[Wingtip]

Greetings to all - recent lurker, first time poster. I've been a vintage receiver and speaker enthusiast for a while, but as a new father, I've come to appreciate the synergy between modern headphones and vintage amplification. My wife bought me Sennheiser HD 380 a couple years ago, and until recently I used them infrequently, and exclusively on my Mac laptop or iPhone. Why bother with headphones when I had vintage receivers with ample watts powering massive JBL L300s with 15" woofers, horn midranges, and 077 slot tweeters?
 
Turns out that tiny-ass infants ain't cool with those high-SPL shenanigans. I used to rock and roll all night and party every day. Then it was every other day... now I'm lucky to find half an hour a week in which to get funky. One night I'm sitting in front of the laptop, digging some high-res needledrops via the Sennheisers, when it occurs to me: you got a 6.5mm adapter; jack that straight into the source. My test track was Sultans of Swing, from a first run pressing of Dire Straits' eponymous debut. A very well-recorded LP, readily available in many used record bins at a reasonable price, and and an excellent test of any audio system. 
 
I hooked the Sennheisers up to my Concept 11.0 (which has two headphone outputs), and my immediate reaction was "holy ****!"
 
I've never owned or even listened to summit-fi headphones, but I do have experience with TOTL vintage gear, and this was a startling and revelatory audio experience. The Concept 11.0 was driving the hell out of my headphones, and the vinyl sounded incredible. I tried it with some other gear - Rotel RX-1603, Marantz 2325, and Luxman R-1120 - and the experience was incredible across the board. Any recommendations for headphone upgrades to enjoy the amplification available? 
 

 

 

 

 

[Saoshyant]

There is a world of options ahead of you, which in your case is both lucky or unlucky.  When I started into headphones, I realized I had two paths I could take.  Get the most expensive thing I could, or work my way up and make a journey of it.  I'm liking that I decided to go the journey path, and due to luck found some ridiculous deals along the way to help me along that path.
 
Unfortunately I'm not particularly useful when it comes to making suggestions on closed headphones, something I hope to remedy one day.  My top two closed are the on ear Senn Momentum, and Onkyo's FC300.  I'm sure there are others who'll be more helpful in this department.
 
Either way, welcome to head-fi, and given your background, there's no need to apologize for what it's about to do to your wallet.

 

[moodyrn]

  Greetings to all - recent lurker, first time poster. I've been a vintage receiver and speaker enthusiast for a while, but as a new father, I've come to appreciate the synergy between modern headphones and vintage amplification. My wife bought me Sennheiser HD 380 a couple years ago, and until recently I used them infrequently, and exclusively on my Mac laptop or iPhone. Why bother with headphones when I had vintage receivers with ample watts powering massive JBL L300s with 15" woofers, horn midranges, and 077 slot tweeters?
 
Turns out that tiny-ass infants ain't cool with those high-SPL shenanigans. I used to rock and roll all night and party every day. Then it was every other day... now I'm lucky to find half an hour a week in which to get funky. One night I'm sitting in front of the laptop, digging some high-res needledrops via the Sennheisers, when it occurs to me: you got a 6.5mm adapter; jack that straight into the source. My test track was Sultans of Swing, from a first run pressing of Dire Straits' eponymous debut. A very well-recorded LP, readily available in many used record bins at a reasonable price, and and an excellent test of any audio system. 
 
I hooked the Sennheisers up to my Concept 11.0 (which has two headphone outputs), and my immediate reaction was "holy ****!"
 
I've never owned or even listened to summit-fi headphones, but I do have experience with TOTL vintage gear, and this was a startling and revelatory audio experience. The Concept 11.0 was driving the hell out of my headphones, and the vinyl sounded incredible. I tried it with some other gear - Rotel RX-1603, Marantz 2325, and Luxman R-1120 - and the experience was incredible across the board. Any recommendations for headphone upgrades to enjoy the amplification available? 
 

 
 
Welcome to headfi and more importantly, this thread lol. Great first post, there have been many eye openers around here the first time someone plugged their cans into the headphone jack of a nice vintage iron. I'm an ortho lover myself, and for not much money, I can recommend a pair of mad dogs just to get you feet wet if it's closed your after. If you don't mind open cans, then the newly released hifiman he-400i is getting a lot of positive reviews. Do you have a budget in mind?

