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I am just postulating here, and so I could be totally wrong on this one...
Most Sennheiser fans have a good Amps to go along with them. No doubt that without an Amp, the Sennheisers suck the life out of most music. But with an appropriate Amp, it kicks to life. Now why is that the case?? Is it really about impedence??
Looking at the frequency responses, the Sennheisers are nearly FLAT.. and that translates to a dull listening experience without an AMP.
1. Since the Sennheisers convey the incomming signals more faithfully than most, is it possible that the AMPS are actually pumping up and/or kicking down some frequencies in the music before passing it on to the headphones, which the Sennheisers faithfully re-produce???.
2. Is Grado dynamic and entertaining by itself without an AMP because John actually tunes his headphones to perform some tasks like pumping up and/or kicking down some frequencies... tasks that an AMP does for the Sennheiser??
3. Could that be the reason why Grados are particular about the AMPs used and why Grado AMPS fails to breath much life into a Sennheiser??
It is my un-educated postulate that the AMPs favoring Grados keeps modifying sound to a minimum and thus it fails to breath excitment of life into the Sennheisers and AMPs for Sennheisers modify the sound and so do not work well with the Grados..
Its a theory as I think the Grado & Sennheiser AMPS are not sepeerated only by their current delivery requirements. In fact satisfying the current delivery requirements is a straight forward procedure in electronics, and so one AMP can be easily made/modified to work well with both high and low impedence phones, but still it only sounds good on one??
EDIT: The neutral AKGs too need an AMP and note that most AMPs that works fine for the Sennheiser does a good job for the AKG 601 too.
Sennheiser 580/600/650 headphones sound less dynamic unamped because of their high impedance. You need an amp with some voltage swing to really make them perform.
__________________
Current headphones: Sennheiser PX 100, CX 300, Sony Eggos, KSC-75
I once used a Grado AMP to breathe life into my Sennheiser. Oh my god, the terror of that night. Never again will I make my headphones walk among the living.
Most Sennheiser fans have a good Amps to go along with them.
Headamps being the small niche market that they are, I would figure most Sennheiser owners don't have amps, but like the headphones nonetheless.
Originally Posted by Cerebral_Mamba
No doubt that without an Amp, the Sennheisers suck the life out of most music.
No doubt?
Originally Posted by Cerebral_Mamba
It is my un-educated postulate that the AMPs favoring Grados keeps modifying sound to a minimum and thus it fails to breath excitment of life into the Sennheisers and AMPs for Sennheisers modify the sound and so do not work well with the Grados..
How then would one explain my GS-1, which seems to do equally well at breathing life into Sennheisers and Grados, as well as Audio Technicas? Is there some kind of sensor built into the amp that tells it what kind of headphone is plugged in?
(1) He was asking if "amp" is an acronym because the OP was spelling it in all caps, which implies that either it's an acronym (each letter standing for something) or the OP was yelling...
(2) Not all Senns need an amplifier.
(3) The need for amplification does not depend only on impedance- it's a combination of things. Low impedance phones can still be hard to drive, and vice versa.
(4) Frequency response has nothing whatsoever to do with how hard a pair of phones is to drive.
Sennheisers do not sound THAT bad unamped. There's a definite improvment from amping, though. To answer your question about whether or not amps are meant to EQ headphones, in a word, no. Ideally, an amp is a powerful volume knob. That's what they were originally intended to do. Of course, ideally, earplugs are flat attenuators, and we all know how well that worked out. :P
__________________ All the Dude wanted was his rug back..
PET PEEVE: An apostrophe does NOT denote when something is plural. Hence, 'the 60's, 70's, HD650's," is NOT correct. All that's necessary is an 'S' on the end. //end rant
Why Sennheisers need AMPS !!
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