[dereks10]

TLDR = on the Hifiman he 560 V4 ihave to increase the volume on my receiver three times the amount of my DT 770 250ohm. And it still is very underwhelming in all departments. Time for proper dacamp or do planars require special treatment?

I have been running a DT770 pro 250 ohm off of my Sony avr receiver. I did that for many many years and to this day is the best sounding setup I've ever put on my head. DTS and Dolby digital movies are amazing. I never turned my volume up past 25 out of 100, and that was pushing the limits for for some physical ear damage. Case in point they powered them with ease. I just recently got the Hi-Fi man 560 v4. I understand the difference going from close back to open. But this is just severely underwhelming. I crank my receiver up to 85 just to get it to the level of the DT770s. And even then everything is just lacking, except vocals. And at that volume the receiver starts to fall off. Do the planars prefer a certain type of power setup?

 

[NA Blur]

It's not a matter of planar vs dynamic drivers...it's more about the driver efficiency. The HE-560 has a sensitivity of 90 dB / 1mW of power. It is a hard to drive headphone. If your amp can't deliver the current then it won't deliver the volume you're after. The DT770 has a sensitivity of 96 dB / 1 mW so it will get much louder at the same volume. The higher the sensitivity number the easier the headphone will be to get really loud.

A few things to check:
1.) What DAC are you using? The one built into the receiver?
2.) What is your player volume set to? It should be set to 95% and then use the receivers volume control.

 

[dereks10]

A few things to check:
1.) What DAC are you using? The one built into the receiver?
2.) What is your player volume set to? It should be set to 95% and then use the receivers volume control.

Thanks for helping me out. I am using the built in DAC of my avr which is a Sony Str-DH560. . And the volume is exactly how u say to use. When testing i just unplug and plug in the same environment / song. I use foobar with wasapi bitstreaming. What your saying about sensitivity i did not know so that is something ill have to remember. Im just currently trying to decide if i should send them back and repair my 770's or spend more money on a amp. I dont think i would need a dac correct? Using the avr or my fiio BTA30 would be ok for a dac.

 

[NA Blur]

Without knowing the output from the DAC and amp in terms of voltage it's difficult to narrow down where the problem lies. From my experience if the amp is decently designed then the DAC output voltage is well below 2 volts RMS using a sinewave. Some DAC's I've used in the past output only 1.5 volts which make the amp struggle to amplify this signal. It might be worth trying another DAC if you can find a friend who has one or use your phone / laptop / PC for example.

 

[dereks10]

Without knowing the output from the DAC and amp in terms of voltage it's difficult to narrow down where the problem lies.

Yea I dont have anything else other than my phone. I was just thrown off that they would require so much more power than a set of 250 ohm cans. Suppose I should have done a little more research. I'm going to try to find someone local that can let me test.