Duggeh
Indeed
- Joined
- May 9, 2005
- Posts
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Quote:
I had a notice warning the user about the dangers of volume creep because of distortion free reproduction come with my 2020 and my O2.
On the point though, it is the ability to achieve "drive control" at low volumes which is one of the most important factors to me in a headphone. I listen at volume levels well below what I estimate to be the average and as such there are two things which are of vast importance to me. The first is the ability of a driver to articulate sound detail and tonality at lower volumes, the second is the ability of an amplifier to control a driver as well as possible. If anything, it is the amplifier that is more important in this regard as the end aim of any amp should be the most utterly totalitarian control over its load as physically possible. This control is at its most important at lower volume levels because sound often requires a certain volume level in order to "bloom". This is the point at which the driver has achieved "drive". This is important not just for low level listeners like me but for the reproduction of any music with proper dynamic range. The amp should have control enough to reproduce the quiet sounds without skipping anything and the headroom to provide the squirts of power for a 10dB cannon shot. Its not just about output wattage, its about the grip that those watts have.
Planar headphones are inherently better than moving coil designs in the first regard and meaty amps with large power supplies and good reserves of output energy into variable loads are best in the second regard.
The Ergo AMT from a Pass Labs power amp and the SR-202 from the SRM-717 are the best combinations that I have heard for achieving this balance of factors. The O2 and 717 sounds better even though it needs more power because its a better transducer, so it will only get even more better (is that an overadjectification?) (is that even a word?) with a better amp behind it. I also believe that I can do better in terms of amplification for the AMT too.
There has been much talk regarding amplification for the K1000 over the years on head-fi as well, because the driver in the K1000 is such a tough load it takes an amplifier with some real gonads to get it to behave itself. Any headphone that meets the category of difficult load (the O2, AMT, K1000 I have already mentioned but the R10, HD414, H2 are others) really does need an amp which is utterly disciplinarian and can bring them into line in order to get the best from them.
| Originally Posted by PiccoloNamek /img/forum/go_quote.gif Now that I've had my Stax for a few weeks, I've noticed a phenomenon. No matter how loud I turn the volume up, the headphones never distort or become harsh to listen to. This makes it somewhat difficult to set a proper listening level because, perhaps unconsciously, I used distortion at loud levels as a way to determine safe listening levels when using dynamic headphones. Did anyone else notice this when transitioning to Stax? |
I had a notice warning the user about the dangers of volume creep because of distortion free reproduction come with my 2020 and my O2.
On the point though, it is the ability to achieve "drive control" at low volumes which is one of the most important factors to me in a headphone. I listen at volume levels well below what I estimate to be the average and as such there are two things which are of vast importance to me. The first is the ability of a driver to articulate sound detail and tonality at lower volumes, the second is the ability of an amplifier to control a driver as well as possible. If anything, it is the amplifier that is more important in this regard as the end aim of any amp should be the most utterly totalitarian control over its load as physically possible. This control is at its most important at lower volume levels because sound often requires a certain volume level in order to "bloom". This is the point at which the driver has achieved "drive". This is important not just for low level listeners like me but for the reproduction of any music with proper dynamic range. The amp should have control enough to reproduce the quiet sounds without skipping anything and the headroom to provide the squirts of power for a 10dB cannon shot. Its not just about output wattage, its about the grip that those watts have.
Planar headphones are inherently better than moving coil designs in the first regard and meaty amps with large power supplies and good reserves of output energy into variable loads are best in the second regard.
The Ergo AMT from a Pass Labs power amp and the SR-202 from the SRM-717 are the best combinations that I have heard for achieving this balance of factors. The O2 and 717 sounds better even though it needs more power because its a better transducer, so it will only get even more better (is that an overadjectification?) (is that even a word?) with a better amp behind it. I also believe that I can do better in terms of amplification for the AMT too.
There has been much talk regarding amplification for the K1000 over the years on head-fi as well, because the driver in the K1000 is such a tough load it takes an amplifier with some real gonads to get it to behave itself. Any headphone that meets the category of difficult load (the O2, AMT, K1000 I have already mentioned but the R10, HD414, H2 are others) really does need an amp which is utterly disciplinarian and can bring them into line in order to get the best from them.
