[wualta]

And to answer the later question, no, I can't think of any reason why one of the modern orthos wouldn't work from a good-quality speaker amp's speaker terminals. The only thing you have to be careful of is an amp that doesn't like its L and R channel grounds tied together.

 

[Armaegis]

Quote:

And to answer the later question, no, I can't think of any readon why one of the modern orthos wouldn't work from a good-quality speaker amp's speaker terminals. The only thing you have to be careful of is an amp that doesn't like its L and R channel grounds tied together.

Which of course is no problem if you've recabled them for balanced used anyways.

 

[wualta]

Then your only problem is finding an amp with XLR speaker outputs. Simplicity itself.

 

[Armaegis]

Or if you're *really* careful with some wire and alligator clips, you can just attach directly to the terminals

 

[ericj]

Quote:

That's interesting.  Does it have less contact area than bigger headphone company's connectors?  Like the Sennheiser vampire plugs, or Fostex's locking mini jacks?  Or...I can't think of any others...  AKG uses mini-XLR's like Audeze, but they don't seem nearly as big. 

SMA connectors are used in RF because they work. The contact area for the signal line in an SMA is greater than, for example, you'd find on a Sennheiser HD650. The shell offers far greater contact area. The typical resistance of an SMA connector is less than three mOhms, and they're good for DC to 18ghz.

 

[RexAeterna]

i heard it's a no-no to do unless your driving a pair of electrostats. hooking it up to the speaker terminals can possibly fry the drivers correct? i was thinking of doing the same but after tons of research and asking around i decided not to do it cause i can't afford to be stupid anymore.
 
Quote:

And to answer the later question, no, I can't think of any reason why one of the modern orthos wouldn't work from a good-quality speaker amp's speaker terminals. The only thing you have to be careful of is an amp that doesn't like its L and R channel grounds tied together.

 

[DefectiveAudioComponent]

Possibly. But I'd be more worried about your ears. The LCD-2 will accept 15W before it fries (that's the specification, I make no promise it works since I have not tried it), at 133db. That's a LOT more than your usual dynamic. (but some vintage orthos could take it as well, no doubt.)
 
Quote:

i heard it's a no-no to do unless your driving a pair of electrostats. hooking it up to the speaker terminals can possibly fry the drivers correct? i was thinking of doing the same but after tons of research and asking around i decided not to do it cause i can't afford to be stupid anymore.
 
Quote:

And to answer the later question, no, I can't think of any reason why one of the modern orthos wouldn't work from a good-quality speaker amp's speaker terminals. The only thing you have to be careful of is an amp that doesn't like its L and R channel grounds tied together.

 

 

[wualta]

Quote:

SMA connectors are used in RF because they work. The contact area for the signal line in an SMA is greater than, for example, you'd find on a Sennheiser HD650. The shell offers far greater contact area. The typical resistance of an SMA connector is less than three mOhms, and they're good for DC to 18ghz.

Lousy strain relief, though. At work we use 'em on the control modules for our RFID reader pads, which handle enough power to be warm to the touch.
 


Quote:

i heard it's a no-no to do unless your driving a pair of electrostats. hooking it up to the speaker terminals can possibly fry the drivers correct? i was thinking of doing the same but after tons of research and asking around i decided not to do it cause i can't afford to be stupid anymore.

 
I understand. Careful is not a bad thing to be with a kilobuck headphone. If you're not comfortable doing it, don't do it, because you'll be so worried that you won't enjoy the result. But consider that while a hulking speaker amp puts, say, 100W into 8 ohms, it will only do 50 into 16 ohms and 25 into 32 ohms and a whopping 12.5W into 64 ohms. The danger isn't anywhere near as great as one might think. You can also buy or make a headphone coupler (q.v.) and custom-match it to the 50-ohm load of the HE-6. That will give you a custom-tuned headphone out which is no more dangerous than any other headphone out. This is in fact what Pioneer recommended for their piezo SE-700.
 
You'd have to work diabolically hard to fry a headphone under those conditions. As DAC said above, your ears are in more danger, and that's true for any amp that will drive the headphones to their maximum SPL.
 
All of this assumes, however, a transistor (aka "solid state") amp that's in good shape, has low residual noise, little to no DC offset, etc etc.
 
Still, the direct connection of headphone to speaker amp presents a potential warranty, that is to say legal, problem to a manufacturer, so 6Moons Audio cites this lawyerly bit from the HE-4 owner's manual: "It is theoretically possible to connect your HifiMan HE-4 directly to the speaker output terminals of your home amplifier. However, the amplifier in use may not offer more than 70 watts of output power and must be stable into the higher than typical load of the headphone. Please make sure to verify both with the manufacturer of your amp before attempting a connection. Caution: Overload due to too high voltage or technical defects caused inside the amplifier by attempting this connection are not covered by warranty. This mode of operation is not recommended."
 

 

[Rick]

Quote:

Quote:

That's interesting.  Does it have less contact area than bigger headphone company's connectors?  Like the Sennheiser vampire plugs, or Fostex's locking mini jacks?  Or...I can't think of any others...  AKG uses mini-XLR's like Audeze, but they don't seem nearly as big. 

SMA connectors are used in RF because they work. The contact area for the signal line in an SMA is greater than, for example, you'd find on a Sennheiser HD650. The shell offers far greater contact area. The typical resistance of an SMA connector is less than three mOhms, and they're good for DC to 18ghz.

Except for the fact that those are not SMA connectors. They're SMC connectors (on he-5/he-6).

 

[Br777]

Can anyone tell me - has there ever been an attempt at ortho earbuds,or even IEM's?  would this eve be possible?
 
the image i get in my mind is that ortho ear buds could be phenomenal if such a thing was possible.
 

 

[apatN]

A pain to damp properly though.

 

[Rick]

Yamaha made a pair, YH-5M

 

[Br777]

Quote:

Yamaha made a pair, YH-5M

wow.. just foud the thread on them.. not quite what i imagined but wow.. 

 

[ericj]

Quote:

Except for the fact that those are not SMA connectors. They're SMC connectors (on he-5/he-6).

Ah. I was unfamiliar with the SMC connector. Specs I'm seeing put it at 6mOhms, roughly twice that of the SMA. That's unfortunate - but still, the little connectors on most sennheisers are still fairly lame by comparison. I don't imagine that it's a problem.
 
I mean, what do you want, PL-259's?

 

[Rick]

Quote:

Quote:

Except for the fact that those are not SMA connectors. They're SMC connectors (on he-5/he-6).

Ah. I was unfamiliar with the SMC connector. Specs I'm seeing put it at 6mOhms, roughly twice that of the SMA. That's unfortunate - but still, the little connectors on most sennheisers are still fairly lame by comparison. I don't imagine that it's a problem.
 
I mean, what do you want, PL-259's?

 
Not sure what spec's you're reading, but from what I can recall,they are in fact 50ohms impedance.
 
http://www.cdint.com/catalog/model/CC-SC
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMC_connector
 
Personally, I'm not very fond of these connectors for headphone connection. They have to be highly modified to permit any cable with a larger diameter than 3mm, and they are designed for coaxial use. Not to mention I rather dislike the outer casing being used as a ground. if anything, the ground contact should be smaller than the signal (Eichmann has proven this to be true I believe).