[danaa]

Please excuse my ignorance as I'm totally naive regarding the headphone/amp arena of home audio. I purchased the Sennheiser 650/Perreaux combo from Audio Advisor after reading a ton of posts at this highly informed site. It just seemed to me that this combo would come close to my listening preferences and, thus far, after 50 or so hours of breakin, I'm very satisfied.

But, from my experiences with home audio, I'm cautious regarding how far I can turn up the amp before risking clipping. As you're all aware, different CD's are engineered to output different sonic outputs. Thus far, I've extended the dial, for test purposes, up to about the two o'clock position and was unable to discern any signs of distortion at this level, but I'm an inexperienced headphone user. Any ideas???

 

[Orpheus]

Quote:

But, from my experiences with home audio, I'm cautious regarding how far I can turn up the amp before risking clipping. As you're all aware, different CD's are engineered to output different sonic outputs. Thus far, I've extended the dial, for test purposes, up to about the two o'clock position and was unable to discern any signs of distortion at this level, but I'm an inexperienced headphone user. Any ideas???

i'm not exactly sure what you're talking about--cd's contain sounds... how loud you physically can play them is determined by your amp and headphones. no information on your CD changes that.

so... your senn hd650's are capable of very loud volumes without distortion. most people cannot bear to use them that loud--it'll hurt. your perreaux is also a very good amp, and will also not distort until extreme volumes. so, don't worry about "clipping" or whatever. use them as loud as you can bear.

to put it flatly, unless if your're going deaf, you'll never turn them up high enough to cause problems.

 

[Sean H]

Congrats on the new gear! I have the Perreaux/HD650 myself and I commonly have the volume knob (the damn dinky little thing) up to 2-3 o'clock on the dial. No problems, no distrotion here. Perreaux claims that the SXH-1 is built so that it will not clip, they say that with volume all the way up to max it will not clip. I don't know if this is true or not but they claim that this is the reason for the Perreaux having a bit less gain than most amps. I know it seems odd to have the volume way up there past 12 o'clock, going on 3 no less, but believe me it's just fine. Like anything, if you ever hear some clipping or distortion just turn it down.

 

[Orpheus]

Quote:

Perreaux claims that the SXH-1 is built so that it will not clip, they say that with volume all the way up to max it will not clip.

well, that's not exactly what they said... all amps will clip when pushed beyond their limits. perreaux was saying that the orientation of the volume knob doesn't change its performance, just the volume alone. most amps will have more noise and distortion the more the volume is turned.

but anyway, i'm sure you cannot push that combination into distortion and still be able to leave the headphones on your head--your ear drums would melt first.

 

[Sovkiller]

If this what you want to know, you will be deaf first to hear any clipping or distortion from them, or maybe you could blow a driver off, it has power enough to drive teh HD600 to make you deaf, believe us on that.....

 

[Sean H]

Quote:

Originally posted by Orpheus well, that's not exactly what they said... all amps will clip when pushed beyond their limits. perreaux was saying that the orientation of the volume knob doesn't change its performance, just the volume alone. most amps will have more noise and distortion the more the volume is turned.

Actually, that is what they said, see Clinton's reply to a poster's question on the Perreaux forum:

http://www.perreaux.com/forum.php?idpyt=57

 

[Orpheus]

--kinda funny you read that reponse. yes, you're right, that's exactly what the dude said, BUT... i am sure that's not what he means exactly. ALL amps WILL distort when pushed beyond their limits. no exceptions! so, when he says that it will not distort at full volume, i think what he meant was that with a normal input level (no exceptionally loud preamp or CD player), at full rotation of the volume knob the perreaux amp will not clip (it has very high headroom.) but that does not mean it never clips... if you turn up your preamp all the way, or you give it too much juice, it WILL clip eventually. so technically the dude was wrong. but in reality, yeah, it's not gonna clip under most circumstances.

and by the way, i am "Dean, dtc_omni@hotmail.com."

 

[Sean H]

Quote:

Originally posted by Orpheus and by the way, i am "Dean, dtc_omni@hotmail.com."

Ha Ha!!! I didn't put two and two together.

Funny. But yeah, I definitely agree with what you said for sure.

 

[danaa]

Really, really appreciate the help guys. I've been listening at about the 10:OO position, but every once in a while like it a bit louder. Now, I can be comfortable.