[kaushama]

We all know most of the consumer products do not have that much of juice, which gives by a good headphone amplifier. A good amplifier gives big current and voltage swings to produce the fidelity we all love to hear! As headphone breaking is a well accepted concept, which is supposed to work by toning the mobile electromagnetic components in a headphone, too much current swings could be detrimental to the performance over time not to mention their life time. This is particularly possible if headphone manufacturers are making their products to suit consumer market.
So are we paying hundreds of dollars just to kill and retard another hundred dollars worth headphone?
Just food for thought guys!!!!

 

[kramer5150]

To draw upon a speaker analogy....

Youre more likely to damage a voice coil under-powering it with a clipped signal, versus a clean amplified signal.... assuming the clean amped signal is not pushing the driver surround/spider beyond its Xmax.

I would think so long as you dont push the driver to max excursion or overheat the voice coil it should last just as long as an unamped can???

Garrett

 

[crazyfrenchman27]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kaushama We all know most of the consumer products do not have that much of juice, which gives by a good headphone amplifier. A good amplifier gives big current and voltage swings to produce the fidelity we all love to hear! As headphone breaking is a well accepted concept, which is supposed to work by toning the mobile electromagnetic components in a headphone, too much current swings could be detrimental to the performance over time not to mention their life time. This is particularly possible if headphone manufacturers are making their products to suit consumer market. So are we paying hundreds of dollars just to kill and retard another hundred dollars worth headphone? Just food for thought guys!!!!

No.

Most of what you state is simply not true.

-Matt

 

[CRESCENDOPOWER]

If one is stupid enough to fry his, or her phones with too much clean power they deserve the ear damage that they get.

 

[blue4n3]

DUDE!!!

That's not nice, I can say that you want a clean signal....and that is it....it is never cool to protest that someone overdriving their 'phones deserve ear damage.....

Not cool

 

[kaushama]

Ok! That was only a theoritical possibility occured to me! Not meant to be rude or harsh! Most of the times theories does not amount to reality in practice! I agree we amplify to get a cleaner signal which I will continue to do even it damages my can! My appologies!

 

[fewtch]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kaushama Ok! That was only a theoritical possibility occured to me! Not meant to be rude or harsh! Most of the times theories does not amount to reality in practice! I agree we amplify to get a cleaner signal which I will continue to do even it damages my can!

I think you're being silly... why would amplification damage a headphone? It's designed to be driven at listenable levels, even loud levels. I think you could drive a headphone just a little below driver excursion point (clipping) for weeks at a time, without even a slight damage.

 

[ken36]

No. Definitely not.

 

[fewtch]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ken36 No. Definitely not.

Why not? The voice coils would warm up pretty good, but as long as you aren't actually clipping the drivers, nothing's happening that should cause any damage. Headphone drivers are built to take that kind of stress. Not that there would be any reason to do it...

 

[adhoc]

actually, if your source has a high dc offset (roughly >20mV), an amplifier which lacks input/output coupling caps would amplify that offset as well, leading to certain headphone damage.

 

[markl]

Quote:

To draw upon a speaker analogy.... Youre more likely to damage a voice coil under-powering it with a clipped signal, versus a clean amplified signal

What he said. It's underpowering that would more likely cause stress and damage over time.

 

[tortie]

Using headphones with amps will actually increase the life of your cans. If you listen to your headphones unamped and you want your music loud, chances are you are listening to your headphones with some sort of distortion and if done for long periods of time, this is very harmful for your drivers. If you have an amp, especially a well designed one, the volume would be too loud for you to listen tobefore it reaches distortion levels. This will lead to longer headphone life.

 

[wang228]

kaushama,
headphones will only be given big voltage and high currents when played at loud volumes. A headphone amp will only supply big voltage/current when asked for by the listener. At normal listenning level, it shouldn't damage your headphones.

 

[Hirsch]

Gross oversimplification alert!

Sound generally is propagated as sine waves. The drivers of speakers/headphones are designed to handle this waveform without damage. However, when an amp is underpowered, it can't power the peak excursion of the waveform, where the most power is needed. So, the peak doesn't happen properly, and the wave form looks more like a square wave. Drivers aren't equipped to handle square waves well, and that's where most damage occurs.

You can damage a headphone with too much power as well. However, to do so, you would have to push enough current through the headphone to overheat it. The headphone would go into distortion long before you reached the point where you were melting the coils. Either that, or the listening levels would be so high that the person listening couldn't actually tell, due to hearing damage. As long as the sound is clean and undistorted, you're safe.

Finally, proper capacitor or transformer coupling of the amp to the headphone should prevent DC from damaging a driver (which it will). A direct-coupled design needs to be well-executed to prevent DC leakage from frying a driver.

 

[kramer5150]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hirsch Gross oversimplification alert! Sound generally is propagated as sine waves. The drivers of speakers/headphones are designed to handle this waveform without damage. However, when an amp is underpowered, it can't power the peak excursion of the waveform, where the most power is needed. So, the peak doesn't happen properly, and the wave form looks more like a square wave. Drivers aren't equipped to handle square waves well, and that's where most damage occurs. You can damage a headphone with too much power as well. However, to do so, you would have to push enough current through the headphone to overheat it. The headphone would go into distortion long before you reached the point where you were melting the coils. Either that, or the listening levels would be so high that the person listening couldn't actually tell, due to hearing damage. As long as the sound is clean and undistorted, you're safe. Finally, proper capacitor or transformer coupling of the amp to the headphone should prevent DC from damaging a driver (which it will). A direct-coupled design needs to be well-executed to prevent DC leakage from frying a driver.

Gross oversimplification alert #2!

Watts are watts, coulombs are coulombs..etc..

From an AC sine wave standpoint, .2 Watts from amplifier A is the same as .2 watts from amplifier B. Granted they may sound different.... But from an AC wave standpoint they're identical. So long as neither are pushed into clipping (becasue that can heat up the coil), and neither are pushing the driver beyond its physical limits.

Garrett