Amp Question

[Signorino]

Please bear with me on this, as I have zero experience dealing with high end headphones. The nicest pair I've ever owned were Skull Candy's (I know, I'm ashamed).
 
I'm looking to buy a pair that will spend most of their time being plugged into my phone. After some "research" (research = guessing my way across the internet), I think I have it narrowed down to either the Sennheiser HD 600's or HD 598's. Assuming I'll need an amp to power these, I'm looking for suggestions. From my understanding, the main purpose of giving the headphones more power is just to let you turn up the volume higher. I usually listen to my music extremely quietly, so I imagine I won't be drawing that much power. Would I be able to get by with something cheap, along the lines of Lucid Laboratories CMOY, or am I going to be sacrificing sound quality at that point? Thanks.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

Quote:

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

I'm looking to buy a pair that will spend most of their time being plugged into my phone. After some "research" (research = guessing my way across the internet), I think I have it narrowed down to either the Sennheiser HD 600's or HD 598's. Assuming I'll need an amp to power these, I'm looking for suggestions. From my understanding, the main purpose of giving the headphones more power is just to let you turn up the volume higher. I usually listen to my music extremely quietly, so I imagine I won't be drawing that much power. Would I be able to get by with something cheap, along the lines of Lucid Laboratories CMOY, or am I going to be sacrificing sound quality at that point? Thanks.

 

As output rises so does distortion and noise. A good amplifier that can be considered a proper match to a particular headphone will be one that can provide enough power at the load/nominal impedance of the headphone that can go above and beyond safe hearing levels without distortion so you can be sure that there's enough power to preserve dynamic range. Note that you do not need to get a gigantic amp that outputs enough power at 8ohms to drive a speaker to achieve that, but neither does that mean getting any amp you find on eBay.

 

That said, there are some finds there. Like this one - it's not going to get any better for $99. The Schiit Magni is a slightly quieter (less noise, but more power) amplifier but it has no DAC. The HP101 already comes with a high-res compatible USB DAC input Some album downloads nowadays only come in 320kbps MP3 on Amazon and then 24/96 FLAC on hi-fi audio sites (like Dream Theater's The Astonishing), so this is a good way to make sure you won't need to fess around with the file just to play it on a 16/44.1 DAC.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Pangea-Audio-HP-101-Tube-Headphone-Amplifier-/261877544554?hash=item3cf91e366a:g:MmgAAOSwPZ5VSRa9

 

[Signorino]

Thanks for the information.

 

[PL4Y3R 0N3]

When you say plugged into your phone, do you mean for portable use? If so then you will need a portable amplifier. The fiio e13 may be an option, but I have no personal experience with amplifiers.

 

[TehDoge]

Be careful with portable amps, you'll need to find one with a high GAIN figure for something like the HD600 or you might as well use it straight off your phone. (I don't see a figure for the CMOY)

I would look at the HiFiMan HE-400s instead for your use or you probably need to look at a DAC/AMP combo to ensure a full range of volume.

 

[Signorino]

I actually ended up going with the Philips SHP9500 so I wouldn't need an AMP/DAC. I didn't want to deal with the inconvenience or the price of a decent one.