, but ChatGPT (which is allways right) said that this could damage the amp somehow.. And lastly I assume that the logical thing is to use max volume on the piano when connected to the NX7 as a preamp?
I hope that I posted this in the right forum category, I apologize if not.
But then I started thinking; does it make sense that the sound improved by connecting another amp to the internal one, when the internal one had high impedance output? What is the effect of the original amps impedance output when I use the headphone output for the NX7, does connecting a NX7 nullify that issue and then the NX7s own low impedance output will drive the DT770 properly? It's just a bit hard to understand how a signal that didn't sound good to begin with (even with sufficient voulme) can turn into a "cleaner"/better one when amplified, but I'm sure there can be an explanation for it. Otherwise I could be imagining things, but the difference just seemed a bit obvious, even on lower volumes. I do know that a high output impedance can mess with the sound of dynamic HPs. Another question is if I'm running the risk of damaging anything by using an amp on top of another amp? Maybe a silly question, but ChatGPT (which is allways right) said that this could damage the amp somehow.. And lastly I assume that the logical thing is to use max volume on the piano when connected to the NX7 as a preamp?
I hope that I posted this in the right forum category, I apologize if not.