DT-770 / 600 ohm with Fiio E7+E9

Should do just fine. E7/E9 is pretty neutral, so it won't add any warmth like a tube set-up would, but they should power them just fine. I use an E7/E9 combo with a set of HD650s and have never really turned the volume past 12 o'clock.

 

 

Sam

 

 

Make sure to upgrade to balanced cables, from my experience all the 600ohm headphones need balanced cables to get the full potential. Especially DT series with 600ohm, you definitely need balanced to get more power.

*speechless* 

I would take any advice about cable upgrading, especially when the word 'balanced' is used, with a sack full of salt.

 

Personally I don't think the DT-770 600Ohm will be powered properly from a Fiio E7/E9. My Asus ST can't drive my DT-880 250Ohm to its full potential

Heya,

 

The E9 does about 80mW into 600ohms.

 

It will work. But really, I'd get something that does more power than that.

 

You could sell the E7+E9 for $140 pretty easily. And with that you could buy a NFB 12.1 for like $60 more ($215 new). You get a better DAC and more than twice the power output (150mW into 600ohms).

 

Or you could sell the E9 and get a Schiit Valahlla ($350). It will be put 300mW into 600ohms. So you would get nearly four times the power of your E9. And have some nice tubes.

 

And there's also the Little Dot MK IV, which will put 500mW (half a watt) into 600ohms; just over $350 shipped. Or less expensive is the Little Dot MK III, it does 300~350mW into 600ohms so would also be good, at $250 shipped.

 

Oh, and I wouldn't consider a re-cable, especially not to balanced. Not worth it. That's like buying a diamond plated titanium rolex (which is still just a rolex, if you get my meaning).

 

Very best,

 

Edited by MalVeauX - 3/27/12 at 9:19am

 

 

Yape, I would not upgrade cable on cheap headphones, it's more like Timex with a luxury diamond plated straps. haha...

From my experience, I had DT990 series and had a long session talking to Ray because I wasn't getting the max potential from this can, he told me with the balanced cables I get the full 4 channels feeding the headphone. But wasting $$$ on the entry headphone is no no, so ended up selling DT. :(.

I might not be as experienced audiophile like you but 600ohm is not ideal for single ended IMO, just me but could be different for others.

80 mW is not that low in fact, it is almost as much as the E11 into 80 Ohms (a combination that most people would agree to be quite sufficient), and the DT770 is only rated for handling 100 mW - ~1 dB more than 80 mW - anyway. As long as the E9 can actually output anything close to 80 mW cleanly without significant distortion, it should be OK.
Cables (balanced or not) do not make much useful difference to the sound, so I would not worry about that. With a 600 Ohm headphone, they are even less of a factor, since the cable impedance is more insignificant compared to the driver impedance.

 

Edited by stv014 - 3/27/12 at 1:56pm

So you're saying, putting more into it will do what exactly?

 

I have one plugged into a Lyr.

Explain?

 

Very best,

 

Nothing at sane volume levels that are likely to be less than 100 mW. Then again, the extra power does not improve the sound quality if not actually used, either. Otherwise, one could just use a cheap speaker amplifier for 1.5 W or more into 600 Ohm.

 

You are wasting your money if you don't power these properly. If you don't power them properly them you would had been better off buying a DT440 instead (the DT440 and DT880 250Ohm have the same SQ to me underpowered, save for sound signature differences).

Can you explain by exactly what metric is it "not powered properly" ? Getting an expensive amplifier for the DT770 is definitely a waste of money, since for the same total price one could cancel/return the DT770 and get another (e.g. Denon) headphone instead that is better even without buying a tube amplifier.

 

I use an DT770/600 wit a Corda2Move and it works perfectly. More than enough Power on the go. At the Desk is use a 12V Power supply with the Corda.