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Headphone Amp Question

J

James Noel

Member
So I have a headphone amp question for you all. I currently have Yamaha a-s1000 amp that is my primary power source for vinyl and occasionally my phone. I have converted to 100% listening via headphones now. I have a pair of audio technica a1000z and recently added a pair of HD6XX. I am wondering for dedicated headphone listening if I'd be better off with a headphone amp instead of my A-S1000? The specs I found on the headphone out are
Headphone Rated Output
1 kHz, 150 mV, 0.2 % THD, 32 ohms ............... 23 mW / 100 ohms. Seems like a reasonable amount of power but even just say a Schiit asgard 3 has more power. Love some opinions.
 
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It's a little hard to tell from the spec on the Yamaha, but the output impedance is one of the more important aspects. Your AT1000 phones are most likely 30 to 50 Ohm phones. I'm going by AT2000 specs. Output impedance of the Yamaha, if it's higher than 6 or 7 Ohms, will most likely color the frequency response. As far as the HD6XX, I can only guess they are similar to Senn HD650s. The impedance with those will be more than 250Ohms - usually 300. these will less affected by a high output impedance on the Yamaha.
On the other hand, my experience with high impedance phones indicate they are at their best when the amp can produce a wide voltage output such as +/- 5 to 15 volts. At low output voltages, the dynamics that high Z phones can produce is diminished with low output voltage.

But, as always, what sounds good to you is all that's important. Personally, if headphone listening is an important part of your music listening experience, a dedicated headphone amp is a must.

Cheers
 
Thank you for your response. Yes, the AT headphones are about 30 ohm vs the 250 for the Senns. The HD6xx are essentially 650's. Neither sound bad with the Yamaha but I am curious if the higher power dedicated headphone amps will help the Senn's. I think it's time to try one out. Have any thoughts on how to manage inputs on a headphone amp? Most just rca inputs. Some have balanced inputs but I only want to run my phono preamp and my phone.
 
Most dedicated headphone amps generally have just one input. Some incorporate DACS and have other inputs. You could use the line out jacks on your Yamaha and connect to the inputs on the headphone amp. I would stick with RCA unbalanced ins and outs unless you plan to go all balanced in the near future.
You can garner a good bit of information by looking at the specs and overview of the various amps at the Schiit site. It's a good place to start for learning about output power vs voltage swing and of course, output impedance.

Good luck
 
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