Will I benefit from getting a o2 amp for my HD6XX when I already own the e10K?

[Kerubin]

Been reading around and have been hearing a lot of mixed responses on whether the e10K can run the HD6XX so it has me questioning whether its worth the 93 USD to buy the o2 amp and run it through the e10K. Is the change so minimal that I should just wait to upgrade to something higher end? Thanks for the help.

 

[cossix]

The E10K puts out 200mW into 32 ohms which already is pretty low. It doesn't say how much power it puts into 300 ohms (the impedance of the Senn 600/650) but it's probably not good at all. It even recommends sticking with 150 ohm headphones at most.

The E10K is very weak for your 6xx and I would definitely get a more powerful amp. The O2 puts 355 mW into 150 ohms so I'm guessing a 300 ohm headphone will get maybe 150-200mW? That is definitely miles better than the E10K. You should notice quite a good difference between the 2.

I think the Schiit Magni 2 puts 260mW into 300 ohms so that may be a bit stronger. The 6xx likes power, which is why I'm mostly comparing wattage instead of sound. The Magni 2 and O2 are on par in terms of quality. I think the O2 might be brighter but I could be wrong.

 

[Kerubin]

The E10K puts out 200mW into 32 ohms which already is pretty low. It doesn't say how much power it puts into 300 ohms (the impedance of the Senn 600/650) but it's probably not good at all. It even recommends sticking with 150 ohm headphones at most.

The E10K is very weak for your 6xx and I would definitely get a more powerful amp. The O2 puts 355 mW into 150 ohms so I'm guessing a 300 ohm headphone will get maybe 150-200mW? That is definitely miles better than the E10K. You should notice quite a good difference between the 2.

I think the Schiit Magni 2 puts 260mW into 300 ohms so that may be a bit stronger. The 6xx likes power, which is why I'm mostly comparing wattage instead of sound. The Magni 2 and O2 are on par in terms of quality. I think the O2 might be brighter but I could be wrong.

Not too good with all this technical talk but I get the general gist of what you're saying, so I need more power which the O2 will give. Another question since I see you own the HD650 as well, would you say that the O2 hits the sweet spot in terms of value to sound because I can afford to spend more but from what I hear the differences become more negligble the more you spend. Appreciate the help.

 

[cossix]

Not too good with all this technical talk but I get the general gist of what you're saying, so I need more power which the O2 will give. Another question since I see you own the HD650 as well, would you say that the O2 hits the sweet spot in terms of value to sound because I can afford to spend more but from what I hear the differences become more negligble the more you spend. Appreciate the help.

Sorry for all the technical talk haha! Essentially, the harder it is to power a headphone (high resistance in ohms means harder to drive) the more power it needs to get loud enough and to sound the way it should. So your 300 ohm headphones need more power to sound their best.

I would definitely say that the O2 and Magni 2 are the best value amps available. I ran the 650 through the Magni 2 before I upgraded my stuff and it sounded great. And they both even look amazing too

 

[Kerubin]

Sorry for all the technical talk haha! Essentially, the harder it is to power a headphone (high resistance in ohms means harder to drive) the more power it needs to get loud enough and to sound the way it should. So your 300 ohm headphones need more power to sound their best.

I would definitely say that the O2 and Magni 2 are the best value amps available. I ran the 650 through the Magni 2 before I upgraded my stuff and it sounded great. And they both even look amazing too

Final question (sorry about the spam), am I correct in assuming that the Modi 2 won't make too much of a difference over the e10K?
Thank you in advance for all the help will definitely be picking up the o2 up from Massdrop now

 

[cossix]

Final question (sorry about the spam), am I correct in assuming that the Modi 2 won't make too much of a difference over the e10K?
Thank you in advance for all the help will definitely be picking up the o2 up from Massdrop now

Good choice! Can't go wrong with the O2 for sure! As for the Modi 2, I noticed some more detail over the E10k and everything sounded a bit more clear, as if the sound from the E10k had a thin sheet over it which was finally lifted. I'd say keep your setup and if you ever want to upgrade, just grab a Modi 2. Your amp brings out perhaps 80% the full performance of the 6xx so upgrading gets less and less cost effective as you go up.

Honestly I'm not big into spending tons of cash on a dac because the amp makes the biggest difference to me. I'm pretty much stopping at the Balanced Jotunheim which has two Modi 2 dac chips in it, one for each channel. I don't think I need any more than that.