 

[Skylab]

So my SX-980 is back home after have some work done and my goodness I hardly recognize the thing!

The sound is so much stronger and cleaner than before. I always thought the amp was special but that was before I got it serviced and cleaned. Could not be happier! 


Thanks,


:evil:  

Nice! No doubt, the more you show these vintage pieces some love, the more they love you back

 

[Wingtip]

Greetings to all - recent lurker, first time poster. I've been a vintage receiver and speaker enthusiast for a while, but as a new father, I've come to appreciate the synergy between modern headphones and vintage amplification. My wife bought me Sennheiser HD 380 a couple years ago, and until recently I used them infrequently, and exclusively on my Mac laptop or iPhone. Why bother with headphones when I had vintage receivers with ample watts powering massive JBL L300s with 15" woofers, horn midranges, and 077 slot tweeters?
 
Turns out that tiny-ass infants ain't cool with those high-SPL shenanigans. I used to rock and roll all night and party every day. Then it was every other day... now I'm lucky to find half an hour a week in which to get funky. One night I'm sitting in front of the laptop, digging some high-res needledrops via the Sennheisers, when it occurs to me: you got a 6.5mm adapter; jack that straight into the source. My test track was Sultans of Swing, from a first run pressing of Dire Straits' eponymous debut. A very well-recorded LP, readily available in many used record bins at a reasonable price, and and an excellent test of any audio system. 
 
I hooked the Sennheisers up to my Concept 11.0 (which has two headphone outputs), and my immediate reaction was "holy ****!"
 
I've never owned or even listened to summit-fi headphones, but I do have experience with TOTL vintage gear, and this was a startling and revelatory audio experience. The Concept 11.0 was driving the hell out of my headphones, and the vinyl sounded incredible. I tried it with some other gear - Rotel RX-1603, Marantz 2325, and Luxman R-1120 - and the experience was incredible across the board. Any recommendations for headphone upgrades to enjoy the amplification available? 

 

[Wingtip]

Apologies for the double post. saoshyant, I'm not necessarily limited to closed back headphones. moodyrn, I'm probably looking in the $400-$800 range. 
 
Based on my preliminary research on this site, it appears that a receiver's damping factor and output impedance are important in determining its ability to drive modern headphones. Are there any recommended guidelines for compatibility, or any introductory guides to understanding these variables?

 

[Xenophon]

It's said that the impedance of the headphone should be >8 times the output impedance of the amp for optimum damping. Planar headphones are much less sensitive to this than dynamic cans, I guess due to the fact that they represent a uniform, almost purely resistive load and because mechanical damping is more important there.  
 
No idea what the output impedance of the headphone out of my SX-1980 is but all I can say is that both my HE-6 (50 ohm planar) and HD-800 (supposedly 300 Ohm but variable) sound great on it.

 

[MattTCG]

  Apologies for the double post. saoshyant, I'm not necessarily limited to closed back headphones. moodyrn, I'm probably looking in the $400-$800 range. 
 
Based on my preliminary research on this site, it appears that a receiver's damping factor and output impedance are important in determining its ability to drive modern headphones. Are there any recommended guidelines for compatibility, or any introductory guides to understanding these variables?

 
The Mad Dog that Moody suggest is quite good. The other choice given your budget would be to step up to the Alpha Dog. IMO the Alpha Dog is one of the best bargains in the game, especially for a closed ortho. I have put them against hp's that cost 2x as much and come away liking the AD more.  I've tried the AD on several nice vintage receivers and they really pair well with vintage amps and receivers. It's also a very nice looking hp with the claret colored 3-d printed cups. Anyway, that's my best recommendation. GL...and welcome to headfi!!

 

[Oregonian]

Apologies for the double post. saoshyant, I'm not necessarily limited to closed back headphones. moodyrn, I'm probably looking in the $400-$800 range. 

Based on my preliminary research on this site, it appears that a receiver's damping factor and output impedance are important in determining its ability to drive modern headphones. Are there any recommended guidelines for compatibility, or any introductory guides to understanding these variables?

Congrats on the little one and welcome to the best thread on Head Fi!

I honestly wouldn't worry too much about the damping factor situation. I've been running nothing but vintage amps for over two years now with a variety of headphones from the ortho HE-6 straight out of the speaker taps of a Pioneer Spec 2 down to the dynamic Denons and you are so right, the sound is like a revelation. At least for us vintage fanboys.

