[Brando]

Hello

So I've been picking up little bits of info here and there about how to properly drive low impedance cans and apparently they need way more current (mw?) than high impedance cans and a low output impedance. My Gilmore lite seems to fit the bill but I'm wondering if the X can v8 would sound even better since it seems to have significantly more power. The Gilmore is 1000mw into 1 ohm and the x can v8 is 1300mw into 32 ohms. Since my ath-ad2000 have a power handling of 1 watt at 40 ohms it seems like a good fit since it'll be able to power them to max capacity with a bit of juice to spare. Is my reasoning completely wacked or am I somewhere in the ballpark of the truth with these numbers? I'm not a scientist!

Does it seem worth while? Thank you!

 

[mulveling]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brando /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hello So I've been picking up little bits of info here and there about how to properly drive low impedance cans and apparently they need way more current (mw?) than high impedance cans and a low output impedance. My Gilmore lite seems to fit the bill but I'm wondering if the X can v8 would sound even better since it seems to have significantly more power. The Gilmore is 1000mw into 1 ohm and the x can v8 is 1300mw into 32 ohms. Since my ath-ad2000 have a power handling of 1 watt at 40 ohms it seems like a good fit since it'll be able to power them to max capacity with a bit of juice to spare. Is my reasoning completely wacked or am I somewhere in the ballpark of the truth with these numbers? I'm not a scientist! Does it seem worth while? Thank you!

That reasoning may be a bit off IMO. 1000 mW into 1-ohm is extremely impressive, most speaker amps aren't even 1-ohm stable. You can't really compare that to another amp's spec at a much easier 32 ohm load (though yes, 1300mW at 32 is still a lot). The output impedance of the Gilmore is lower than the XCan's 2 ohms - that will probably have more impact on the sound than having power reserves beyond 1 Watt, just a guess. The Gilmore amps are hard to beat for performance with low impedance headphones. Unless you want/need a certain coloration

Just to give an idea of the volumes you're talkin' here - for a headphone with 100db/mW (some are higher) sensitivity, 1000mW would register 130db which is way damaging to hearing. More likely (hopefully) you'll be using under 10mW which still gives up to 110db.

 

[jellojoe]

I don't think the dyanlo puts 1 W into 1 ohm. I think it's ~1 W into 32 ohms. The 1 ohm listed on headamp's spec is <1 ohm output impedance.

 

[Icarium]

The gilmore lite has pretty awesome synergy with the gilmore lite. I would be hesitant to do anything besides going up the food chain for increased performance. I love the AD2000s, but I am not sure I have heard a better amp for them then the gilmore designs.

 

[Brando]

Hmm. Ok thanks for the advice. Maybe the Gilmore dedicated power supply is the way to go?

 

[Icarium]

Yeah I'd like to get a dedicated power supply or an amb designed sigma power supply for mine.. but eh I have my more high end amps coming to me soon so I'll probably just sell it to my brother.