[Dr. Strangelove]

Basically I am budgeting for new phones. I have been considering going DIY or being a pre-made DIY solution. I intend to finance the phones and the new amp with my DarkVoice 336i (Go to the FS forum after you read this haha). However, I find that the prices for the cans I am looking at are... little more than I would like.

Soo....

I start reading about the K340... and how it is a narcissistic thing that likes a lot of power. I then read a few threads where people have done or suggested hooking up the K340s to a speaker amplifier.

Just so happens I have an old Mitsubishi DA-A10DC dual monoblock amplifier (100w @ 8ohm)...

This got me thinking... hook the K340s up to the Mits's B outputs... use a for the Klipsch's... and I got a pretty good system going yes?

Is there any good reason why using my Mits as a headphone amplifier is a bad idea vs a headphone amp like my DarkVoice?

 

[Zorander]

It's possible, yes, as long as your headphone:

1) Has 4 conductors (for Left +, Left -, Right +, Right -),
2) is re-terminated so as to be able to accomodate the above terminals (and avoid bridging the -ve terminals through the common ground on SE-phones),
3) Your amp tolerates working with loads beyond the typical 4-16 Ohm impedances (my Cyrus works fine this way but I don't know if this method works universally), and
4) Your amp does not have much, preferably none, background hiss (this can be maddening on a headphone).

Cheers!

 

[sunseeker888]

+1, any hiss will be more audible with the speakers strapped to your skull.

Most (if not all) solid state amps will tolerate a 4 to say, 300 ohm speaker impedance, albeit with less overall 'drive' as you increase the impedance.

Just note, you may want to employ some volume-limiting mechanism so you don't accidentally send loudspeaker-level signals into the cans.

Otherwise, should sound quite good.

 

[Dr. Strangelove]

The thing has volume pots on the back so high levels are not a problem.

Hiss is audible on full gain on my Klipschs, but I think that is the pre-amp (Not audible when the receiver is off).

I was reading about a DIY adapter that involved putting a bunch of resistors in the signal as to tame down 8ohm wattage to headphone levels. Anyone able to shed light on this?

I have no idea at all if the amp will take loads over 8ohm... I do not THINK that it would matter though: usually in the speaker world the problem is with 4ohm and 2ohm loads as those cause the amp to heat up and supply more wattage.

 

[sunseeker888]

Shouldn't be a problem at all. Like you say, lower impedance heats the amp (assuming class AB) more than higher since lower impedance demands more current for the same given output wattage.

The resistors are there to lower signal level and to mate the cans to the speaker amp smoothly.

IMHO, I've used a LOT of vintage gear, and the headphone jacks in these usually does it the same as the way we are discussing.

 

[Dr. Strangelove]

So what I can surmise from this thread is if I create this chain of components:

"Speaker terminal -> to dual Male XLR -> dual female XLR -> headphones (k340s)"

and have my volume pots set to low gain, then I will not make my headphones explode right?

 

[Kees]

It will do just fine (I have a balanced 4 pin XLR K340 and use it sometimes on my K1000 setup).

 

[krmathis]

I think you will be perfectly fine.
From what I understand the K340 is quite demanding, much like the K1000, and hence should be fine with a speaker amplifier. Just be careful with the volume control.