Heya,
So this is a big deal.
I just got the XLR -> 500ohm resistor -> XLR adapter that Brian made me (BTG Audio). Wow. This thing is like a god send. I was already well off using my high impedance and low sensitivity orthos with the Emotiva. But this resistor lets me do several things I couldn't do as well before. One, I can now use any headphone that is low impedance with my OTL tube amp at it's more peak values, as I can make any of my lower impedance headphones instantly work with a 500+ ohm resistance. And it lets me also of course throw a big dumby load onto the Emotiva. I'm now using a Denon D5000 with the Emotiva, with
no noise floor at all. When I hit pause on a track with the volume at listening level, it's dead silent. Before, without this resistor, the Denons were just too sensitive and there was noise floor due to the massive gain of the amp and the sensitivity of the Denon. That's completely gone with this 500ohm adapter.
My Denons are recabled (by Brian) to mini-XLR earrings (detachable cable) to balanced XLR, so I can use them unbalanced and balanced at will.
I'm running the Emotiva around 10 o'clock with my Denons currently, and my LDMKII pre-amp around 12 o'clock feeding the Emotiva. No equalization currently so that I'm hearing only how this performs without additional tweaks or line level adjustment.
Amazing fidelity. Very clear, transparent sound. I'm listening to some jazz and it's quite natural sounding, realistic, dynamic. The sound stage is wonderful. The bass is not over-board. Maybe I'm a little loopy, but it actually sounds tighter, way less loose sub-bass going on. Switching to some eletronica (Dredd sound track, yeeeaaaa), to see how it performs with big pulsing bass tones and intricate sugary melody, it's controlled and very tight. Separation is phenomenal. My biggest change so far is just how tight it is, very separated, great imaging, instead of kind of a loose, slow, warm treat. I'm very pleased with the performance. And I'm happy to report that you can absolutely use any headphone with the Emotiva.
My XLR -> 500ohm -> XLR adapter ran me $40 shipped from Brian. Highly recommended. This was an experiment and it paid off handsomely, as I can now use any headphone with the Emotiva,
I'll be testing it more with other headphones. I'm also curious to see what 1100ohms is like on my Beyer. And also how the HE500 and LCD2 perform with 538 and 550ohm of resistance as well. Will report back soon.
These are my balanced Denons with the 500ohm XLR resistor added at the end there.
Very best,