How much drive is the Lavry DA10 capable of?

[humanflyz]

I am looking into a mid-fi closed headphone, and one of my top choices is the new Beyerdynamic DT770. If I do get the DT770s, I will be amping them through the headphone jack of the Lavry DA10. The DT770s have a 250 ohm impedance, and I am wondering if the Lavry can drive them.

 

[steaxauce]

Sorry, but the Lavry's headphone jack does a very poor job at driving high impedance headphones. It is very good at driving low impedance headphones, though. I would either reterminate your DT770 to be driven by its balanced outputs (very good for high impedance headphones), or go for a low impedance headphone.

 

[Solude]

Quick reminder, the new 770 is available in 32ohm.

 

[philodox]

The Lavry's headphone output drives the HD650's and DT880's fine, I don't see why the DT770's would be any problem. Might be fun to reterminate them balanced anyways though so that you can try both. I know my K340's needed the balanced outputs, but unless you listen extremely loud the DT770's should be fine.

 

[humanflyz]

@Solude:

Yes, I'm aware of that fact, but the 32ohm version is only available if you do the custom manufacture option, and I'm a bit wary of that because if I don't like how they sound, I have no way of returning them, and there would be essentially no re-sale market for them. So I'd rather just stick with Headroom and get the 250ohm standard version.

 

[steaxauce]

Quote:

Originally Posted by philodox The Lavry's headphone output drives the HD650's and DT880's fine, I don't see why the DT770's would be any problem. Might be fun to reterminate them balanced anyways though so that you can try both. I know my K340's needed the balanced outputs, but unless you listen extremely loud the DT770's should be fine.

In my experience, the Lavry's headphone jack drives the HD650 very poorly. Disclaimer: I didn't like the HD650 to begin with. The sound was much improved though, by utilizing the XLR outputs of the DA10 via balanced Cardas. If you regularly use the HD650 with the DA10, I highly recommend that you get a balanced cable.

 

[alex_cs]

get the 770-80 version, widely regarded as the best sounding of all the 770's. that guitar centre place in the US is apparently selling them for 140-150USD.

 

[humanflyz]

@Solude:

I didn't know Meier sold the 32 ohm models. Thanks for the info, this has made it a lot easier.

 

[Solude]

The 770-80 is the old model from the 90s.

The 32 ohm is available in plain jane model from Meier for $245 shipped to your door.

Other quick reminder, Beyer does not use a 4 conductor cable, so no balanced recable without effort.

 

[philodox]

Quote:

Originally Posted by steaxauce In my experience, the Lavry's headphone jack drives the HD650 very poorly. Disclaimer: I didn't like the HD650 to begin with. The sound was much improved though, by utilizing the XLR outputs of the DA10 via balanced Cardas.

Yeah, I don't much like them either. The headphone output seemed to make them sound about what I am used to them sounding like out of anything else.

 

[BrianS]

IMHO, the hd650 is much better driven balanced through the xlr outputs as opposed to the headphone out. I cannot comment on beyers. You could get your headphone of choice and use the built in amp until you can get a better one.

 

[steaxauce]

If you get a 250 Ohm headphone for the Lavry DA10, don't get a better amp, go balanced.

 

[humanflyz]

Well, I'm not building my system around the DT770s, they are simply meant to be some fall-back closed headphones for those occasions where isolation and non-leakage is absolutely necessary. Therefore, I'm not exactly looking for something hi-end, but something passable. And before anyone says anything, I've already ruled out IEMs because I can't stand them in my ears.

 

[steaxauce]

Maybe you can just reterminate the DT770s. Does anyone know if these headphones have two ground wires, so that would be possible? If not, It wouldn't be too expensive to have them recabled by headphile.

 

[humanflyz]

I think I'll just get the 32ohms new DT770s, because one, they are much easier to drive, and two, no one seems to have them here at Head-Fi. If I get them, I can post impressions which will hopefully add some information to this place.