[krismusic]

Forgive me for being an ignoramus. I should be able to work this out for myself.
Is there any reason why the Amp spec below would not be up to the job of driving the HD600's to their potential?
Sennheiser HD600 specs.
Frequency response (headphones) 12 - 40500 Hz
Sound pressure level (SPL) 97dB/1V
THD, total harmonic distortion 0,1 %
Nominal impedance 300 ohms.
Onkyo HA200 DAC/ Amp
Power output.
145 mW + 145 mW
(32 Ω, 1 kHz, 10% THD, JEITA) 60 mW + 60 mW
(300 Ω, 1 kHz, 10% THD, JEITA) 35 mW + 35 mW
(600 Ω, 1 kHz, 10% THD, JEITA)
Thd + N (total harmonic distortion plus noise)
0.003% (32 Ω, 1 kHz, 100 mW Frequency response + 100 mW) 10 Hz–100 kHz ( IN)
Max input power
Vrms (Audio IN)
Headphone impedance 
8 Ω–600 Ω

 

[PurpleAngel]

You might want to read up and ask here.
http://www.head-fi.org/t/538255/sennheiser-hd-600-impressions-thread

 

[krismusic]

You might want to read up and ask here.
http://www.head-fi.org/t/538255/sennheiser-hd-600-impressions-thread

I did think of asking there but I thought I might get a more objective answer here. Thanks though. I'll give it a whirl.

 

[castleofargh]

I personally have a problem with the power at 10% THD. usually when distortions start rising up to 1%, it will be to 10% or more just a little bit louder, but how fast that will be is not a sure thing to me. so I would be more confident in specs @1%THD.
 
from innerfidelity's measure of a hd600, to reach 115db you would need around 55mw(4.1v into 307ohm). so it's up to you to decide if it's a little too close(even more so when the 60mw is at 10%THD), or of you will never ever try to go that loud anyway and thus don't need more power.
but keep in mind that if you add some EQ+negative gain, or use something like replaygain, the track will go that much lower in loudness. so while I'm not one to go for the idea that more headroom sounds better(because I don't understand why it should be so), I'm certainly always looking for more than just how loud I listen to, for the reasons I just mentioned.

 

[VNandor]

  I personally have a problem with the power at 10% THD. usually when distortions start rising up to 1%, it will be to 10% or more just a little bit louder, but how fast that will be is not a sure thing to me. so I would be more confident in specs @1%THD.
 
from innerfidelity's measure of a hd600, to reach 115db you would need around 55mw(4.1v into 307ohm). so it's up to you to decide if it's a little too close(even more so when the 60mw is at 10%THD), or of you will never ever try to go that loud anyway and thus don't need more power.
but keep in mind that if you add some EQ+negative gain, or use something like replaygain, the track will go that much lower in loudness. so while I'm not one to go for the idea that more headroom sounds better(because I don't understand why it should be so), I'm certainly always looking for more than just how loud I listen to, for the reasons I just mentioned.

I'm not sure where I got the idea but I thought as volume increases so does the distortion because the amp is "being pushed" to its limit. Maybe I thought that because it is true to headphones but I'm not sure about that as well. I read a lot of stuff on the internet and forget most of them quite quickly.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

Quote:

Originally Posted by VNandor /img/forum/go_quote.gif

I'm not sure where I got the idea but I thought as volume increases so does the distortion because the amp is "being pushed" to its limit. Maybe I thought that because it is true to headphones but I'm not sure about that as well. I read a lot of stuff on the internet and forget most of them quite quickly.

 

It is. All he's saying is that he'd be more confident if the ratings were stated at 1%, which is definitely audible deviation from the signal, that means you aren't likely to use all the power given at 300ohms considering how distorted it is by that point. If you listen at low volume that should be fine, but don't expect dynamics to be clean or easily appreciable vs an amp with more clean power.

 

For reference, the iPad isn't too shabby with the HD600, at least not until you try a very clean amp like the Meier, which will destroy your hearing if your basis for "too loud" is "when it sounds bad" (in other words this thing will go really loud before it starts distorting).

 

[castleofargh]

I'm not sure where I got the idea but I thought as volume increases so does the distortion because the amp is "being pushed" to its limit. Maybe I thought that because it is true to headphones but I'm not sure about that as well. I read a lot of stuff on the internet and forget most of them quite quickly.

the nominal nice working SS amp will have very low distortion well below 0.1% at almost all voltages you will use(up to a point). distortions won't necessarily rise with the voltage as they're given in percentage of the output.  for most good working, clean, voltage amps, to get 1 or 10% THD means you've reached and passed the limit of the amp(current or voltage). a little less voltage and the amp is super fine, a little more and it's not even music anymore. on most amps this is a very clean limit where the distortions will just be low, and then boom! start rising like crazy.
so 1% or 10% THD will in fact give a very close values for most amps as it is that particular limit the amp reached. maybe 1% is at 55mW, maybe it's 58mW, or whatever, but it won't make a significant enough difference to really matter when using the headphone. what I dislike with 10% THD is the added uncertainty.
when I see a 10% THD value, I'm thinking old colored tube amps where the standard had to be set to 10% else they would have failed from the start because they had like 3%THD at best when everything was perfect with the best tube. to me the simple idea of using that value in the spec is something negative(total subjective bias^_^). like holding on to aging standards, or trying to show a power value that looks superior with a trick, or whatever other problem that might get pushed under the rug thanks to a lenient standard. it's not necessarily the case at all, I don't know this product and maybe it's a very nice device.
but I'm a skeptical, I can't help it. I'd rather buy this one than an amp without any spec at the load of my headphone, but I'd also rather buy an amp with specs at 1% or even less into the load I'm looking for. if I can't try the device myself, I'll just avoid anything that doesn't show exactly what I'm looking for.