As was mentioned the Mr. Speakers line of ortho headphones (Mad Dog, Alpha Dog) really do sound amazing out of vintage. I found the HE-400 from HiFiMan to be very impressive as well. Not quite as mind blowing as the HE-6 from the taps but pretty good.

 

[PhoenixG]

  It's said that the impedance of the headphone should be >8 times the output impedance of the amp for optimum damping. Planar headphones are much less sensitive to this than dynamic cans, I guess due to the fact that they represent a uniform, almost purely resistive load and because mechanical damping is more important there.  
 
No idea what the output impedance of the headphone out of my SX-1980 is but all I can say is that both my HE-6 (50 ohm planar) and HD-800 (supposedly 300 Ohm but variable) sound great on it.

Just throwing my two cents in on damping factor here. Damping factor is more at play when you have a lot of driver (not listener, haha) mass moving around and isn't quite as big with phones. Here's one reason why that's the case with headphones besides the small drivers. Most vintage amps put resistors in the output path to protect the amp and your phones from being well overpowered. The more powerful the amp, the bigger the resistor, the lower the damping factor. That has the curious effect of taking a number that is normally quite big and making it very small, possibly even less than one. That means your headphones might not even be the most important part of the circuit (electronically at least, haha). The benefit to that though is that the impedance curve of your headphone becomes a less important part of the frequency space voltage divider equation, effectively flattening out the response curve of your phones and conforming it towards the amp's curve. This also has a strong effect of creating synergies of amp/phone combos that just pair so very well together because they balance each other well. This thread has largely mulled over those synergies and their discovery helps keep it around. 
Cheers.

 

[MattTCG]

Well, that search didn't take nearly as long as I expected. With Moody's help, I scored a near pristine Fisher 500c tonight. Should have it in about a week. I'm super excited to own this one. I first got interested in the Fisher about five years ago. Moody's review about it sealed the deal for me and I've wanted it ever since.
 
Can't wait to have such a nice, rare piece of vintage steel back on the rack.

 Thanks for your help Moody, much appreciated.

 

[BobG55]

  Apologies for the double post. saoshyant, I'm not necessarily limited to closed back headphones. moodyrn, I'm probably looking in the $400-$800 range. 
 
Based on my preliminary research on this site, it appears that a receiver's damping factor and output impedance are important in determining its ability to drive modern headphones. Are there any recommended guidelines for compatibility, or any introductory guides to understanding these variables?

Hi Wingtip,
 
First of all congrats on your new little one.  Looks adorable.  If you're looking for an excellent "closed" HP I personally recommend the Shure SRH1540 which is in the lower part of your price range.  I've had this HP for a while now & just love it.  It's very well balanced & the soundstage is quite surprising for a closed HP.  Below is a link of a review by a respected HP expert named Tyll Hertsens of Innerfidelity.
 

http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/cool-comfy-and-competent-shure-srh1540

 

[Xenophon]

  Well, that search didn't take nearly as long as I expected. With Moody's help, I scored a near pristine Fisher 500c tonight. Should have it in about a week. I'm super excited to own this one. I first got interested in the Fisher about five years ago. Moody's review about it sealed the deal for me and I've wanted it ever since.
 
Can't wait to have such a nice, rare piece of vintage steel back on the rack.

 Thanks for your help Moody, much appreciated.

Congratulations!  I've been looking at the Fishers for quite some time too but they're hard to find over the pond and I have enough build/restauration projects on my plate now.  Enjoy and please post some pictures (and a review of course once you have it.

 

[MattTCG]

 
Congratulations!  I've been looking at the Fishers for quite some time too but they're hard to find over the pond and I have enough build/restauration projects on my plate now.  Enjoy and please post some pictures (and a review of course once you have it.

 
Thanks. I'll post some pics and impressions after I've had a little time with it. It looks like the only project I'll be doing is a custom hardwood cabinet for the Fisher. Just got to pick out a nice variety of wood, maybe walnut or some spalted maple. Hm....

 

[SpeakerBox]

A thing of beauty!  One of my model 1 amps with the top off while adjusting the bias to spec.  Jeff Rowland himself gave me the instructions on how to do it!