Im planning on buying these headphones, but I am confused on buying an amplifier that can get all the way to 300 ohms. Most people recommend amps that output much less. I’m sure I’m missing something, but I’m not sure what… would anyone be willing to explain it to me? Thanks!
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Headphone impedance is, by itself, not a measure of amplifier requirements. There’s a ton of misinformation out there about it, so it’s easy to get confused. Any decent headphone amp will do fine.
Audio engineers use high impedance as a tool to tune the drivers. Yes you will need an amplifier to proper sound. Underpowered it won’t impress you like most on this sub cry they aren’t impressed by hd6 series but still suggest it doesn’t require an amp.
Haha couldn’t agree more… They definitely require amp to shine. High volume doesn’t mean they are driven properly
I have hd660s2. Drives fairly easy of M1 Mac air. But since I had an ibasso Dc03 pro, I use it to drive.
If you getting an amp/dac, you can try Tempotec -Sonata BHD Pro (has enough power) or iBasso dc04pro. Either would be more than enough to take care of any noise floor (if your source laptop/phone has) and run your cans easily.
But you can buy the S2 cans without any of these things too.
I have been thinking of upgrading the laptop instead of buying an amp. How was the hd660 off of the air?
I’m okay if it is worse than a dedicated amp. But can the Air do it effectively?
Don’t worry about impedance. I have the HD 6XX and 660s and there’s no sound quality difference running off my iPhone vs an amp
I totally disagree… There’s night and day difference for me, especially in the low end
Because they were designed at a time when amps had high OI (output impedance) and Tube amps were more common.
Impedence and sensitivity are both important for power requirements for a headphone. While the 6X0 series has high impedance it also has high sensitivity making them not that hard to drive.
There are lots of calculators online that show you the actual amount of power required. I like the headphonesty one because it shows a list of devices that can drive the given headphone (though the list is a bit outdated) and you can link to specific input settings like this.
TL;DR you can literally drive the 6X0 line using an Apple dongle of most (though not all) modern smartphones. Basically any desktop amp unless it is strangely underpowered should run them fine.
As a side note if they currently get loud enough for you on whatever device you’re currently using you don’t need an amp unless you’re trying to remove background noise (say from a PC headphone jack) or add features (like a nice volume knob, more inputs / outputs, etc). An amp won’t change the sound in 99% of cases unless you get something specialized like a tube amp or something specifically designed to ‘color’ the sound.
Really helpful link
👍🏻
hd600 have quite a high sensitivity so are actually very easy to power
If I plug them on the control unit for my pc speakers they’re okay but on my phone it’s not enough.Tested it on a Fiio btr3k that I use for my iems and it’s just okay.
I wanted to get a dap but I’m not sure if those will power it properly even with balanced cables.
I wouldn’t say very easy but most separate amps would be fine with it.
I find the efficiency of the hd600 to be high enough to be powered off a macbook pro or phone, despite the high 300ohm impedance. can’t be said for the hd650, that requires decent amplification for it to wake up.
The new MacBooks have better amps as well that are like 2 V RMS
I’ve plugged the HD600 directly into my phone and into a MacBook Pro. They worked just fine that way.