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Why do I need a headphone amp??

1

1950redwing

Active Member
Recently purchased a pair of Sennheiser 650 HD phones. They sound great. I have heard that to get the most out of them it is best to use a headphone amp. Is this true?? They seem to be fine run off my NAD rec, even my iPod and lap top drive them OK...
Am I missing something?? Be polite, lol...

Red
 
I dont know the ins and outs of this but having owned Senns , Grados etc they have all benefited from a good dedicated headphone amp over that in my Arcam Cinema System or PC. It was a similar story getting a nice portable amp to go with my DAP. The difference isnt night and day though but a real improvement in control , tone, texture and weight. Plenty of headphone amps out there to try both Valve and solid state. On the Solid State side i have an Edwards Audio Amp which is excellent ( and may be willing to part with as i now have a STAX system which uses its own amp ) I also had an Earmax valve design which was great too but more expensive. If your based nearby I could do a sale or return on the Edwards for you to try it.
 
I'm buying an X-can v3 to run my sennie HD414s from, slight overkill but I may upgrade the phones.
 
I use the same phones , they work best with a good valve HP amp like a Woo Audio etc...
An excellent choice as well for solid state is the Graham Slee models
I have an X-cans V3 -- also very good as a hybrid choice.
The 650's are worthy of spending on an amp and even an aftermarket dac just to run them. Also do well with aftermarket chords.
Meridian have a dac and HP amp called the Explorer which seems to get very good reviews.
If you get into phones , you will find that the phones are often the "cheap" part of it all.
 
You need a headphone amp to drive them properly and get the best out of them.
I had a cayin HA-1A headphone amp which was fantastic with a pair of AKG K701's. Sold it and have since got a Little Dot Mkiii. It is not bad but there is a huge difference. Really you need to think about it the same way as getting an amp to drive any speakers. Depending on the design of speaker you will need more power in the amp to drive them correctly. The Senns will sound nice through and ipod but wait till you try a nice headphone amp. Go to a shop with your senns and try out an amp that will demonstrate what might be possible
 
Looks like a bit of overkill for your present system (or amp., at least), and almost any dynamic headphones will sound nice through almost anything.

However, like most of hifi, your 'highish end' 650s will improve sonically with improvement in its amplification.

This suggests that the better (and more compatible) headphone amp. you can get, the better they'll sound, with the caveat that the source(s) is/are up to it.

Headphones are an odd benchmark to upgrade to, but what the Hell.........
 
Integrated amplifier headphone outputs are too often afterthoughts, with a high output resistance, making most 32 Ohm headphones brighter due to the rising treble impedance.
One thing I don't understand is why headphone amplifiers do not have a crossfeed option.
 
As other have said. It helps to have more than enough power to drive them they are heavier than ear buds?

When I bought HD600s I bought an NVA A10H 10watts headphone amp.

Most pleasant compared to a Cyrus Headphone socket
 
whatsnext said:
As other have said. It helps to have more than enough power to drive them they are heavier than ear buds?

When I bought HD600s I bought an NVA A10H 10watts headphone amp.

Most pleasant compared to a Cyrus Headphone socket
Click to expand...

It was the most disappointing experience I ever had with a hifi product. Why cyrus bother with the headphone socket is beyond me as the sound is worst than running £5 ear buds out of a basic pc sound card. The japanese amps always seemed to have a reasonably good headphone output.

Not sure of the op's system but if you are trying to kill two birds the Leben CS300 and CS600 are very well regarded headphone amps even though primarily they are integrated amps. I realise the cost especially the 600 is not cheap.
 
You can actually use a power amps or integrated speaker outputs as a headphone amp
Google "how to use speaker outputs of an amp to drive headphones"
 
Rodney gold said:
You can actually use a power amps or integrated speaker outputs as a headphone amp
Click to expand...

Of course that's true, even soldering up a cheap headphone socket connected to whatever speaker output terminals there are. Although I did this in the distant past, I'm not at all sure that impedance matching would be ideal, and, i.m.o., the 650s deserve better.

Besides, if you only have one set of speaker outlets, would you want to keep plugging and unplugging (assuming you have speakers), esp. if the rear of your kit is difficult to access?
 
Too lazy to write something myself, so:

http://www.avguide.com/blog/why-headphone-amps-sound-different-frequency-responseimpedance-issues

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headphone_amplifier#Output_Impedance

In the typical integrated amplifier or receiver the headphone output is taken from the main power amplifier, but through a large-value series resistor, for 1) padding down the volume, 2) protecting headphones from the PA's full power 3) protecting the PA from accidents. This, together with not knowing what sort of impedance the headphones were designed for makes the result entirely hit and miss.
 
I have sennie 600 driven from a Naim DAC V1 and going by those phones they really sing on a good amp, and i mean really, so i would say get an amp for those 650s
 
I had a HD650, sold it and now own HD600. They both need good headphone amps to get the best of out of them. I had a cloned Lehmann Black Cube Linear made by a small Chinese store which I didn't like at all when it was paired with the HD650, the sound was dark, undynamic and recessed. Now I use another Lehmann clone made by Matrix with HD600. The sound is a lot more dynamic and the bass is deep.

I also have a Audinst HUD-MX1 DAC/headphone amp with the standard walwart power supply which I find not good enough for the HD600, although the Audinst is greatly improved by powering it with an external regulated power supply.

A good pair of headphones, especially the Sennheiser HD650 & 600 really need a good headphone amp to make them sing.
 
300 and 600 Ohm headphones need plenty of volts and very little current.
This means that something like a NE5532 on +/-12V rails could drive them well.
32 Ohm and even 16R earbuds these days, requires a completely different circuit, low swing and high current. Something like a small class A would seem ideal.
You cannot just talk about headphone amplifiers without settling on the load impedance first
 
Can recommend the NJC Audio headamp. Drives the Audeze phones perfectly. Good value for a quality product.
 
So from what I can gather this is not about volume so much as quality of sound.
I have a Bryston headphone amp on order, will be interested to hear it. Basically I will be using the Bryston cd player/amp as a stand alone unit with headphones so my wife does not have to hear my music. (she is quiet ill, so I needed to find an alternative to using the main sound system...any excuse..:)

Thanks for all the replies...

Red
 
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