[Aelemar]

Hey guys, thank you for looking at my thread. I searched around for similar questions but had no luck finding any answers for my specific set of cans with my specific sound card, so here is the question: (quite simple, really)
 
Will setting the ZxR settings to the 600Ohm setting damage these headphones? They are rated at 42 Ohms
 
Previous to these headphones, until literally two days ago, I had the AKG Q701. Having had them for about a year, I wanted to try something else, so I sold them and got myself these cans.
 
I got these for $100 from a guy that had barely used them (they smell like new still, lol. He heard two songs and decided they sounded similar to his already existing pair of cans, so he didn't touch them anymore).
 
I had the same question with my AKGs, and turns out it was "fine" to use them at 600Ohms. No idea about these, though.
 
Problem is: at the regular 32/300ohms setting, I have to raise the volume to about 40-50% to get certain level of loudness.
 
On the 600ohm setting, I only need about 30% on my volume knob to achieve the same level of loudness.
 
And this might just be nonsense on my part, but on the 600ohm setting, it seems that the sound is just a bit "brighter" or more detailed. This might just be my imagination though I tried some metal and switched impedances while playing the music (and changed volumes accordingly) as well.
 
One last thing: I run my Windows volume at 80-100%, while keeping my ZxR volume knob at minimum., In other words, I manually adjust the volume through the knob. Is this a good practice? I feel it's easier to keep a check on the volume this way and avoid accidentally blasting my headphones with volume maxed out).
 
Sorry for the rambling. Thank you very much!!!!!

 

[germanium]

  Hey guys, thank you for looking at my thread. I searched around for similar questions but had no luck finding any answers for my specific set of cans with my specific sound card, so here is the question: (quite simple, really)
 
Will setting the ZxR settings to the 600Ohm setting damage these headphones? They are rated at 42 Ohms
 
Previous to these headphones, until literally two days ago, I had the AKG Q701. Having had them for about a year, I wanted to try something else, so I sold them and got myself these cans.
 
I got these for $100 from a guy that had barely used them (they smell like new still, lol. He heard two songs and decided they sounded similar to his already existing pair of cans, so he didn't touch them anymore).
 
I had the same question with my AKGs, and turns out it was "fine" to use them at 600Ohms. No idea about these, though.
 
Problem is: at the regular 32/300ohms setting, I have to raise the volume to about 40-50% to get certain level of loudness.
 
On the 600ohm setting, I only need about 30% on my volume knob to achieve the same level of loudness.
 
And this might just be nonsense on my part, but on the 600ohm setting, it seems that the sound is just a bit "brighter" or more detailed. This might just be my imagination though I tried some metal and switched impedances while playing the music (and changed volumes accordingly) as well.
 
One last thing: I run my Windows volume at 80-100%, while keeping my ZxR volume knob at minimum., In other words, I manually adjust the volume through the knob. Is this a good practice? I feel it's easier to keep a check on the volume this way and avoid accidentally blasting my headphones with volume maxed out).
 
Sorry for the rambling. Thank you very much!!!!!

To the question of the 600 ohm setting possibly damaging can yes it can if played excessively loud but played at reasonable levels, no it won't.
 
To the brighter sound on the higher ohm setting, that is probably a result of you playing them louder. The amp on the ZXR is a current mode feedback amp with exceptionally flat frequency response out to 10MHz no matter what the gain setting. That is the beauty of current mode feedback. Gain does not affect frequency response as it does with voltage mode feedback amps. Once you go so far up with gain on voltage feedback amps you start to lose high frequency response. The only reason that the ZXR's headphone amp doesn't output 10MHz is that it is being fed a band limited signal. All digital sound is band limited.
 
The volume knob provided by the ZXR ACM is a passive device that adds source impedance to the circuit & as such may affect some headphones sound in a negative way so it is advised in most cases not to use the ACM.