How do I find out how powerful my Hi-Fi's headphone output is?

I ve just read the manual in german and when I am right it is possible to drive them. Further you can also measure it if you want..

In means of SQ it will be better to go for a good SC with a headphone amp IMO. Unfortunately I dont have any SC in use to make a suggestion. The Asus Essence seems to be good regarding the headphone out..

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mattbot2 

Unfortunately the Essence is out of my price range.

 

What I'm hoping to do is get the D2X, then use the optical audio out to the Hi-Fi, which then has the headphones connected to it, providing good audio quality and enough power, correct? That's the idea anyway.

The prob would be maybe that the D/A converter of your HiFi system is not as good as you think. Normally or rather in many cases the headphone out is an built in accessoire in HiFi amps or receivers because it is cheap and the technical effort is low to provide it. On the other hand is the SQ of such a headphone out normally not as good as the one of a headphone amp.

Concerning enough power the manual says that the system can drive headphones from an impedance of about 8 Ohm or higher. This will not state to drive for example the T1 or HD800 in a proper way because these have a relatively high impedance (600Ohm/300Ohm) and need therefore indirectly a lot of output voltage. Nevertheless I think that the DT770 with 80 Ohm will be good driven in a technical sense. As mentioned I have doubts that the internal DAC is really good but I cannot proof it. You can also give an external DAC/Amp combination a try and connect it directly to your computer either via USB or SPDIF or Toslink (depending on what are your digital outputs). I dont have one but NuForce or Fiio build such combos for example. You can also search this forum to get an alternative to your HiFi system.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mattbot2 

Hello everyone.

 

I have a Sony CMT-PX333 Hi-Fi that I've been using to drive my DT770 80ohm version and think it's got enough juice but I don't know.

 

The manual just says "accepts headphones of 8ohms or more."

 

Any way to tell if I'm getting enough juice?

Don't know about the PX333 but I still own a Sony MD373 from the same period, and with about the same power output, and it can drive my 650 phones just fine. The 373, and probably the 333, uses an IC amp, or power chip, which may not seem very inspiring but does actually sound very good. IC amps are limited in power output but that's not important with headphones; if they only put out 10 clean watts it's enough.