Click to view our Accessibility Statement or contact us with accessibility-related questions
larry909
10
Jan 4, 2019
I just ordered the k6xx as my first Massdrop purchase. I was wondering if my Yamaha receiver (RX-A780) headphone output has the required power to drive the k6xx or do I need a separate amp to attach to the receiver headphone output? thanks
larry909My older Yamaha (RX-V378 or something) powers my HD 650 just fine. One of the nice things about the HD 650 and HD 6XX by extension is that even sub-optimal amps don’t sound “bad,” maybe just shallow or dull if they don’t provide enough voltage. Your Yamaha should provide a “middle of the pack” result with good enough sound to impress and make you feel satisfied. My Yamaha (which was a fairly entry-level model that I got on clearance for $200) had a more detailed, crisper sound than the $100 gaming external soundcard I had at the time (Recon3D USB, I’m pretty sure it was the DAC because the detail was softer both when played straight out of the Recon3D or routed from the Recon3D through the Yamaha’s DAC), but keep in mind that there’s still room to grow if you want to (my Chord Mojo + Cavalli Liquid Carbon bring tighter mids detail and texture, a more dynamic and lifelike sound, and then my Sennheiser HDV 820 DAC/Amp was an even further upgrade). You’ve got a very good headphone, and good starting setup there.
larry909
10
Jan 6, 2019
Evshrugthanks very much for your detailed response - much appreciated. one further question, if I may - I am a total newbie at audiophile conversation and technologies but trying my best to understand given my limitations. so I have all my toys attached to my Yamaha receiver and so when I want optimal sound and I am alone, I will attach my headphones to the regular headphone jack - for music I am using Spotify premier off my premium Roku, which supposedly improves sound quality, but my question is regarding those other amps that you mentioned and whether they can be attached directly to my receiver output for improved output, or do they have to used on their own attached directly to the Roku, or in other cases the TV cable box, XBox, etc. thanks again
larry909Well, there are a few consistent building blocks of an audio chain. Starting from the beginning, it goes: Music Player DAC (Digital to Analog Converter) Amplifier, Headphone, and then interconnects between all the parts (USB, coax, and optical for digital connections; RCA, 3.5mm, and XLR-3 for single ended analog connections; XLR-4, 2.5mm, and Pentaconn 4.4mm for balanced analog connections). In your setup, the Roku (or Xbox, TV Box) is your media player, the Yamaha is serving as your DAC and Amp, and then your headphone. You typed K6XX... do you have a Sennheiser HD 6XX or an AKG K7XX? Well, the amp component of your Yamaha should be more powerful than, like, the amp built into a phone, but the DAC might only be just as-good as a smartphone. Receivers usually are more optimized for home theater kits, focusing on having a... load of decoders (Dolby, DTS, and all the variants of those), multiple input types and quantity, and surround speaker amps. Headphone support is kind of an afterthought, usually taking the speaker amp and trying to reduce the power output at lot so that it’s safe for using with headphones.
(Edited)
larry909
10
Jan 10, 2019
EvshrugI have the Sennheiser HD 6XX on order which may still take a couple of weeks for delivery since I am in Canada (not far from NJ). To be clear if I want to improve sound quality further, I should replace the yamaha receiver with the Cavalli amp or similar or can this be added to the receiver through its headphone output? thanks again, cheers!
