[Koukol]

I'm looking for a headphone that can be used with both my DAP and my desktop Little Dot Amp.
 
My understanding right now is If buy the smaller ohm version there will be a trade off since it will sound worse with the Amp.
 
Is this true or does it depend on the the headphone?
Right now my experience with higher ohms is they give a smoother sound.

 

[castleofargh]

what's the impedance output of your amp supposed to be? I can't find anything clear whatever version of little dot I look for. I saw someone say 32ohm but it doesn't seem clear.
 
you can't really dumb "good sound" down to a headphone impedance value, because there is more to sound quality than just electrical damping(can't believe I'm the one saying this!).  but at least one thing that wouldn't hurt if you end up with a ****ty damping factor, is to get a headphone with a flat impedance response over frequencies. that way at least you limit the signature changes due to low damping factor. doesn't solve much, but it will reduce the audible differences. 
 
 
the other possible concern might be hiss and power, you'll need a headphone the DAP can drive(so pretty efficient in most cases), but something not too efficient so that you can avoid having the output volume set too close to the noise floor of the source.
 
personally, given how hard it is for me to find a headphone with a signature I like, I wouldn't go at it like you plan to do. I would find a headphone I like and only then wonder how I should drive it and what DAP and amp can do it fine.

 

[Koukol]

Thanks, for the reply/advice Castle
 
I have the Little Dot MK III which has a switch for several outputs.
 
Is it wrong to think that, for instance, matching a 32 ohm Beyerdynamic DT 880 to my amp (set at 32 Ohm) would sound any different (like being a little less smooth) over buying the 300 ohm version and setting the Amp to 300?
That's really the crux of my question.
 
And if you don't mind me asking...when using my Pono's (DAP) line out into the Amp should the volume be at 75% or 100%?
My Amp doesn't have an input light.

 

[castleofargh]

I'm afraid there is more to the 250ohm DT800 than adding a 218ohm resistor to the 32ohm version^_^. again it would be great if stuff were as simple as picking the impedance value as a direct function of sound quality.
 
now the 32ohm has clearly been made to be efficient, so it's a rational option for portable stuff and it should be about ok with the pono alone if we believe innerfidelity, reaching close to 108db maxed out single ended, and I imagine +6db balanced(all that with full scale signal, most musics will be lower thant this). but as we know, portable stuff are rarely the best sounding ones. the priorities are different. the 250ohm version looking at innerfidelity's PDF, wants 0.3Vrms to output 90db, so 1V would go about 100db, and 2V in balanced would go up to 106db. so the pono alone might be a problem if you like to listen a little loud to dynamic stuff.
even with a portable amp, you would want one that can do more than 3V into 250ohm to be safe.
 
the pono outputs about 1V into 10kohm, so you should be able to max out the volume without danger to clip the amp that would usually expect up to 2V. for desktop amp it's very sure, for portable amps it depends if the gain was based on crappy weak old ipods or not, but still 1Vrms should be fine. if you don't notice any clipping, 100% is good and will improve the signal to noise ratio.

 

[PurpleAngel]

  Thanks, for the reply/advice Castle
I have the Little Dot MK III which has a switch for several outputs.
Is it wrong to think that, for instance, matching a 32 ohm Beyerdynamic DT 880 to my amp (set at 32 Ohm) would sound any different (like being a little less smooth) over buying the 300 ohm version and setting the Amp to 300?
That's really the crux of my question.
And if you don't mind me asking...when using my Pono's (DAP) line out into the Amp should the volume be at 75% or 100%?
My Amp doesn't have an input light.

 
From my understanding, it the cheaper quality tube amplifiers that are not as good to pair with low Ohm headphones.
I'm guessing the LD MKIII is not a cheap quality tube amplifier.
The 32-Ohm DT770 Premium headphone like a decent amount of amping to sound it's best, so it might do well with the LD MKIII

 

[Koukol]

Thanks, Castle.
 
I guess if lower resistance didn't effect sound quality we'd see HD 600/650's in 32 Ohm.
Earlier I read a Beyerdynamic claim that a lower Ohm T70p doesn't sacrifice sq.
That tells me it's not typical.

 

[Koukol]

Thanks Purple!

 

[PurpleAngel]

  Thanks, Castle.
 
I guess if lower resistance didn't effect sound quality we'd see HD 600/650's in 32 Ohm.
Earlier I read a Beyerdynamic claim that a lower Ohm T70p doesn't sacrifice sq.
That tells me it's not typical.

 
I'm assuming Beyerdynamic came out with 32-Ohm versions (of the 250/600-Ohm series) of their headphones to be able to sell those headphones to people using portable audio and the people would not need to buy a separate headphone amplifier.
But it seems the 32-Ohm versions do not work their best unless used with a decent headphone amplifier, something more powerful then a smart phone's built in amp.
You already have the LD MKIII amp for desktop use.
 
You could always buy the cheaper 250-Ohm version of the headphone, spend the saving on a amplifier to use with your portable audio, like the FiiO E11K ($60) amplifier.
 
If you have some spare time, check out this guide/review of the Beyer headphones.
http://www.head-fi.org/t/513393/guide-sonic-differences-between-dt770-dt990-models-more

 

[ProtegeManiac]

  I'm looking for a headphone that can be used with both my DAP and my desktop Little Dot Amp.
 
My understanding right now is If buy the smaller ohm version there will be a trade off since it will sound worse with the Amp.
 
Is this true or does it depend on the the headphone?
Right now my experience with higher ohms is they give a smoother sound.

 take

It depends on the amplifier, actually. Some amps have a high output impedance that causes issues with damping factor. Generally you need to follow an 8:1 load (headphone) impedance to output impedance ratio, although the higher the load impedance, the less of a problem it is (ie a 120-ohm output impedance, like on many auxiliary headphone outputs on speaker amps, isn't that bad on a 600ohm load by itself).

 

Also the amp topology matters. Some amplifiers are designed to deliver a lot more power at higher impedance, like OTL amps (ie Little Dot MkII), and can be unpredictable on lower impedance loads. They're typically not designed for low impedance loads so the output impedance tends to be high as well. The LD MkII boosts bass on the SR225, but the K701 sounds like a tin can in a area (ie the imaging is great but the notes just sound too tinny) - these were on my LD MkII with stock tubes btw. That said Schiit claims the Valhalla2 would have minimal effects on low impedance loads, so there's at least one out there that won't have too much problems if you use a low impedance load on it.

 

Alternately some amplifiers deliver a lot of power at low impedance and less at high impedance, and while these are a safe choice - ie, they tend to have enough power for high efficiency, high impedance headphones even with lower output - some may have too little power and higher distortion at 600ohm, save for when you use a Tesla for example which avoids this with very high sensitivity. From the looks of it though your Little Dot might favor high impedance, but the best way to tell really is if you used the same headphone with different impedance versions. Oh, wait, not really - there's a DT770 version tuned to favor upper bass and lower midrange. AFAIK it's the 80ohm version for drummers.

 

 

 

 

[Koukol]

Thanks again, Purple.
I'm going to check out the link now.

 

[Koukol]

Thanks for the input, Protege.
That is a lot to absorb so I'll have to read it a few times.