[BadMusicVideos]

Hello,

I'm sorry if this is the wrong place to post this....but I'm looking to buy some High-Impedance headphones since I want to try out this type of headphone as I've heard of the increased audio quality on them. I'm currently using a Phillips SHP9500 which I'm enjoying, and they are easily driven.

Also please forgive my ignorance of what high-impedance headphones entail...it seems like there is some debate as to whether they have benefits or not. Are these types of headphones worth buying an amp for? I'd be listening primarily at my desk anyway.

I was looking at Beyerdynamic DT-990 PRO, which seem reasonably priced, I'm looking at $300 max budget, preferably closer to $200.

Would the amp and headphone combo be worth the price for the benefits, or should I just stick to my SHP9500 would be my final question.

 

[MattTCG]

This may be what you are looking for:

https://drop.com/buy/massdrop-sennheiser-hd6xx

 

[jonathan c]

Hello,

I'm sorry if this is the wrong place to post this....but I'm looking to buy some High-Impedance headphones since I want to try out this type of headphone as I've heard of the increased audio quality on them. I'm currently using a Phillips SHP9500 which I'm enjoying, and they are easily driven.

Also please forgive my ignorance of what high-impedance headphones entail...it seems like there is some debate as to whether they have benefits or not. Are these types of headphones worth buying an amp for? I'd be listening primarily at my desk anyway.

I was looking at Beyerdynamic DT-990 PRO, which seem reasonably priced, I'm looking at $300 max budget, preferably closer to $200.

Would the amp and headphone combo be worth the price for the benefits, or should I just stick to my SHP9500 would be my final question.

• High impedance - be it 150 ohms, 250 ohms, 300 ohms, 600 ohms - does not itself guarantee that a headphone is excellent. If the high impedance results from tightly wound fine speaker coils in a headphone, such winding will contribute positively to the detail retrieval and transient response of the headphone.
• The disadvantage to high impedance (resistance), especially if combined with lower sensitivity, in a headphone is that more powerful amplification is needed to drive the headphone in a satisfactory manner.
• Using the Beyer DT-990 Pro as the example: its sensitivity is 99.1 dB/Volt. This is 12 dB lower than the median sensitivity of a wide range of headphones. Whatever amplifier you are using with SHP-9500 may not be up to the task with DT-990.

 

[BadMusicVideos]

• High impedance - be it 150 ohms, 250 ohms, 300 ohms, 600 ohms - does not itself guarantee that a headphone is excellent. If the high impedance results from tightly wound fine speaker coils in a headphone, such winding will contribute positively to the detail retrieval and transient response of the headphone.
• The disadvantage to high impedance (resistance), especially if combined with lower sensitivity, in a headphone is that more powerful amplification is needed to drive the headphone in a satisfactory manner.
• Using the Beyer DT-990 Pro as the example: its sensitivity is 99.1 dB/Volt. This is 12 dB lower than the median sensitivity of a wide range of headphones. Whatever amplifier you are using with SHP-9500 may not be up to the task with DT-990.

I'm not using an amplifier at all right now, I'm just driving them from my monitor's "headphone out" port which probably isn't very good, but it gets the job done, since I don't need an amp yet. It's not a line out, so not ideal, but there's no other port on the monitors. I have my consoles hooked up to my monitor as well so I use for convenience.

I'm thinking about getting an HDMI audio extractor, I already have a speaker amp that also has a DAC in it, but only line-out in addition to speaker out, no headphone out. So I'd be looking at getting maybe an entry-level schiit amplifier. I like the look of the HD-6XX linked above.

 

[jonathan c]

….So I'd be looking at getting maybe an entry-level schiit amplifier. I like the look of the HD-6XX linked above.

…. Schiit Asgard 3 / HD-6XX, Schiit Midgard / HD-6XX, Schiit Vali 2 / HD-6XX : you & your music cannot fare badly with these. [Plus, HD-6XX is about 6dB easier to drive than DT-990 Pro.]

 

[MakeshiftApe]

High impedance headphones do have one benefit - they're sometimes a better fit for OTL tube amps. So if you're fancying a trip into trying tubes then one could be a worthwhile investment, and I think if that's your intention most people are going to recommend one of the HD6X0 line (HD600, HD6XX, HD650, HD660S, or HD660S2).

