grokit,
People may build and sell high-wattage headphones amps because of commercial reasons. It doesn't mean that the high power is needed or used. It's the same as selling fancy cables - no benefit, but no harm either. If there are willing buyers, there will be sellers to satisfy them regardless of whether the product is needed or not (and it doesn't even mean that the seller believes that the product is needed.)
By the way, I also have a PhD in engineering, but not electrical. However, I have taken electrical engineering classes... Actually, anyone who studied the electrical power equation even in high school can tell you that what you're saying about high wattage for the HE-6 doesn't make sense. See, voltage is the square root of the product of power (watts) and resistance (ohms). This means that if your resistance is fixed (50 ohms), voltage will grow quite fast as you increase power. Even at just 2W, you will get 10V which will produce a volume of 116.5dB on the HE-6 based on its sensitivity. This is already insanely loud even for peaks. High-wattage amps will work, but you will be utilizing them at a small fraction of their power.
If you aren't convinced by the simple laws of electricity, maybe the only thing would be to put a power meter between your headphones and the amp which will show you that you never exceed 1W... Would you be convinced then?
I'm already convinced that the HE-6 complies with the good old laws of electricity. If it didn't, someone would win the Nobel prize for building a device that disproves some basic laws of physics. Other than that, I listened to the HE-6 on 1W amps (DAC1, m903) as well as an 11W amp (Beta 22), and the 1W amps drove them just as well as the 11W amp.
This is my last post on the high-wattage topic. I can't make it any clearer than this.
People may build and sell high-wattage headphones amps because of commercial reasons. It doesn't mean that the high power is needed or used. It's the same as selling fancy cables - no benefit, but no harm either. If there are willing buyers, there will be sellers to satisfy them regardless of whether the product is needed or not (and it doesn't even mean that the seller believes that the product is needed.)
By the way, I also have a PhD in engineering, but not electrical. However, I have taken electrical engineering classes... Actually, anyone who studied the electrical power equation even in high school can tell you that what you're saying about high wattage for the HE-6 doesn't make sense. See, voltage is the square root of the product of power (watts) and resistance (ohms). This means that if your resistance is fixed (50 ohms), voltage will grow quite fast as you increase power. Even at just 2W, you will get 10V which will produce a volume of 116.5dB on the HE-6 based on its sensitivity. This is already insanely loud even for peaks. High-wattage amps will work, but you will be utilizing them at a small fraction of their power.
If you aren't convinced by the simple laws of electricity, maybe the only thing would be to put a power meter between your headphones and the amp which will show you that you never exceed 1W... Would you be convinced then?
I'm already convinced that the HE-6 complies with the good old laws of electricity. If it didn't, someone would win the Nobel prize for building a device that disproves some basic laws of physics. Other than that, I listened to the HE-6 on 1W amps (DAC1, m903) as well as an 11W amp (Beta 22), and the 1W amps drove them just as well as the 11W amp.
This is my last post on the high-wattage topic. I can't make it any clearer than this.