Allen & Heath XD 53 require amp?

An amp would likely not help them. At 36 ohms and 105dB/mW, these are incredibly efficient headphones. Be sure you're getting a very good seal, if you're not getting a good seal you'll lose all your bass.

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Originally Posted by Bare-E Raws 

Just what the title says. Do the Allen & Heath XD 53 require an amp? Just plugged into my laptop there ain't no bass in these suckers. Would an amp improve this?

Possibly, but not sure. Although low impedance headphones are easier to drive to high volume levels, there are potential problems that actually affect them more, and these, if present, do degrade bass quality. If the sound output on the laptop has a serial capacitor (to remove DC) that is too small, it will result in bass roll-off on low impedance loads. I have this "feature" on one of my sound cards. A common issue with sound cards and onboard audio with unamplified (line) output is that the output impedance is too high; this results in a poor damping factor and colored (especially in the bass, although this is typically a resonant, boomy boost, rather than a lack of bass) frequency response. For example, another one of my sound cards has more than 100 Ohms of output impedance.

It's hard to say when we have no reference to your 'no bass'. Unless you got a fake / defective pair those headphones should have plenty of bass out of (almost) anything you plug them into...

I used them (regularly) for years for on stage DJing. Those and the HD 25-1 IIs were my cans of choice when I was spinning.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bare-E Raws 

I got them from a legit music store. They don't have bass perhaps because they are meant for on stage DJing rather than anything else so the Bass is there just not a whole lot. The clarity and quality is most deffinately there though. I just read up on the whole ohms thing with headphones and i shouldn't really need an amp. The seal is good i believe becasue even when i press them into my ears more they still sound relatively the same. Thanks for the replies I think I got it all figured out now.

There's not many headphones I'd recommend for producing at all though...Just get a nice little pair of monitors...
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bare-E Raws 

Ya they  are a great pair for spinning but producing.... not so much.