larry909Hey Larry, Yes, a dedicated headphone amp (like the Cavalli, I’d recommend taking a look at the Cavalli Liquid Spark on Monoprice, a very good little amp) can be plugged into the headphone out of your receiver, or preferably an RCA Output (not input) of your receiver if possible. Remember, the Receiver is serving as both a DAC and Amp with the headphone output, or just as a DAC if you use the RCA output. Connecting to the headphone output of the Receiver to another amp is called double-amping... technically it’s not ideal, but it’s similar to how people use a pre-amp and a power amp with speakers. The second amp is a really easy load for your receiver, and then the design of the headphone amp (such as Liquid Spark) should be optimized best for headphone amping. You would also have a relatively compact amp which you could later get a separate DAC (or a combo DAC/Amp here on Massdrop, like the Cavalli Liquid Carbon X with SDAC) for if you want to take your setup to your home computer or office, and if you have an outlet to spare maybe even take it bedside for some relaxing/hypnotic musical jam sessions :D I don’t have any connection with Cavalli (though I met Alex Cavalli; I just like the amps and the guy is pretty nice!), there are other good options to explore out there but I like to bring his designs to attention because usually people just hear about and get stuck on Schiit Audio (also a fine and humorous company, they make good stuff but generally they sound on the dry side). Most important, have fun and enjoy yourself! Cheers! Ev
Shadysu
5
Jan 17, 2019
larry909From Canada, ON to be exact, ordered on 8th received on 14th had to pay 45$ in customs fees tho
larry909
10
Jan 17, 2019
ShadysuMine was sent out Jan. 5th and just day advised by Canada Post that it is ready for pick up tomorrow at local Shoppers Drug Mart outlet location. This, after telling me yesterday, it was undeliverable and would be returned to sender. Jeesh. So then I contacted DHL and they said to contact Massdrop, who then said they would send out a replacement. I have yet to see whether it is actually at the Shoppers location tomorrow after this run around. It says I have a COD payable also of some $44, which is just the 13% GST plus a brokerage service fee, which is fine. DHL said that Canada Post has been returning a large number of packages coming from the USA (as part of their labour disputes with the Canadian government).
larry909
10
Jan 17, 2019
Evshrughey Ev, again thanks for the run down - I have a lot to learn about this "stuff". Not even sure what to call it lol. I have my hands on the Liquid Spark since yesterday. Sounds really good on my Senn RS180s.
Shadysu
5
Jan 17, 2019
larry909wait LOL, mine was "Undeliverable" as well, but i was home all day, I was home when they said on the tracking "notice left" but no notice was left, I had to call Canada post myself and the get teh code for my local shoppers.
larry909
10
Jan 17, 2019
Shadysuhaha - sad really Canada Post employees playing with our deliveries. I was home also and not even foot prints in the snow. My trace showed the package going back and forth between Scarboro, Ajax then to Mississauga and now back to Oshawa? Really strange and today left notice in box after I called them yesterday a couple times. i know the workers have some valid issues but not delivering my HD6XX crosses the line!! LOL
Shadysu
5
Jan 17, 2019
larry909I got scared that my headphones were delivered to the wrong address and they just happened to not be home, but luckily the shoppers was down the street for me. Kinda odd that his happened to both of us. side note, any suggestiosn for a amp/dac for these headphones Was thinking of the O2 +ODAC
larry909
10
Jan 17, 2019
ShadysuIts not odd since Canada Post workers were forced back to work I think and are deff not happy with work conditions. As far as amp/dac suggestions you are better to ask experienced people on this site and others, for example, Evshrug. He is very helpful. good luck
larry909Sorry to hear about the postal issues... what a weird combination of poor service and extra price! But I can understand being an employee and wanting better compensation. Hopefully, your HD 6XX WILL be there tomorrow! Cool to hear you got the Liquid Spark! How did you hook it up to the RS 180 anyway, isn’t that a Wireless model?
larry909
10
Jan 18, 2019
EvshrugI just plugged the RS 180 base into the amp front port and plugged the amp to my receiver with 3.25 to RCA conversion with male to male extenders in between. Pretty ugly setup but works sort of. The power seems to be fading in and out a bit fairly noticeable after a clicking noise. As for the postal workers I think they are more concerned about working conditions being forced to work overtime and weekends, etc. no family time. The extra "duties" is really just the normal sales tax we would pay if we bought the merchandise locally - 13% - yeah it sucks but pays for health care, etc. It may not apply to cheaper items. I am enjoying listening to some oldies rock playlists on Spotify - the amp seems to bring out the drums more cleanly and cleans up the higher pitches that were a bit harsh before and pretty much everything really. A great little amp according to those who know these things. pretty cool stuff. Can't wait for the headphones to try out tomorrow. Cheers
larry909Yeah, my US healthcare is $445/month after government subsidies, on top of my taxes. Just so you know, you aren’t really benefitting from having the Spark in the setup as you described. You’ve got the Receiver concerting Digital to Analog and amping, then the Spark amping, then the RS base unit stripping out all the amping before transmitting wirelessly (at least it stays analog), and then there’s an amp unit built into the RS 180 headset, and that last amp is really the only one you’re using. You should be able to hear the good stuff when you plug the HD 6XX into the Liquid Spark. Good luck today!
