Byrnie
Headphoneus Supremus
I've been told that getting a Schiit Ragnorak or an Audio-GD Master 9 might melt my headphones. I was also told that it was more the current that would melt headphones and not the wattage. Now my electrical knowledge is pretty rusty and to be honest it was never that great to begin with. I remember lots of people pairing my same headphones with the Soloist which puts out 4000mW @16ohms, which is much higher than the maximum input of my headphones and none of them reported any problems yet the SE output of the Master 9 is 2500mW @40ohm. This leads me to thinking that the gentleman who told me about worrying about the current is correct but again I'm not expert or anywhere close to that on this subject. I figured some of you could pass along some wisdom/knowledge to me. I'm also curious if there's a formula or a general rule of thumb that I can go by so that I can better calculate this?
Here are the specifications for my headphones and I only plan to connect them via singled-end connection (6.3mm jack), Fostex TH-900:
Impedance: 25 ohm
Sensitivity: 100dB / mW
Maximum Input: 1,800 mW
These are the amps I'm considering:
Schiit Ragnorak (These are Preliminary Specs):
Power Output: 100W into 4 ohms, 60W into 8 ohms, 15W into 32 ohms, 9.6W into 50 ohms, 1.6W into 300 ohms, 800mW into 600 ohms
Inputs: 2 balanced, 3 single-ended stereo inputs
Outputs: speaker terminals, 4-pin balanced XLR headphone, TRS unbalanced headphone, balanced and unbalanced preamp outs
Gain: selectable gain of 20, 7, or 1
Volume: (64) 1.25dB steps via relay-switched stepped attenuator
Topology: Fully discrete Crossfet™ circlotron-style stage with no caps in the signal path and no DC servos, all solid state
Management: microprocessor control of quiescent current and DC levels, with monitoring of all fault conditions
Power Supply: 400VA transformer with 4 separate circlotron output rails, over 100,000uF filter capacitance total
AURAlic Taurus mk2 (let me know if more info is needed for these):
Power Output: 4,500mW into 32 ohm loads (single ended mode)
Audio-GD Master 9:
*Updated*
Thank you in advance for any guidance you can give me and I greatly appreciate your time in this matter.
Here are the specifications for my headphones and I only plan to connect them via singled-end connection (6.3mm jack), Fostex TH-900:
Impedance: 25 ohm
Sensitivity: 100dB / mW
Maximum Input: 1,800 mW
These are the amps I'm considering:
Schiit Ragnorak (These are Preliminary Specs):
Power Output: 100W into 4 ohms, 60W into 8 ohms, 15W into 32 ohms, 9.6W into 50 ohms, 1.6W into 300 ohms, 800mW into 600 ohms
Inputs: 2 balanced, 3 single-ended stereo inputs
Outputs: speaker terminals, 4-pin balanced XLR headphone, TRS unbalanced headphone, balanced and unbalanced preamp outs
Gain: selectable gain of 20, 7, or 1
Volume: (64) 1.25dB steps via relay-switched stepped attenuator
Topology: Fully discrete Crossfet™ circlotron-style stage with no caps in the signal path and no DC servos, all solid state
Management: microprocessor control of quiescent current and DC levels, with monitoring of all fault conditions
Power Supply: 400VA transformer with 4 separate circlotron output rails, over 100,000uF filter capacitance total
AURAlic Taurus mk2 (let me know if more info is needed for these):
Power Output: 4,500mW into 32 ohm loads (single ended mode)
Audio-GD Master 9:
S/N Ratio | >130DB (Input short, XLR mode) |
THD | <0.002 % |
Gain | Low Gain : +14 DB (XLR) High Gain : +20DB (XLR) |
Headphone amp Output Power (Single-ended , Pure Class A ) | 40 ohm: 2500MW 100 ohm: 1050MW 300 ohm: 350MW 600 ohm: 175MW |
Output impedance | 1 ohm |
*Updated*
Thank you in advance for any guidance you can give me and I greatly appreciate your time in this matter.