do hard to drive phones benefit more going balanced

[kool bubba ice]

My Sonys are pretty easy to drive & the difference going from SE to balanced is quite noticable..In theory would ohm-300-600 phones benefit more?

 

[ken36]

Not so fast, on this theory.

 

[kool bubba ice]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ken36 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Not so fast, on this theory.

I see..So what determines the improvement over various phones? I assume its the OHM? Am I wrong?

 

[MaloS]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kool bubba ice /img/forum/go_quote.gif I see..So what determines the improvement over various phones? I assume its the OHM? Am I wrong?

If we go theoretically going balanced should have most influence on low impedance headphones (ohms) because going balanced removes alot of noise/transient response issues that occur at rather low voltages comparing to the rest of the music, which would not so easily be heard on high impedance phones. Just my 2c.

 

[Iron_Dreamer]

First we have to get the right conception of "hard to drive." High ohm headphones are known as "hard to drive" because they demand a lot of volume (i.e. voltage) which often weaker devices like portables can't provide (generally due to low battery voltages). However with an AC power supply, providing enough voltage is not a problem, you just have to set the gain on the amplifier high enough, which can generally be a matter of setting a few resistor values. As long as your DC power supplies put out more voltage than the headphones demand, you're a-OK.

On the other hand, low impedance headphones demand more current to run properly (more similar to speakers). As such, they tend to sound better with an amplifier that has a low output impedance (ability to supply current). An amp must be properly designed to have a low output impedance, and many current designs don't do so well in this regard.

So low impedance headphones have the potential to be more demanding of the amplifier. Combine low impedance with low efficiency, and you've got a headphone that is a demanding load. The worst offenders in this regard are mostly AKG's, especially the K601.

All that said, I've noticed that the types of improvements I've witnessed by going balanced with headphones tend to be similar. It's the magnitude of these changes that varies from headphone to headphone. At least of the headphones I've heard balanced, it's hard to say that they is any correlation between impedance/efficiency and how much they improve when balanced. It's a matter that really just needs to be taken headphone by headphone. I think just about any high-end headphone can improve when driven balanced, and thus it's worthwhile to do so if one has the resources.