Max headphone impedance

[thumb5]

Hi all. Well the RCA adapter arrived this morning and I did the comparison. The MF headphone amp won by some way in my opinion, so looks like I wont be able to dispense with another box/cables etc.

The Headphone amp was clearer, more musical and controlled the bass better. I was a little surprised, but I guess thats why there are dedicated Headphone amps.

Bear in mind that the line outputs from the Devialet are not designed to drive headphones.  If you connect headphones directly to them, the results are likely to vary considerably depending on the characteristics (e.g. impedance) of your headphones.  A purpose-designed headphone amp should be able to drive much lower impedances (more difficult loads), so it is not surprising that it sounds better -- at least, it makes a lot of sense to me.

[Womaz]

Hi all. Well the RCA adapter arrived this morning and I did the comparison. The MF headphone amp won by some way in my opinion, so looks like I wont be able to dispense with another box/cables etc.

The Headphone amp was clearer, more musical and controlled the bass better. I was a little surprised, but I guess thats why there are dedicated Headphone amps.

Bear in mind that the line outputs from the Devialet are not designed to drive headphones.  If you connect headphones directly to them, the results are likely to vary considerably depending on the characteristics (e.g. impedance) of your headphones.  A purpose-designed headphone amp should be able to drive much lower impedances (more difficult loads), so it is not surprising that it sounds better -- at least, it makes a lot of sense to me.

Yes I guess my AKGs are difficult to drive. I know they are no good with the new portable Sony high res player I have just bought. The 200 was very good mind and if I did not have the headphone amp already I would not be looking to add one. But as its better and its already paid for it is staying

[summermusic]

Hello,
Can I ask two questions. First, how do you use your Senn HD800 with the Devialet? And, secondly, can you have an after market HD800 cable (currently terminated with XLRs) reterminated with 2 RCAs to go directly into the Devialet's output (the ones reconfigured for headphone amp)?

What is the best way to use the D 200 as a headphone amp?

[Divasson]

I have tried the Sennheiser HD800 off the preamp outputs - and it is not worth it. If you have the HD800, you need something else in my opinion. Even the Meridian Explorer (first version) fares much, much better.