Do I need a Headphone Amp for 600 ohms with a Marantz 2275 receiver?

[Mowgli]

Hiya

I have 600 ohm Beyer DT880's arriving on Wednesday.
I saw discussion in a head-fi thread that receivers won't typically drive these well.
I use a Marantz 2275 in good enough condition but unrestored AFAIK.
I'm not a member at hifiengine so I can't DL the specsheet and don't have an OM for it.

I sorta panicked and ordered a JDSLABS Objective2 by NwAvGuy after many hours of frustrating research.

Will my 2275 alone power 600ohm cans well or is a dedicated amp truly necessary with this old 75W receiver?

Thanks

 

[Oscar-HiFi]

Only your ears can tell you if it sounds good, but my experience with Marantz amps is great, they have a slightly smooth sound that I believe should pair wonderfully with your DT880's, I ran the DT880's out of a Marantz PM-44 MKII SE and PM-5005 both worked well.

Old receivers work best with high impedance loads

 

[NA Blur]

Remember it's not about the impedance ( Ohm's ) as it's more about the sensitivity of the headphone. I think the DT880 has a 96dB SPL making it easy to drive although not the easiest of all headphones. A home receiver will do just fine and might even sound more fun than a dedicated low output impedance headphone amp because the receiver might have higher output impedance. This plays into how the amp ( receiver ) controls the driver. A higher output impedance with a higher impedance headphone can add a little distortion ( bloom ) to the bass.

 

[Oscar-HiFi]

Remember it's not about the impedance ( Ohm's ) as it's more about the sensitivity of the headphone. I think the DT880 has a 96dB SPL making it easy to drive although not the easiest of all headphones. A home receiver will do just fine and might even sound more fun than a dedicated low output impedance headphone amp because the receiver might have higher output impedance. This plays into how the amp ( receiver ) controls the driver. A higher output impedance with a higher impedance headphone can add a little distortion ( bloom ) to the bass.

Yes I hate it when people think that 600 Ohm is defintely hard to drive... it is a correlation between many things, not just impedance. Saying that, portable devices struggle to supply the voltage needed by high impedance headphones.

Also the output impedance in theory should be 1/8th of the impedance of the headphones in question, to get good damping factor. Old receivers, and most modern integrated amps still have very high output impedance, this means they work best with high impedance headphones, and do not work well with low impedance

 

[Monsterzero]

Will my 2275 alone power 600ohm cans well or is a dedicated amp truly necessary with this old 75W receiver?

Thanks

Your Marantz not only will be able to drive the 600ohm headphones,it will sound really good doing it.
I own six different vintage recievers and each of them drive my high ohm headphones exceptionally well,with each one sounding a bit different from the others.

Youre welcome to join us in this thread.

Send your O2 back,you wont be needing it.

 

[Mowgli]

Thanks guys.

Master -> The Thing That Should Not Be (Hoffman gold remaster CD) = details I don't remember if I ever even noticed them before
The maniacal/evil laughing there sounds insane and similar to Ozzy laughing/screaming between Am I Going & The Writ on Sabotage

The 880s sound decent right out of the box directly from the Marantz jackhole (Hank III reference).
I understand they'll get better with break-in so I'll leave MoP on repeat while I get caught up on Shameless season 7&8
75W of 70's Marantz volume knob at 10 O'clock is enough for listening for me. Leave it there or louder for best break-in?

I'll compare w/ & w/out amp when it gets here.

 

[Mowgli]

I'm just sending the O2 back to flimflamazon.
The 2275/880 combo sounds just right on 90% of what I tried with flat settings.
Art Of The Fugue (on organ), Back In Black, Ice-T Freedom Of Speech, Funkadelic Hardcore Jollies & Lords Of Acid all needed a bass bump.
10+ flavors of classic rock, Metallica, Zappa, Scorpions, Haydn & Beethoven symphonies sound perfect set flat.
Vivaldi fiddle concertos are bright and sharp set flat with the same volume as the rest.
Turning it down a few decibels it was better. It was probably mastered hot.

No need for a dedicated HP amp.

 

[Monsterzero]

I'm just sending the O2 back to flimflamazon.
The 2275/880 combo sounds just right on 90% of what I tried with flat settings.
Art Of The Fugue (on organ), Back In Black, Ice-T Freedom Of Speech, Funkadelic Hardcore Jollies & Lords Of Acid all needed a bass bump.
10+ flavors of classic rock, Metallica, Zappa, Scorpions, Haydn & Beethoven symphonies sound perfect set flat.
Vivaldi fiddle concertos are bright and sharp set flat with the same volume as the rest.
Turning it down a few decibels it was better. It was probably mastered hot.

No need for a dedicated HP amp.

The only time you will need/want a dedicated HP amp is if you journey into easy to drive headphones (low ohm/high sensitivity)...they can sound bloated and muddy from vintage gear.
Stick with high ohm and/or planars and youre golden.

 

[Mowgli]

I watched The Librarians with the volume through the Marantz to the HP last night.
It sounded funky but I'm not surprised with so much more going on than music.
I'll check theTV's settings to assure that I don't have it set to surround or something.