V-MODA M-100: Discussion/Feedback, Reviews, Pics, etc. - Page 815

Originally Posted by chuckle490 

I was also expecting much more bass. I've grown to enjoy the lower quantity of bass though, I still want to amp it up though.

Originally Posted by Craigster75 



The best sounding pairing I have heard is Vamp, so the upcoming Verza should be spectacular, especially with bass boost.  My only issue with Vamp is that it is slightly underpowered for the price at 150mw/channel.  It is fine for most music, but for those times when I want to create that virtual club experience in my head, I am running at or near max volume.  I am curious to hear the FiiO E12 as I think it would be a good pairing based on reviews.  Also, the C&C BH might bring out the highs more on the M-100 if that is one's preference.  Both of these are in the $100+ range and will probably be superior to the E11 which also performs well for the price.

Originally Posted by Evshrug 

Chuckle490,
I am using the E12 with my AKG Q701. Not the same headphone of course, BUT the amp would tighten the bass and increase detail and help make each instrument more distinct, while also allowing the sound to kick harder. IMO it's a high quality amp, like having a pocket E09k without the dock for FiiO's Amp/DAC combo units. It offers WAY more power than needed to drive the M-100 to listening volume, but having extra headroom has it's benefits.

The bass-boost is apparently under contention right now. Currently, the boost isn't about skewing the balance of frequencies towards bass... It's completely focused on the sub-bass region, reaching down to the limits of human hearing and mostly just making "atmospheric bass" more authoritative by 4 dB. It's very clean, too. Others have asked for the boost to instead compete with the digizoid ZO, with a stronger boost that affects the mid-bass area. I don't have anything against the existence of the ZO, but I like the E12's boost the way it is now, and here's why... It's unique. Atmospheric bass is a new thing to me (when I started following this thread last year, my main headphone was the AD700), and I don't know of any other amp (the E11 is close) with a hardware boost that focuses enirely on sub-bass, leaving the rest of the frequencies to ascribe to the "wire with gain" philosophy. It's a boost I feel I can leave on with almost any song or genre. What do you think?

Full review on this amp coming soon.

Originally Posted by mikeaj 

Some headphones have higher than 600 ohms.

 

Loudness is determined by output level, headphone impedance, and headphone sensitivity—usually given as a figure like 95 dB SPL / 1 mW power input.  For sensitivity, some headphones go below 90 dB SPL / 1 mW, while some IEMs are more like 120 dB SPL / 1 mW.  This is a huge span, so focusing on impedance alone is ignoring a very important factor.  Some 600 ohms headphones are less sensitive than the Beyerdynamics or whatever you may be thinking about.  Because of the low sensitivity, the ~50 ohms HE-6 needs a higher voltage than 600 ohms Beyerdynamics to reach equivalent loudness.  Because of the low impedance and P = V^2 / Z (power equals voltage squared divided by impedance), that means the HE-6 needs a whole lot more power than those Beyerdynamics, for example.  Higher-impedance headphones are easier to drive in general , except that they need a higher voltage equivalent power levels (again, see P = V^2 / Z).  Amplifiers will usually have more problems with lower-impedance headphones, because more current is required and because of potential output impedance issues.

 

Non-idealities in amplifiers (intended by the designer or not) mean that there is some difference in signal produced between different amplifiers, particularly at different operating conditions, so sound quality can be affected.  Most people will point to different amps sounding different, and this is the big draw behind having different amplifiers—though maybe in reality, differences are less than people think.  In controlled listening environments, fair comparisons, comparisons with different amps under bedsheets, the ability for people to correctly identify different amps is diminished (though not to zero of course, for certain combinations)...

 

Some amps look nice; some people like having volume knobs to turn.  There are reasons other than sound quality to get an amp, though most people try to talk about sound quality.

 

 

A common situation these days is to have people using but a fraction of the output power of an amplifier (e.g. 10 mW out of a possible 500 mW @ 50 ohms), and they say they don't like the sound they get from their headphones.  Particularly for planar magnetics, the common response seems to be to get a different, even more powerful amplifier (e.g. capable of 2000 mW @ 50 ohms), with the claim that you need more power.  That's bullocks.  You can try something different, but unless you're running your current amp out of its comfort zone, the sound is not a result of lack of power.  It's more likely that someone just doesn't like a certain headphone's sound, which is a-ok.  There are other headphones out in the world.

 

So to answer the question in the title, higher output power is needed if you want to listen louder.  Headphone sensitivity and impedance determine how loud they will play for a given setting on an amplifier.  If you max an amp out and want more volume, or if the amp is distorting at higher levels, you want more power.  Otherwise, no.

 

In my opinion, the race for high output power headphone amps is mostly a marketing sham.  People generally are not using the extra power.  It is very convenient for amp manufacturers that there is a lack of understanding among consumers about what electric power means.  An amp capable of higher output power may or may not sound subjectively more "powerful", with more "authority", and so on with the buzzwords.

Originally disappointing VergeUnify 

Well I bit the bullet; they should arrive on Wednesday.  I'll be listening to them mostly through my Droid Bionic- once in a while at home depending on how good they sound.  Might inspire me to get a portable amp, with the increasing amount of dac/android compatibility.  If I don't like them, I'll be returning them for the Sony MDR 1Rs

Originally Posted by musical-kage 

The Sony MDR 1s are dissapointing in comparison