fjrabon
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Feb 1, 2009
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The only time you may need more headroom from your amplifier (thinking of the Asgard 2) is if you like fairly loud playback levels as I typically do (shorter listening sessions for me) and you're playing older masters that are very dynamic and quiet. I had an Asgard 2 with my HE 560 and I wasn't comfortable having it full volume when listening to older material. With the HE 560 even contemporary music required the volume at 1 - 2pm on the volume dial for me to get my preferred listening levels. Yes I know, it is dangerous to listen to high playback levels, but I have done it my entire life and somehow seem to do well with it and my hearing acuity at last test at an audiologist office was well within the normal range for my age.
Still, I completely agree all this talk about needing plenty of extra power that isn't being used doesn't seem to be based in fact at all. There are times when it might make sense to have extra headroom, but unless you have your amp pumping at max all the time more power is not going to provide anything. I would rather have a stable power supply architecture that delivered power rock solid and stable even if it didn't deliver whopping levels of clout.
right, I hope that I made that clear enough, that there are cases where you would need more power (less efficient headphones and louder listening). But I was specifically responding to the "its not about volume" claim as to the benefits of the H10 having more power. The HE560 is also much more difficult to drive than the HE400i. If somebody were asking me about the HE560 + Asgard, I'd say "unless you listen extremely loudly you're okay with 1000mW." You would probably admit you listen extremely loudly, and thus may need something a bit more powerful. Asgard2 and HE560 gets you to peak SPL of 119 dB before clipping. For extremely dynamic music, that means you could have an average listening level of 95 or so before clipping became a real worry. 95 is crazy loud, yes, but some people do listen that loudly as their average level. That's quite different though from the HE400i, which would require an average listening level in worst case scenario dynamic music of 105dB, ie louder than most rock concerts (and twice as loud as the 95dB we just talked about). When people quote mW levels and say "it's not about the volume, it's about the quality" they simply are misleading people. Traditionally more powerful amps were better quality amps all around, so maybe that is what has lead people to this belief, because the best amps theyve ever heard were extremely high powered. But mW specs only tell you how loud they will make a headphone at peak before clipping. Nothing more, nothing less.