[jlbrach]

listening to oliver nelson the blues and abstract truth through tidal and roon into dave/blue2 and a pair of Phi's....this is an expensive hobby to be sure but if your passion is music it is sublime!

 

[Blitzula]

For the Abyss owners...do each of these statements make sense to you? Been speaking with someone about the Abyss Phi.

"A headphone amp isn't optional, you literally (emphasis added) will not be able to hear the headphones without one. "

"Because of their specialized drivers, which happen to have very low efficiency, most headphone amplifiers can't drive them. The requirements for proper operation are from 1000 to 4000mW (emphasis added), which puts them in rather an exclusive range of headphone amplifiers."

I've read the whole thread, so I follow the need for a high quality headphone amp...the literally part surprised me and I was interested in others' thoughts about the power requirements as well.

 

[jlbrach]

no it is not correct,my chord dave/blu2 drives it reasonably well...my moon 430 adds some grunt to it but it is no more difficult to drive than is the LCD-4

 

[Blitzula]

Thanks...how about the "literally" can't be heard without a headphone amp?

 

[jlbrach]

i dont know what you mean without a headphone amp....sure aint gonna work with your phone ....as i said the chord dave drives it reasonably well...the moon 430 with more authority

 

[Blitzula]

"Without a headphone amp" would mean-according to the source-you literally can't hear anything without one. Not underpowered, no sound at all. So you couldn't play out of a PC, for example.

Would you agree with that or is it hyperbole?

 

[jlbrach]

i cant believe you would hear absolutely nothing out of a phone or computer but certainly you wouldnt listen to it that way

 

[Blitzula]

Thanks for the thoughts

 

[mulder01]

lol don't know where you found those gems...

you literally need a headphone amplifier in the sense that you literally need a speaker amplifier or you can't listen to speakers - they have to plug into something... they are not powered by magic elves...

you don't NEED 1-4 watts of power but a lot of people believe the more power available the better. I use my abyss straight out of my lotoo paw gold diana and it sounds fine. It doesn't do hard hitting bass at high volumes, but it's fine at normal volumes. Having said that, most music players and phones etc. don't put out as much power as this player so an additional amp would be needed. Doesn't have to be desktop - there are some smaller amps out there by ifi and a few others with plenty of balls if you want portable. On the other end of the scale, some people prefer to run their abyss out of a speaker amp because they like the sound of a particular design. I mean, you can buy an amp for $99 from schiit audio and that will do over 1000mw into the abyss. Most people don't want to power their $5000 headphones from a $99 amp, but it'll work...

Do you not have a chance to listen to any gear before purchasing?

 

[Blitzula]

Those gems came from a dealer selling the Abyss. The dealer site is known and is far as I'm aware respected on Head-Fi.

I wanted to see what you all thought, the reactions are about what I expected.

I can audition in a store at one location I'm aware of in the Bay Area. But I'd really like to have the headphones for a week before deciding. It's been my experience that it takes a number of days with different types of music and recordings to fully understand the technical and emotional nuances of a set. An audition of an hour or less is just too little.

So it's tricky when you'd like a longer audition; most of the Abyss dealers charge a 15-20% restocking fee, prohibitive at this price range.

 

[mulder01]

I think the differences between headphones are pretty significant. I reckon you could pick a headphone you like in store, but maybe your ideal amp / dac combo might be a bit harder.

 

[bigfatpaulie]

For the Abyss owners...do each of these statements make sense to you? Been speaking with someone about the Abyss Phi.

"A headphone amp isn't optional, you literally (emphasis added) will not be able to hear the headphones without one. "

"Because of their specialized drivers, which happen to have very low efficiency, most headphone amplifiers can't drive them. The requirements for proper operation are from 1000 to 4000mW (emphasis added), which puts them in rather an exclusive range of headphone amplifiers."

I've read the whole thread, so I follow the need for a high quality headphone amp...the literally part surprised me and I was interested in others' thoughts about the power requirements as well.

To answer your two questions:

1) Not true. This person has literally (emphasis added) has no idea what they are talking about.

2) Not true. This person has literally (emphasis added) has no idea what they are talking about.

And my personal 2 cents: Stop talking to this person because they literally (emphasis added) have no idea what they are talking about.

 

[Sonic77]

Probably a salesman trying to get an extra sale of an amp on top of the potential Abyss headphone sale.

For the Abyss owners...do each of these statements make sense to you? Been speaking with someone about the Abyss Phi.

"A headphone amp isn't optional, you literally (emphasis added) will not be able to hear the headphones without one. "

"Because of their specialized drivers, which happen to have very low efficiency, most headphone amplifiers can't drive them. The requirements for proper operation are from 1000 to 4000mW (emphasis added), which puts them in rather an exclusive range of headphone amplifiers."

I've read the whole thread, so I follow the need for a high quality headphone amp...the literally part surprised me and I was interested in others' thoughts about the power requirements as well.

 

[mulder01]

Well... you need to run them from something of reasonable quality I suppose. Otherwise why are you spending $5k on audio gear... Just don't let them get you too carried away. Getting carried away is a process that you need to go through on your own accord.

 

[FLTWS]

Well... you need to run them from something of reasonable quality I suppose. Otherwise why are you spending $5k on audio gear... Just don't let them get you too carried away. Getting carried away is a process that you need to go through on your own accord.

LOL!