Those options would be solid picks if you're looking for an upgrade from your SHP-9500 anyway, disregarding the tubes thing.

If you're just looking for an upgrade and don't have tubes in mind then I think you should throw the whole impedance thing out of the window though and just look for well regarded headphones within your budget. Impedance doesn't correlate to audio quality, there are great high impedance cans and rubbish high impedance cans, great low impedance cans and rubbish low impedance cans. Stuff like the $6K Susvara is only 60Ω - the impedance really doesn't affect quality. The 6X0 line are still great options here though, regardless of the fact that they are high impedance.

 

[Mooses9]

I'll throw my vote in for the hd650 it's a solid all around er in mine and alot of people's opinion on here.

 

[BadMusicVideos]

If you're just looking for an upgrade and don't have tubes in mind then I think you should throw the whole impedance thing out of the window though and just look for well regarded headphones within your budget.

Interesting. I mostly figured I would take advantage of having a headphone amp since it fits well into my system the way most of the higher end headphone amps are wired with an RCA passthrough that I can pass to my speakers. It makes it convenient and not have to have an audio switch.

In any case, HD6XX look pretty sexy, HD650 is a bit out of my budget though.

 

[MakeshiftApe]

In any case, HD6XX look pretty sexy, HD650 is a bit out of my budget though.

From my understanding the HD6XX is basically a HD650 with a different paint job and cable - but internally is identical, and so there isn't really a need to spring the extra for the 650 now with it being available. You are essentially getting one with the 6XX, maybe subtle differences but probably no more than you'd get from unit to unit variation anyway. (Someone please correct me if I'm wrong on this though!)

I suspect part of the reason the 650 is still quite a popular purchase over the 6XX is in some parts of the world like where I live, shipping from Drop would mean customs/import fees and not really save much money over just straight up buying the regular 650.

Also as far as amps go, having a dedicated amp will benefit almost any impedance headphone unless it's quite sensitive or your existing gear already has a solid amp - it's more sensitivity that determines how much power a headphone needs, so for example the Hifiman HE-6 needs more power than the HD600, despite the HE-6 being a 50Ω headphone and the HD600 being 300Ω - because he HE-6 is only 83.5dB/mW sensitivity vs the HD600's 97dB/mW. So TL;DR getting an amp is a good idea but plenty of low impedance headphones would benefit from it too.

 

[BadMusicVideos]

Also as far as amps go, having a dedicated amp will benefit almost any impedance headphone unless it's quite sensitive or your existing gear already has a solid amp - it's more sensitivity that determines how much power a headphone needs, so for example the Hifiman HE-6 needs more power than the HD600, despite the HE-6 being a 50Ω headphone and the HD600 being 300Ω - because he HE-6 is only 83.5dB/mW sensitivity vs the HD600's 97dB/mW. So TL;DR getting an amp is a good idea but plenty of low impedance headphones would benefit from it too.

That's really interesting, I guess I never thought about sensitivity.

One last thing, can anyone recommend any good closed back or "noise canceling" phones (not IEMs) that would block out external sound if I need it, while I ponder which one to get, it would be quite helpful.

 

[ADUHF]

Stuff like the $6K Susvara is only 60Ω - the impedance really doesn't affect quality.

All well and good... if you can afford a $6000 headphone, that is!

I agree that you can get decent sound quality with either low or high impedance headphones though, as long as they are paired with an appropriate source/amp to properly drive/damp them.

I find higher impedance / lower sensitivity headphones a little more "goof-proof" in some of my applications with lower end gear, because they allow me to run the signal hotter upstream, which can help to reduce noise. And they also provide better electrical damping with higher impedance amps. This will not apply to everyone though. Especially those using lower impedance portable devices, without a dedicated amp, where good headphone sensitivity/volume may be more crucial/beneficial.

 

[BadMusicVideos]

For closed back some recommend Beyer DT-150-250, are these recommended?

 

[BadMusicVideos]

I'm about to buy the Schiit Magni+ with Modi+ DAC, along with HD6XX, is this a good setup? I'm still looking for closed back/noise isolating suggestions as well (easy to drive might be better for those if I'm using them on the go).