[juggernaut303]

hey im new to headphones, and i just bought these DT990s online, im powering them with my macbook and a total airhead amp from headroom.  is this enough? am i waaay too low on this? what do i gotta do to get the best sound quality, seems like theres a bit of distortion when i crank it. just dont want to do something stupid and mess them up.

 

[joelpearce]

What does the distortion sound like?
 
I probably wouldn't recommend trying to drive the 990/600s with a portable amp, but any reasonably muscular desktop amp has enough juice to push them well.
 
Keep in mind that they are also incredibly detailed headphones, and will bring out any flaws in your source (from low bitrate mp3s, etc.)

 

[Sparky14]

Yep, you are probably driving your amp pretty hard to power the DT990/600s. If you are "cranking" them, then I'd expect the quality to suffer.
 
Do you have a home receiver to test the headphones on? They would probably have more power than the Airhead. The Airhead would sound better under normal circumstances, but the DT990/600 are not normal circumstances.

 

[juggernaut303]

Yeah i think that it is showing the flaws of the music im listening to itself as well, but i will try it with my home deck and see what it sounds like.  any suggestions on how to power these cans on a trip or something?

 

[juggernaut303]

yup yup switched to my yamaha home receiver and it was much much different!

 

[joelpearce]

Their open nature makes them less than ideal for portable use anyway, but if you're talking about an amp that you can take with you, there are some options.
 
If you're also going to bringing your laptop, there are some fairly small dac/amps that have decent levels of power.
 
I have a Cute Battery II that I keep in my laptop bag as well.  It uses two rechargeable 9V batteries and comes with a plug, so it has plenty of juice for hungrier headphones.  It's not exactly pocket sized, but neither is the 990/600 leather bag.

 

[maverickronin]

I must listen really soft then.  My Bithead had no trouble with my 990/600s when I had them.  Did make sure the gain switch on your airhead was set to high?
 
If that doesn't work there are a few more things you can try with your airhead before you look for another amp.  First if you are using it on the go, try using lithium batteries instead of alkaline.  Lithium batteries have a higher terminal voltage than alkalines.(1.7 per cell vs 1.5) Lithium batteries are expensive but will give you some more runtime as well as higher volume.  The higher voltage is ok because the airhead AC adapter (which is sold separately on Headroom) gives it 9 volts.  That should power it just fine for home and/or near an outlet use.
 
If you know your way around a multimeter and a soldering iron, there are more options.  You could pack 8 height NiMH AAAs (1.2V per cell x 8 = 9.6V) to give you more volume but shorter battery life.  You could also buy a universal power supply for a little cheaper than the headroom one, or take an appropriate barrel plug for the DC in socket and wire it to an external battery back made from a few 9 volt batteries in parallel to give you plenty of volume and battery life.
 
If you're an electronics n00b then don't try anything in that last paragraph without help though.  You would have to get pretty creative to hurt yourself with such low voltages, but the airhead itself is another story.  I could walk you through it step by step if you were interested though.

 

[juggernaut303]

Yeah I'm not quite a wiring savvy guy. But I think finding a more powerful amp even if it's not super portable would be great, lol anything would be more portable than my yamaha home receiver. Thanks for e help, I'll keep looking to find the best for comparability. Any suggestions on what headphone to go for As a good addition to my started collection?

 

[gitf03]

You shouldn't try to power the 990/600 by a portable amp. What you need is an amp with high current to drive them properly. If you want to use a small amp, sell the 990/600 and get a pair of M50 or similar, other way it's just waste of the 990/600. Driving headphones well doesn't mean to reach high volumes, it rather means to get a tonal balance since the lower frequencies need more current then the higher ones.

 

[gitf03]

Quote:

Any suggestions on what headphone to go for As a good addition to my started collection?

If you want to use a headphone that doesn't need an amp for on the go I can recommend the ESW9. They have a somewhat similar sound signature to the 990/600. That are the two phones I use also 

 , but the 990 only with a tube amp.

 

[maverickronin]

Do you people listen that loud, or do I listen that soft?  Between 1/2 and 3/4 volume on my Bithead was enough for me.  No distortion and it still brought the bass.

 

[juggernaut303]

well luckily i usually only use these  headphones at home and it seems as though my home receiver is doing a grand job of powering these, the sound is clearer and the bass is much more present, as gitf03 mentioned, its not just volume i noticed with the yamaha, its the tone and the lower end power.  i love these suckers im probably gonna make these my home set and buy something else for on the road, any good grado headphones or maybe AKGs for on the road? using my portable amp?

 

[juggernaut303]

although those ESW9s look pretty nice not gonna lie.

 

[Ypoknons]

 
Spoiler for self-discovery: 
 

Spoiler

ESW's are also the opposite of Beyers, especially in the treble. 

 

[maverickronin]

Grado's leak like crazy.  You might as well carry around a boombox and make like its 1985 or something.
 
What's you budget?  If you've got plenty then you may want to wait a bit for the Beyer T50Ps to be released.  Those are the most similar to the 990s I can think of off the top of my head.  I listened to them for a bit at canjam.