[antone1000]

Hello,

I'm a new member. I was told that I should be posting my first thread here on this forum "Introductions, Help and Recommendations".

I have the MacBook Pro 15" 2019 and I was wondering if this laptop is able to drive 300 ohm headphones? Probably not, but then which kind of headphones can they drive without a Amp or DAC? Maybe 100 ohm?
I'm thinking about buying this: https://drop.com/buy/massdrop-sennheiser-hd6xx
But I should probably look for a "lower" headphones if I'm not gonna use a Amp or a DAC?

I look forward to hearing from you

Cheers!

 

[PurpleAngel]

Laptops are battery powered, so the voltage sent to built in headphone amplifier might be limited.
HD600/HD650/HD6XX seem to do best when connected to a ($400) BottleHead Crack pure tube headphone amplifier.
Check out the 32-Ohm Soundmagic HP200 headphones.

 

[gimmeheadroom]

The 600/650/6XX will likely be extremely unhappy with a laptop driving them. The worst thing about these Sennheisers is with some amps they can even get loud enough and still sound lifeless. The more amp you throw at them the better they will sound.

A DAC is required to play digital music no matter what. A separate dacamp will often not have enough amplifier for these Sennheisers. Like @PurpleAngel said, a tube OTL amp is usually a top choice. They are not expensive and will make you love your Sennheisers.

If you want to run a pair of headphones out of a laptop, you have to consider not only the impedance but also the sensitivity. Look to something like the Hifiman Sundara if you don't want to buy an amplifier. There are a lot of choices in different price ranges for headphones designed to be run from portable devices.

 

[megabigeye]

Hello,

I'm a new member. I was told that I should be posting my first thread here on this forum "Introductions, Help and Recommendations".

I have the MacBook Pro 15" 2019 and I was wondering if this laptop is able to drive 300 ohm headphones? Probably not, but then which kind of headphones can they drive without a Amp or DAC? Maybe 100 ohm?
I'm thinking about buying this: https://drop.com/buy/massdrop-sennheiser-hd6xx
But I should probably look for a "lower" headphones if I'm not gonna use a Amp or a DAC?

I look forward to hearing from you

Cheers!

I disagree wholeheartedly with the above posts. The HD 650/6XX are 300Ω, but that doesn't mean that they need a $400 DIY OTL amp or tons of voltage to sound great. I'm currently listening to the HD 650 out of my 2014 MacBook Air, and they sound great. I've also used them with my Samsung S9, which is perfectly adequate. Maybe they skimped on the DAC/amp in your model of MacBook, but it's worth a try. Can the HD 650 sound better? Possibly, but that doesn't mean it won't sound good straight out of your laptop.

I should also mention that it goes without saying that if it sounds like something is going wrong, then you should stop listening and unplug the headphones.

 

[antone1000]

Thank you for your replies, folks.

As I said, the Sennheiser HD 650/6xx is a monster and a lot of people recommend using a DAC or Amp with it. I agree with that. But as megabigeye said, they don't nessecarly need a amp/dac to sound good. Good headphones at 50% power is still good headphones.
I currently have the Sennheiser HD 598, which gets loud enough to blow my ears, The sound quality of those headphones both on my iPhone and MacBook sound magnificent. They only have 50 ohms, so that probably explains it. I will probably stick with those for a while until I save enough money to buy a decent amp/dac.

 

[PurpleAngel]

Thank you for your replies, folks.

As I said, the Sennheiser HD 650/6xx is a monster and a lot of people recommend using a DAC or Amp with it. I agree with that. But as megabigeye said, they don't necessarily need a amp/dac to sound good. Good headphones at 50% power is still good headphones.
I currently have the Sennheiser HD 598, which gets loud enough to blow my ears, The sound quality of those headphones both on my iPhone and MacBook sound magnificent. They only have 50 ohms, so that probably explains it. I will probably stick with those for a while until I save enough money to buy a decent amp/dac.

You might check out the 150-Ohm Massdrop/Sennheiser HD58X, a more lively/musical sound, than the more neutral HD598.
And very easy for a Macbook to drive or even a decently powered smartphone.

 

[megabigeye]

In fact, here's somebody saying how surprisingly good the HD 650 sounds straight out of his iPhone XS.
I really wish people would stop taking about how much power or voltage the HD 650 "needs." It's really not true.

 

[gimmeheadroom]

As I said, the Sennheiser HD 650/6xx is a monster and a lot of people recommend using a DAC or Amp with it. I agree with that. But as megabigeye said, they don't nessecarly need a amp/dac to sound good. Good headphones at 50% power is still good headphones.

This is exactly not true regarding the Sennheiser 600/650/6XX. An amp without enough quality power (not sure how it would be measured but probably means not enough voltage swing) will get loud enough but will sound lifeless. I experienced this numerous times and now I recognize the degredation in sound quality immediately if the amp isn't right.

I have seen a lot of posts all over the net saying the 600 is crap, 6XX is crap whatever. When you look into it, they're running them out of laptops, portable devices, etc. or even entry level desktop amps that just can't get the job done. This series of headphones and a lot of Sennheisers scale like mad. It is almost impossible to throw too much amp at them. They sing on a healthy OTL amp or a honking solid state amp like you wouldn't believe until you try it.

And if you haven't tried it they may sound fine or great to you but you have no basis for comparison.

 

[megabigeye]

And here's another poster talking about attending blind tests where people couldn't differentiate between high power amps and an iPad.

And somebody talking about how good the HD 650 sounds out of their Windows 10 laptop.

I don't doubt that some amps sound better than others, but if the headphone is able to get loud enough then the difference in sound isn't due to power.