No, despite being 300 ohms, they are relatively easy to run. They do scale up, however, with better amping.
Sennheiser HD 600 Impressions Thread
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No, despite being 300 ohms, they are relatively easy to run. They do scale up, however, with better amping.
You can "run" the HD-600 with your setup and as the poster above noted they are efficient enough to not require 25% more power.
The way to get the most or how they scale up is to get something that "runs" or drives them properly. If your current amp drives the DT-880 fairly well then it will for the most parts drive the HD-600 quite well, but YMMV with this.
PinkyPowers
Reviewer: The Headphone List
Yes. Every DAP I've tried powers the HD600 to loud volume. They don't all give you a full, rich sound, and none of them make the HD600 sound quite as good as a proper desktop amp.
In a pinch, however, the FiiO X5 does a lovely job.
Pahani
500+ Head-Fier
I have a pair of HD600's (with a Cardas-style cable) on the way, should be here Friday-ish.
I've been using easy to drive cans up to this point, but with Magni 2 Uber and Modi 2 Uber, driving the 600's shouldn't be a problem
My BIG question, is what is the MAX input power for the 600s? I don't see it listed anywhere, hopefully I'm not overlooking an obvious spot.
Specs for my Magni show it pushing 320mW RMS @ 300 Ohms. I really doubt that's enough power to hurt the 600, but would appreciate some clarification just for peace of mind!
I did try a search here as well, but nothing popped up that looked promising. I'm looking forward to FINALLY switching my amp to High gain! I purposely keep my amp on Low gain for my current headphones, to try to avoid hurting them with too much power.
Current headphones:
SHP9500
K7XX
X2
HD600 on Friday
...and in August, I'm in on the Fostex TH-X00 Purpleheart drop.
I'm thinking the HD600 will be more or less a big brother to the K7XX, with a quite flat response.
I'm thinking the X00 will be more or less a big brother to the X2, with accentuated bass.
I've been using easy to drive cans up to this point, but with Magni 2 Uber and Modi 2 Uber, driving the 600's shouldn't be a problem
My BIG question, is what is the MAX input power for the 600s? I don't see it listed anywhere, hopefully I'm not overlooking an obvious spot.
Specs for my Magni show it pushing 320mW RMS @ 300 Ohms. I really doubt that's enough power to hurt the 600, but would appreciate some clarification just for peace of mind!
I did try a search here as well, but nothing popped up that looked promising. I'm looking forward to FINALLY switching my amp to High gain! I purposely keep my amp on Low gain for my current headphones, to try to avoid hurting them with too much power.
Current headphones:
SHP9500
K7XX
X2
HD600 on Friday
...and in August, I'm in on the Fostex TH-X00 Purpleheart drop.
I'm thinking the HD600 will be more or less a big brother to the K7XX, with a quite flat response.
I'm thinking the X00 will be more or less a big brother to the X2, with accentuated bass.
I have a pair of HD600's (with a Cardas-style cable) on the way, should be here Friday-ish.
I've been using easy to drive cans up to this point, but with Magni 2 Uber and Modi 2 Uber, driving the 600's shouldn't be a problem
My BIG question, is what is the MAX input power for the 600s? I don't see it listed anywhere, hopefully I'm not overlooking an obvious spot.
Specs for my Magni show it pushing 320mW RMS @ 300 Ohms. I really doubt that's enough power to hurt the 600, but would appreciate some clarification just for peace of mind!
I did try a search here as well, but nothing popped up that looked promising. I'm looking forward to FINALLY switching my amp to High gain! I purposely keep my amp on Low gain for my current headphones, to try to avoid hurting them with too much power.
Current headphones:
SHP9500
K7XX
X2
HD600 on Friday
...and in August, I'm in on the Fostex TH-X00 Purpleheart drop.
I'm thinking the HD600 will be more or less a big brother to the K7XX, with a quite flat response.
I'm thinking the X00 will be more or less a big brother to the X2, with accentuated bass.
Wouldn't worry about max input power for HD-600 but just don't turn it full volume or you may damage the drivers. And if you really want to know:
Specifications:
- Cable Length: 10 ft. (3 m)
- Ear Coupling: Around-the-ear
- Frequency Response (headphones): 12 - 39,000 Hz
- Connector Jack/Plug: 1/8"
- Maximum Input Power: 200 mW
- Nominal Impedance: 300
- Sound Pressure Level (SPL): 97 dB (SPL), at 1 mW
- Total Harmonic Distortion (THD): 0.1 %
- Transducer Principle: Open-Aire, dynamic
- Weight w/o Cable: 9.2 oz. (260 g)
Pahani
500+ Head-Fier
Ahh 200mW @ 300 Ohms, thanks!! That's exactly the info I was looking for, probably won't push more than 50% on High gain then to be safe.
Many thanks, sir!
Many thanks, sir!
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Some amps struggle at producing the bass for the HD600 since the impedance goes up to 550 ohms at around 100hz so voltage needs to be higher to drive it's bass, also bass demands higher current as well. The HD600 sounds better with amps that can output high voltage. Solid state transistors are usually good at supplying high current but are limited by voltage, but vacuum tubes are good at outputing high voltage but are limited by current. Thats why tubes are a good pairing for high impedance headphones.
madwolfa
Headphoneus Supremus
At the same time HD600 is efficient enough that it doesn't require that much voltage to sound at comfortable volume levels. So even a regular solid state amp is sufficient from the pure power perspective.
_gl
100+ Head-Fier
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Nice, I don't hang out here enough to know almost any of the gear you guys use, but I was intrigued by the lights on your DAC and found out it's an FPGA-driven Hugo. How does it sound?
Thanks! The Hugo is simply the best portable/transportable DAC I personally have ever heard. Great clarity and detail, with wonderful bass to treble balance. It drives the HD600 really beautifully on its own, but the amp seems to add slightly more spaciousness and body.
_gl
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Cool. I'm a programmer and I like the idea of implementing a DAC (or anything really) in an FPGA. They are completely programmable, so a firmware update can completely rewrite what it does (within the constraints of the supporting analogue hardware).
ColtMrFire
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If you're experiencing a constricted soundstage with the HD600, something is definitely lacking in your audio chain. Could be the amp, DAC, or USB/AC power "noise".
My pair has a pretty large soundstage (not as big as the HD800, but close), which only happened after I dealt with USB/DAC noise by adding a couple audioquest jitterbugs and adding a small amount of ERS paper inside the DAC.
The soundstage is constricted and not right to me. But it doesn't matter since I usually use a HD-800, T1 or SR-009 for classical. My audio chain is not the problem since the rest of my headphones sound good with it. FWIW my chain is DACs: Bifrost MB, Uber, UD-301, AH-01, and Modi2uber, amps: SRM-007 (for SR-009 only), Lyr2, Asgard2, AH-01, Ember, BH Crack, and UD-301 since it has a headphone amp in it which is decent.
To me the HD-600 is about average in soundstage, not even close to HD-800, my opinion.
If you think your HD-600 has a large soundstage that is close to the HD-800 then that good for you, don't have to look at other headphones to get the wider soundstage.
Also I don't use USB connections, too many issues with it as you seem to have found by adding all the extras to clean up your chain, to me you are messing with your chain a lot more to correct "noise" and other issues.
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