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impedance adaptor for headphones - Page 2

post #16 of 20
11/25/11 at 3:48pm

For Grados I would try around 5 to 20,  for older studio type designs I would try the 100- to 120 ohm,  some were even used commonly on a 680 ohm ouput on mixing boards.  I would try those three groups.

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post #17 of 20
11/25/11 at 4:33pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by glenda View Post


Note that the frequency response and waterfall plots of  headphones can vary with output impedance.   This is one of those black art issues rarely talked about.  Older headphones were voiced for a 120 ohm output impedance.   Another example is Grado's bass  changes with resistors added in series.   In general  newer headphones have dropped the old 120ohm standard and are voiced for modern <1 ohm output.  Its an interesting subject to say the least and worthy of experiementation.
 



 

 

The reason older headphones were voiced at higher ohms was, however, NOT just due to resistors added to the system - the voice coils and magnets (and driver membranes) were built for that resistance (and THAT is responsible for the change ins FR response, etc.). Adding a resistor to a headphone built/voiced at 32 ohm, does not magically turn it into a 120 ohm voiced headphone. Which is my point. 
 

 

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post #18 of 20
11/25/11 at 9:55pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Satan on a stick View Post

Dumb question but help me out here, building a 75 ohm impedance adapter would require running a resister in line on both the left and right channels? Or does the resister connect the left and right channels?

Try testing your headphones with a decent headphone amp (not Cmoy) that has a low-Z buffered output. I think you will like it more than some impedance adapter. There are good DIY designs or you can buy something.  It will cause more than that resistor adapter thingy but will be more satisfactory.
 

 

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post #19 of 20
11/26/11 at 1:31am

In fact I'm waiting for my first DAC/Headphone amp to arrive in the next week or so. It will be A Fiio E10. It's not much but from what I heard it's a good entry level DAC/AMP.

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post #20 of 20
11/26/11 at 11:40pm
To my ear, Grados seem to do well with amps that have some output impedance as they can otherwise be over damped. It is one of the reason they sound so good with transformer coupled amps -- not only do these amps generally have some impedance due to the tubes, but the copper impedance of the transformer is effectively in series with the phones, giving some Z. I also find that they can sound too hard with a lot of solid state amps. Anywhere from 8-12 ohms seems to work well, and a little higher or lower is fine. Too high and things will start to sound a little flat, unless you do a transconductance amp in which case lots of Z is good.
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