[NeilV]

Howdy,

So happy to find this forum.

I'm looking for headphone recommendations for listening to vinyl (mostly) and streamed classical music. I listen to a wide variety of other stuff too, but I like to listen to classical to relax before bed. My wife doesn't. Also, "Classical" includes everything from symphonies to piano/string solos and even some choir/opera/renaissance vocal music.

I want to get HPs that are a good match for my system and the music I like.

I have a TT with an Ortofon Bronze cart/stylus, connected to a Puffin DSM pre-amp, which is connected to a Yamaha as501 receiver. The headphone jack is on the Yamaha. Best I can tell, the output impedence for the jack is over 400 ohms. The Puffin allows me to affect the sound, such as by adjusting how bright/warm the sound is. I stream music by connecting my phone to the Puffin.

My questions/concerns:

Am I correct that this jack is producing more than enough signal to power 600 ohm headphones? (And too much for low impedence options?)

All else being equal, would 600 ohm headphones probably sound better than 250 ohm headphones, or does that not really matter?

I'm considering Beyerdynamic DT 880 or 990 in the 600 ohm configurations. Any thoughts about those and/or which one?

Any other ideas?

(There's no store around here that would let me borrow/audition headphones, so I'm trying to make my best educated guess before buying.)

TIA for any guidance,

Neil

 

[NeilV]

Bump.

 

[kiruba]

AKG k712! Buy them online (Amazon) where they accept returns just in case you don't like them.

I got them a week ago. Mine is driven by Magni3 amp. Classical music shines in these headphones. Could literally feel the cello, drums flute, violin in the sound.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

My questions/concerns:

Am I correct that this jack is producing more than enough signal to power 600 ohm headphones? (And too much for low impedence options?)

I'm not sure how you got that. Don't you just have the output impedance on the receiver's headphone output, and you don't have the figures for the power output?

At the very least you'll need to confirm if the receiver at least just drives the headphone output using the speaker output stage, but even then that doesn't mean you can count from its known 8ohm output, know that doubles at four ohms, and then keep halving the output to get the output at 32ohm and 256ohm to guesstimate the power. Gain can also be too high since speaker amps tend to actually be noisy when you stand next to them, which isn't a problem if you sit 2m away, but depending on how the circuit is, that might remain a problem when you have a headphone driver a few cm's from your eardrum, much less one with low impedance.

On top of not knowing the power output, which low impedance headphones are we talking about, exactly? Because you can have a 62ohm, 93dB/1mW sensitivity headphone, a 35ohm, 90dB/1mW sensitivity headphone, a 32ohm, 99dB/1mW sensitivity headphone, and a 300ohm, 96dB/1mW headphone. Those headphones will need around 512mW, 1024mW, 128mW, and 256mW, respectively, with their nominal impedance only affecting how much a particular amp can produce at that impedance level.

All else being equal, would 600 ohm headphones probably sound better than 250 ohm headphones, or does that not really matter?

That depends on a lot of other factors.

First and foremost you're going to need more voltage (with a bit more gain as well) to drive the 600ohm headphone.

Second, assuming they're exactly the same headphone drivers otherwise but come in different versions, technically the only difference would be how they interact with the amp, like with output power, and in some cases, how much of a factor output impedance will be. In a high output impedance amp the difference should be minimal, generally, but in such a case where the output impedance is already higher than 250ohms, you could hear waaaaaaaaaaaaay more variances in sound than compared to what other people hear.

In other cases they're not even exactly the same headphone so there's no way to tell really, other than to watch out for whether the amp you plan on using might have a problem, but in this case you could have a problem either way.

I'm considering Beyerdynamic DT 880 or 990 in the 600 ohm configurations. Any thoughts about those and/or which one?

Any other ideas?

(There's no store around here that would let me borrow/audition headphones, so I'm trying to make my best educated guess before buying.)

TIA for any guidance,

Given both of them can be a problem anyway might as well get the 250ohm version, this way if it sucks and it can be guessed well enough that an actual headphone amp with the right power delivery capability will improve the sound, well, it's easier to get a headphone amp that would work with a 250ohm headphone, and even one that can work with a 32ohm headphone in case you want to have the choice to use a different headphone later if you really don't like what it sounds like and it isn't just the amp screwing up with it.

 

[NeilV]

According to the Yamaha manual, when the input is a 1kHz test tone at 200mV, the output is 430 mV/470 ohms.

Does that clarify anything? (I have no idea what that means.)

 

[ProtegeManiac]

According to the Yamaha manual, when the input is a 1kHz test tone at 200mV, the output is 430 mV/470 ohms.

Does that clarify anything? (I have no idea what that means.)

Forgot the formula to convert that but I understand it correctly, if you give it a 2V signal (Sony Redbook standard for CDPs and generally is what most DACs shoot for), it might produce a little over 4V into a 470ohm load, assuming the first figure is the strength of the input signal.

For reference my Meier Cantate.2 has I think 16V but no impedance; that said, at +4dB gain, it's barely just loud enough (though no distortion and clipping) when driving a Beyer T1 (though this is a very efficient 600ohm headphone).

 

[NeilV]

Thanks -- I ordered a Schiit Magni 3. For the price, seemed like the way to go.