Quote:
Originally Posted by
raysclim1568 
Hi,
Thanks for the response.
I do realized that the AMP portion of fostex HP-P1 is their weaker link.
I have a ALO continental V2 Amplifier is pairing with Fostex now ( Fostex as DAC and ALO as amp.)
Below are the extract of the specification of the ALO continental Amplifier :
Frequency Response: 40Hz-20KHz +/- 1dB
Signal-to-Noise Ratio: >100dB
Total Harmonic Distortion: 1%
Stereo Crosstalk: >85dB @ 1KHz
Input Impedance 30K ohms Output
Output 300mW@ 32 ohms
Will it be good enough for HE500 ? as claimed , ALO continental are cable to drive up to 600 Ohm headphone too.
Thanks
Raymond Lim
I drive HE-500 through a comparable output power amplifier, DACmini. DACmini outputs almost 800mW (with 1 Ohm output mode) to HE-500. ALO continental, according to its specs, outputs around 200mW (assuming low output impedance) to HE-500’s 45 Ohm resistance. Although it seems that the power difference between DACmini and ALO continental is huge, in reality is no more than 6dB, which is significant but not huge.
I enjoy HE-500 a lot with DACmini, and my music preferences are close to yours. I rarely feel that it is underpowered driving HE-500 (only when listening music very loud and on some songs that are very demanding - mostly classical). When I first got HE-500 I was listening music in more high levels. I was used to high power levels because my older phone (HD-650) needed this for displaying the inner details. Nowadays, I rarely listen to those levels, so I am never experiencing clipping, and I believe that even if I listened to 6dB more (comparable to ALO continental’s lesser output power) I wouldn’t either.
So I am assuming that you should be very fine, especially considering that some fellow head-fiers believe that HE-500 pairs very well with tubes.
Be warned though: As Audio Addict say, HE-500 scales very well with very powerful amps, giving it more ‘energy’.
Edited by plin - 12/26/11 at 2:35am
