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prud475
90
Oct 16, 2017
The Sound Blaster E5 is plenty to drive these! I mean, I can drive them up to a reasonable level on my s7 edge
joelpearce
46
Oct 16, 2017
prud475I would say that there's a difference between driving them to a reasonable volume level and feeding them the power they need to sound good. I do think people tend to exaggerate how much amping is required for headphones to sound good, but there's no way these'll be happy out of a cell phone driver. You get the volume, but not the control.
ChumbWumba
271
Oct 17, 2017
joelpearceI've always thought I was in that camp until experiencing this scenario firsthand. Until I got my k7xx's, I'd never listened to a set of phones that didn't satisfy me volume level-wise right out of any modern leading Android or iPhone model. And upon properly amping them, I started to understand the importance a bit more. But upon getting these T-X0's I immediately understood the full importance of amping appropriately so much more. These sound great thru my desktop setup (macbook pro 2017--->Audio GD NFB-11.28--->T-X0) but surprisingly they sound even better (until upper personal listening levels) thru my Little Dot 1+. I'm led to believe this is due to the phone's being planar and therefore needing more power than dynamics would, for instance, to sound their best. You guys all told me and explained it all, but it's so interesting experiencing it firsthand and seeing that not only does using an appropriately matched amp drive them louder, but the dynamics are totally improved etc throughout the entire frequency spectrum. I find these to be thoroughly unsatisfactory for mobile listening without proper amplification (e.g. thru my Samsung Galaxy S7 edge alone). Also another side note..as some have mentioned, a proper seal is ABSOLUTELY critical for these headphones to sound their best. And it sounds like pad choice has a great effect on sound as well (perhaps much more than is typical even with most others). These are so sensitive with their bass levels and dynamics of attack and decay. Even a subtle shift from a good seal makes a noticeable audible difference. And amping inappropriately has similar, if not much more drastic effect. Best wishes and many enjoyable listening sessions ahead to everyone in finding their ideal sound signature(s) down the audio path of your preference!
joelpearce
46
Oct 17, 2017
ChumbWumbaIt all gets even weirder once you learn about input/output impedance mismatch and how big a difference it makes for effective power out of an amp. I don't pretend to be an expert, but as soon as you are working in log scales for efficiency and power, available headroom can disappear in a hurry. That's why your AKGs need tons of power, even though they have high sensitivity.
ChumbWumba
271
Oct 17, 2017
joelpearceGosh, I've only done such limited reading on the matter as of yet! I would really like to set aside a few hours soon to do proper research and reading on an overview of the subject and then of course to actually dive in a little deeper once I have a better foundation upon which to build. It's all so fascinating to learn about in principle and in practice, yet sometimes pretty overwhelming trying to find the most effective starting point. Any specific references anyone has on the subject would be much appreciated, as always!
prud475
90
Oct 21, 2017
joelpearce These are the specs of the e5... is that enough or am I not feeding my cans enough?
  • Headphone power output: 32ohm – ~1.84V, 105 mW (low gain); 300 ohm – ~ 1.78V, 109 mW (high gain); 600 ohm – ~ 5.72V, 54 mW (high gain)
  • Pretty sure the max input for the t50rp is 3000mW.. idk about the tx0
  • btw, listening to life of pablo atm, can't tell a difference between headphone out on my powerful living room stereo system and the front headphone out on the e5.
joelpearce
46
Oct 22, 2017
prud475Yeah, with 3000mW handling, you could basically use these as speaker tweeters--your hearing would be destroyed long before you hit that level. I don't know how to calculate how many decibels that would be, but it would be a lot.
I suspect the E5 is going to give you enough, especially with high gain. With the stereo system, keep in mind that many manufacturers use a cheap op-amp for the headphone out, which bypasses the main amp. I'm not aware of any modern stereo system that uses the main amp to feed the headphone jack.
prud475
90
Oct 22, 2017
joelpearcethanks for the reply!
G00N
0
Oct 22, 2017
joelpearceBut qhat if you have a LG v30 with a quad dac amplifier? It can power up to 600ohm headphones. And has a 0.03% distortion would it be able to handle these and sound nice?
joelpearce
46
Oct 22, 2017
G00Nhonestly, I'm not sure. The amping requirements for high-impedance sensitive headphones are very different from those of low-impedance power-hungry ones--something having to do with amps vs. volts in power. I would have some doubts that a cell phone is going to be able to power a screen, the CPU, and a T50RP at the same time, but if it sounds good, it sounds good.
Sorry, I couldn't find enough of the actual tech specs of the amp of the LG v30 to speak with more confidence about it.
Jackula
1743
Oct 22, 2017
joelpearce3w into these headphones would give you about 124dB of headroom, so your listening volume would be at about 95-100 decibels. Yes, this will lead to permanent hearing loss.
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