larry909
10
Jan 19, 2019
EvshrugWow, that's nuts you have to pay so much every month. My employer pays most of the cost of supplemental insurance, which is probably not cheap. On a more positive note, I got my HD 6XXs today so that's great. You were right about them being playable direct from my receiver headphone front socket. No problem - sound great. Also playing some flac files through my MSI laptop using the amp. The amp makes it somewhat louder but not too much difference. Maybe using a good DAC will make a difference but it already sounds pretty good to me. Spotify only plays at medium loudness at all maxed out on my computer so I guess the dac is supposed to help out with that and clean up the sounds, etc. A DAC can be used on the usb of a phone as well? I guess so cause I see some flash drive size dac/amp combos that can be used with phones and computers. Also wondering if an old bluray player can be used to play my old cd collection very well? I assume so but maybe not. Not sure. Same for computer disc drive? Otherwise. I never use it. Enjoy your weekend.
larry909Freelance life, yo. Gotta do everything myself. Glad to hear you got your HD 6XX! Some DACs can be used with phones... it depends. Might help if we knew what phone you have? Sometimes, you can use an OTG (On The Go) cable with Android phones, or the iOS Camera Connection Kit to give that phone a typical fullsized USB port (USB-A), but a DAC will draw extra power from the phone and you’ll want to pick a DAC that doesn’t draw too much. I used to have a DAC to strap onto my phone and a Schiit Bifrost Uber for desktop use, then I tried a few different DACs/amps before sort of settling on a Chord Mojo as a battery-powered “all in one” that I could use at home and when traveling (USB from computer and smartphone, optical from my PlayStation 4, coax from a cheap DAP), and that worked really well. I say “sort of” settled on the Mojo, because an opportunity to get a Sennheiser HDV 820 fell into my lap and so I happily use that at home. Recommending a DAC at a low price can be tough, since it’s been awhile since I shopped low priced DACs and the industry continued to evolve. If you want something thumbdrive sized, Audioquest Dragonfly is decent, the Red version doesn’t even need an additional amp. iFi Audio knows what they’re doing. For desktop, people have very nice things to say about the Schiit Modi with Multibit, sometimes called the Mimby for short. Nice DACs show up here on Massdrop too - I haven’t heard the SDAC, but it’s reviewed pretty well for a small desktop DAC. Regarding CD’s in a BluRay player, it depends. The (Blue) laser that reads Blu-ray Discs is actually a separate laser than the (red) one used for reading CDs 💿, so while many early Blu-ray players had both lasers my PlayStation 4 cannot read regular CDs. DVD drives have always read CDs from my experience, and computer disc drives were usually DVD/CD combo units until they mostly stopped including them. I like to use Apple iTunes to rip (download) the CD files to my computer in Apple Lossless format, or the Handbrake software to rip them in FLAC. I played with the VLC software for awhile, but it noticeably didn’t sound as good playing back files as iTunes, which was weird. That’s it for your info dump today! Haha! Here’s a gift for your weekend: a playlist of songs that IMO sound pretty great on the HD 650 https://open.spotify.com/user/evshrug/playlist/1ayeHWCdxJzNNzDVORlcTt?si=UTA3VvTiTImmxjStd5TuTw
larry909A bit more info, for someone else just starting out as well. You guys might both get something out of the info: https://www.massdrop.com/talk/18773/talk/2320734?utm_source=linkshare&referer=Z2JXCA
PRODUCTS YOU MAY LIKE
Trending Posts in Audiophile