When trying to pair Grado Headphones to a tube amp you must use a low impedance tube amp.
So it's a good thing that the MG head is both a high and a low impedance headphone amp.
Maybe the others that had a bad experience because they didn't flip the little switch.
I listened briefly to the RS2 and they sounded very good. The tube amp will undoubtedly take the grittiness out of the upper frequency range and the solid bass won't be lost...because in comparison to the HD600 they are a peace of cake to drive. Indeed, the Head is quite powerful regardless.
The problem is that some people like the upper frequency grittiness which is why they buy these phones to start with. If you make them sound a tiny bit closer to what Sennheiser sounds like they don't like it as much. This makes sense...if I run My HD600 through the Creek I get more of a Grado type sound...which for me is not a good thing.
I think it's a matter of perspective. I never did understand why people around here bash the combo so much because personally, I think they sound just fine together. I've never heard them paired with high end tube amps though, so maybe that's why everyone says the combo stinks?
Not sure about the MG Head impedance switch, but the Corda amp has two outputs 0,120 ohms and you can really hear the difference between them. This is so useful I can't believe other
headphone amps don't offer this feature, would even be more
useful with 0,120,240 options to match wide range of headphones and tune sound to your preference. Creek OBH-11SE has this feature, but ohm values of two outputs are not that different making it less useful to tune sound.
Impedance switch is great feature for MG head! Anyone know what the two different ohm values are for impedance switch
with MG head?
HD600 are really mid impedance headphones, which is why they sound good with both low and high impedance amps, but just think of how good they would sound if their impedance was perfectly match with an amp.
I just don't buy it Sumb...Unless I have some deluxe edition but there is no hum and no hiss on any recording I have...including some of the ones I thought were pretty pathetic. Plus, my Sonys play far louder and better than they've ever played. Again no hum no hiss and very tight very deep bass...of course they are bit bass heavy to start with...but they are now a listenable headphone.
I've switched the High Low switch with Senns and there is virtually no difference...The Senns are rated at 300ohms 97db sensitive...yet they are tougher to drive than the RS2 or Sonys. My basic ohm understanding would indicate that the Senns should be very easy to drive...yet you have to put it up more to get the volume level. This would indicate they need a higher gain...once I get into gain I get a bit lost so I'll stop there.
The amp is rated for 8ohm, 16ohm, 32ohm, 100ohm per the instruction manual. I'm assuming the low switch is for 8 and 16 while high is 32 and 100.
You see Jon this is what I thought originally. But think about a regular home amp. Let's say a pioneer receiver is rated at 100Watts into 8 ohms. If you connect a 4ohm speaker then the amp needs to produce 200Watts to achieve the same volume level(or to put it another way think of the speaker as a bucket drawing from a well(the amp) The 4ohm speaker wants 200 Watts. Here's the rub...the amp is only rated at 100Watts and it produces that 100Watts at 4ohms as well... The 4ohm speaker is trying to draw 200Watts when only 100 is available - Therefore you will get less volume Not necessarily half because volume only doubles with 10 times the power, not double the power (and we know that Pioneer doesn't do half of what it claims to start with, but that' an aside).
I guess if you have a 100 watt amp rated for 4ohm speakers into a 4 ohm load and you give it an 8 ohm speaker instead then there is more resistance and everything said above goes the other way. It matters what the amp is designed for.
Remember the speakers are not ohm constant...a speaker rated at 8ohms like the B&W DM302 hit a minimum of 3.1 ohms...that's a big spike that requested twice what the amp is rated for...in a short burst the 8ohm amp can do it...but if it's constant then it will have trouble...which is why B&W generally needs REAL amplification and not off the shelf receivers. A 4ohm speaker may dip down to under 1ohm like some of the Martin Logans...now the receiver is asked to produce double and double again for the minimum ohm level...which is why a local store fried the top of the Line Pioneer Elite receiver...simply could produce the power required...it's very lucky the speaks were not damaged.
The reason the switch should theoretically be important is that it will prodeuce say 500Mv at both 100ohms and 8ohms and 32 and 16 with a few minor anomolies in between. 300 is a a tough load but The Head can do more than the specs would indicate...They must be following the Brits.
I've had very good experiences with an MG-Head paired with an Alessandro-Grado Music Series Pro - a cousin to the RS-1. The MG-Head warmed up the music and gave it greater presence. Of course it probably also detracted a bit from neutrality. I think the combination worked very well together--at times there was an almost alarming sense of realism. Perhaps it did not have quite the panache or delicacy of electrostats...but surely it had fire and soul.
RGA, you are both right and wrong. Yes, a higher impedance headphone is technically harder to drive in as much as 1w into 200 ohms reactive load produces less power than the same power at the same efficiency into a 32 ohm load. HOWEVER, it is easier on an amp to drive a higher impedance load because there is less stress on the amp b/c it doesn't have to work as hard. For example, how many amps do you know of that operate well with a 1 ohm load? It all depends on how the amp is configured. If it is built with beefy toroids and big caps then high current, low impedance is the way to go. But just remember the higher impedance speakers can always sound cleaner b/c the amp isn't straining like it does with low impedance loads. Blah. I hope that helped. It's a little confusing, but so is deciding on the right amp
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