[iancraig10]

I was reading an advert for the Senn HD600 and one thing mentioned was that they could be driven via the speaker out from a normal amp as long as the volume was kept low.

Has anyone tried this and if you have, does it do a good job with the Sennheiser HD600?

Ian

 

[Prog Rock Man]

Hi Ian. Any link to the advert in question? I had a look through the Sennheiser site and there is no mention of such and the only accessory is the volume control. I assume you need an adaptor to connect it to speaker outputs.

 

[Zombie_X]

Yes it can be done. I have done it on numerous headphones and the results are exceptional. Speak outs provide a copious amount of power compared to their 1/4" output counterparts. Just be careful and watch the volume knob.

 

[Prog Rock Man]

Nice one Zombie X. I presume this is not common knowledge due to the excessive volume issue and potential to damage hearing and cans?

 

[gevorg]

Well, it can work from speaker amps, but I'm not sure if the quality will be great. There will also be a risk of blowing the headphones from too high volume.

You can drive HD580/600/650 from XLR outputs of some DACs, like DAC1, and the quality will be high end.

 

[Zombie_X]

On my Fischer, my HD600 gets very loud at about 8:00 o' clock on the dial. Any more than that and I wouldn't know. I'm pretty cautious with that kind of stuff. I don't want to blow out a driver on an expensive pair of cans.

In my experience this you can drive a K701 fairly well off of a good Solid State amp, but sounds more analytical. Tube amps sound nice, but they usually don't have the heft to drive lower impedance cans. While OTL tube amps are better for high impedance cans.

I believe people don't do this since most people on Head-Fi tend to say you can fry a driver, and they are somewhat right. If you keep it within reasonable volumes you can get very nice sound out of your receiver.

For it to work all you need is four wires of the same length (right, left, and two ground) and one 3.5mm input jack.

 

[franatium]

I run my K701s out of my yamaha RX-V461 speaker outs, sounds good to me. Worked well for my friend's HD650s when he brought them over too.

 

[iancraig10]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Prog Rock Man /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hi Ian. Any link to the advert in question? I had a look through the Sennheiser site and there is no mention of such and the only accessory is the volume control. I assume you need an adaptor to connect it to speaker outputs.

I was running through catalogues for studio spares etc. and it was one of those in the UK. It's the first time I've seen this mentioned in conjunction with them and was wondering whether the huge amount of power would make them dance!!!


Yes it can be done. I have done it on numerous headphones and the results are exceptional. Speak outs provide a copious amount of power compared to their 1/4" output counterparts. Just be careful and watch the volume knob.

That's exactly what I was wondering because I have a redundant Denon amp which I'm thinking of trying it with. Just wonder about leads to connect them both. The advert also says, as long as the volume is down!!

I believe people don't do this since most people on Head-Fi tend to say you can fry a driver, and they are somewhat right. If you keep it within reasonable volumes you can get very nice sound out of your receiver.

For it to work all you need is four wires of the same length (right, left, and two ground) and one 3.5mm input jack.

OK, so it looks like a home made job to connect? It's the quality of sound that I'm really curious about.

I run my K701s out of my yamaha RX-V461 speaker outs, sounds good to me. Worked well for my friend's HD650s when he brought them over too

Does it improve at all on the sound of a straight headphone amplifier?

Thanks guys, I may have a go with this just to see what differences (if any) there are.

Ian

 

[Prog Rock Man]

Its a good day when you learn something new! Very interesting thread.

 

[iancraig10]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Prog Rock Man /img/forum/go_quote.gif Its a good day when you learn something new! Very interesting thread.

Well, it surprised me reading it in the catalogue as an option. I think it may have been a UK supplier called 'Studiospares'. In any case, they supply just low end studio stuff on the whole but my eyes suddenly saw this statement which got me wondering about the amount of power/drive behind that idea and its effect on the sound of the 600 and 650.

May be cheaper to do this via certain amps than buy a dedicated headphone top end amp. Who knows.

One piece of equipment that has always surprised me with the 600 and 650 is the Samson HP4. Cheap as chips and drives the Senns with absolute ease. The Samson delivers a lot of power. The Senns seem to dance on your head with it!!

That's why I'm wondering about the power behind a normal speaker out connection. Also, about an option of having some kind of protection circuit in line to protect the headphones.

Ian

 

[Prog Rock Man]

I have just had a trawl through Samson products. I did not think I had heard of them, but recognised the headphone amps for studios that are on Amazon and their desktop ipod active speakers. POWER seems to a feature!

Do you think that there is a potential for a product that allows cans to be connected to speaker outs?

 

[iancraig10]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Prog Rock Man /img/forum/go_quote.gif I have just had a trawl through Samson products. I did not think I had heard of them, but recognised the headphone amps for studios that are on Amazon and their desktop ipod active speakers. POWER seems to a feature! Do you think that there is a potential for a product that allows cans to be connected to speaker outs?

I do wonder actually since most 'normal' people in UK don't bother with headphone amps.

A compromise could be to have an amp with two speaker outlets. One for speakers and the other as an output to headphones. (Perhaps with better quality than the headphone sockets that they normally supply)

However, it looks as though some kind of protection would be needed for the headphones!!

HP4 - http://www.frontendaudio.com/PreSonu...mpl_p/2571.htm (15omw per channel)

Ian

 

[Prog Rock Man]

'Normal' people! Yeh, OK, I like the idea of being a bit different from the norm.

I am picturing something with banana plugs into wires into something small which acts as an attenuator to reduce the signal into a headphone jack, with a huge big disclaimer attached to it!

(Excellent forum by the way. I just started a couple of days ago and the enthusiasm and knowledge is great)

 

[Zombie_X]

You may get some hiss on your headphones depending on the output impedance of the amp. Get a impedance matching box for that.

 

[iancraig10]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zombie_X /img/forum/go_quote.gif You may get some hiss on your headphones depending on the output impedance of the amp. Get a impedance matching box for that.

Thanks Zombie_X.

This is why I am surprised at the advert. It really advocates driving direct which made me look twice.

I was hoping for someone in the know to advise ....

I'll make a lead and have a go just for the hell of it. I'm just a bit concerned about melting my Sennheisers.