Have your say & ask the experts

Simple Question do u get the best out of a dedicated headphone amp useing 32 ohm headphones ?

I have a Caimen and a project headamp connected to ADH700

If i purchased say Sennheiser hd650 which are 300ohm would they be better because of the ohm rating or because they are better headphones

Thanks Mark

Hi Mark. Thirty two ohms is at the lower end for headphones, it covers the Grado range. Even so, I say that Grados benefit from amplification and my SR80s do not sound good out of my ipod, but others disagree. The HD650s will benefit from amplification, but arguably it is not essential.

The AKG K702s are 62 ohms, the Grado Sr325 are 32 ohms and you know the Senns. The Audio Technicas are 64 ohms. Each has its own SQ and characteristics which are in no way connected to ohms.

Ok thanks for replies ,i see what u mean now ohm rating has nothing to do with sound

As for the project amp ,well worth the money.I purchased a caimen about six weeks ago and even after its run in i still prefere the sound of the Project ,it seems to have a bit more punch ,which is what i like .

At the end of the day its horses for corses some people may prefere the Caimen ,and different headphones will get different results anyway

When i got the Project amp i wasnt that impressed to begin with {the headout on the nad amp has a lot more punch}.Its not until u run it in and start to use it ,that u realise   that the nad amp has a lot more punch because of the disortion

The Project as well as Caimen are a hell of a lot cleaner  .The project is a nice well made bit of kit

Mark

Ok theres a supposadly 3 month old pair of 650s for sale not to far from me he  wants £180

Seem to spending a fortune

If you are serious about standalone headphone amps, two to the best amps I have heard in tube and solid-state are:

a) Woo Audio WA6 SE or WA 6 maxed out (cheaper one box solution)

b) HeadAmp GS-1

Cheers.

gbhsi1:

Hi Mark,

I am interested in your opinion of your pro-ject headphone amp- what is it like? I currently use the built in headphone output from my roksan, but it does not sound that great, especially listening to my vinyl- hence I am thinking of getting the pro-ject. I have Grado SR80's headphones

Currawong:

The Sennheiser HD-600 and HD-650 do improve as you improve the amplification for them, along with your source, and, contentiously, an aftermarket cable.  I would argue that the Sennheisers will scale better with gear than your cheaper Audio Technicas, but it depends how far you want to go with a headphone rig.

Graham_Thomas:

gbhsi1:

I have Grado SR80's headphones

....That's the Grado headphones As you can tell I had a pair of 125s and did not like them. Last pair I had were Sennheiser HD595 and they worked for me.

That's interesting. I recently sold my HD595 and purchased Alessandro MS1i