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Today's Featured Head-Fi Blog: A Japanese headfier's monologue (Sasaki)
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Ideally, an amp is a powerful volume knob. That's what they were originally intended to do.
I'd like to say that this is what any amplifier I buy BETTER do. I'll take care of any coloring or boosting myself, thanks- having the amplifier do it would be like turning the treble knob one direction or the other and removing it.
Anyone with a D-25 or D-15 (250/150) would know that is the perfect headfi definition for simple mating of components, without interconnects, or Line Out Output to Dedicated Headphone Amp....
The Output on these two Discman when paired to a set of Senns (tried them with the 580/595/600/650, and they all sang....
matching components, not unlike Grados is always key..
another example...
matching of two lower Grados and without amps...
Although, yes the SR-60 excels with most headphone outputs on portable devices, but it also does some better with some than others.
just match the 60 to the D-303's Headphone output and notice the mud and and over extension of bass on the lower reg (Yes with the bass all the way off), note the opposite findings on the upper reg when pairing the 60's to the 303's headphone out. Now take that same player and match the MS-1's to the headphone output...the Aless cans, with their more technical and neutral sig really benefits from the boominess of the D-303 at around 3 volume level, and works better for the MS-1's VS the SR-60 IMO (some call the Aless sound un-fun or non emotional VS Grado House sound)
Now the D-303 does not have a great HP out compared to other Vintage Sony's I know, but matching it the correct cans helps both the headphones and the source, along with the overall listener involvement..
Last example of an Eerie component match, which makes the setup sound like much more than its worth, believe it or not..
The Sony D-25/15 with the Sony V-6 Cans...I know.
but when the V-6's Sony Bass meets the more neutral Caps and op amps that these two Sonys provide, it is a match made in song heaven for third or fourth room/setup...
or starter rig, nonetheless..
the K701 seems to match well to tubes (what cans do not) but also to SS amps too I found, I have not tried the K 701's un-amped on many sources, because they really are more suited with use with an amp source...due to their more open head staging capabilities, and slightly higher Imp than the Grados..
__________________ Last four LP's acquired
Metallica ' ride the lightning ' 2LP 45RPM 180G ' Limited Edition Mobile Fidelity
Radiohead - the bends - UK 1st Pressing
The Black Angels - directions to see a ghost - 3LP 1st pressing
The Warlocks ' warlocks ' 1st pressing
Behind closed eyelids. In very many cases, the visionary quality, the quality of the vision so to say, spills over, into the external world, so that the experiencer, when he opens his eyes, sees the outer world transfigured
Some amps and cans just sound perfect together. It can be the el cheapo 10$ headphone and the el cheapo amp for 20$ - If they match or in other words, have a great synergy, it just sounds great...
In general, it doesn't really matter how expensive or good a pair of cans and the amp is, if the do not match or have syngery, it will still sound bad.
Guess thats it, of course you can add some more audiophile-carma-voodoo to the explanation of syngery
Well, to tell you the truth, I'm not a big believer in "synergy".
Certainly, we know all headphones uniquely color the sound to some degree- that's inherent in trying to reproduce the audio (they're not just passing electrons). If the amplifier "offsets" that coloration in some way that makes it sound good to you by coloring the sound further, I'm guessing that would be passed off as "synergy".
However, IMHO, it seems beyond silly to be looking for a phone/amp combination with which you end up with a coloration you like- in that case, you can't upgrade either without rolling the dice that you'll have to also change the other. You're attempting to mask the deficiencies of your phones with the amp rather than simply finding a pair of phones you like.
For me, I'll look for a flat amplifier and a pair of phones that sound how I want them to.
In general, it doesn't really matter how expensive or good a pair of cans and the amp is, if the do not match or have syngery, it will still sound bad.
Talking about matching an amp with headphones, does anyone know if senn hd 580 will sound well with Echo Indigo I/O laptop sound card? It says Echo has high-quality headphone amp - don't really know how true that is...
Amps don't pump up or kick down frequencies, almost all of them measure flat.
I think most of those measurements are done with the amp output connected to a 32 ohm "Grado" or a 330 ohm "Sennheiser" resistor as the load rather than actual headphones.
A resistor should present almost a strictly resistive load--meaning with virtually no capacitance or inductance--and that load should vary very little with frequency.
Has anyone ever seen measurements of amp frequency responses with actual headphone drivers as the load, connected to the amp with the cable (as twin-axial cables do have some capacitance)? By that, I mean the electrical response at the amp output, not the audio output at the driver (just to be clear!)
If so, do most amps measure as flat when driving an actual load as with a purely resistive load?
Well, to tell you the truth, I'm not a big believer in "synergy".
Certainly, we know all headphones uniquely color the sound to some degree- that's inherent in trying to reproduce the audio (they're not just passing electrons). If the amplifier "offsets" that coloration in some way that makes it sound good to you by coloring the sound further, I'm guessing that would be passed off as "synergy"..
This argument made some sense to me.. It is easy to talk about synergy and stuff.. but an amp designer should be able to quantify and clearly understand the deal involved inorder to make the right amp.... things just don't happen by chance. So, what makes a Sennheiser amp good for them and likewise what makes a Grado amp good for them?
How does amps from many manufacturers have a so called house sound?? Is it simply component selection?
Linear Mode
