With the 600s? they need some decent voltage gain and swing for the amp to have best control of the drivers - something I've been banging on about a lot lately. Ideally you want as low gain as possible as that reduces the amount of noise you are amplifying, etc. but it isn't always the best.
headphone amp
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yepp the 600's, the drums, especially snare stands out more on the hi setting.....easiest way to describe is the high setting makes them sound more like the AKG701's ....just more clarity everywhere
again I could be imagining this but 95% convinced I'm right!
again I could be imagining this but 95% convinced I'm right!
That is actually a complicated one - the ideal model and what actually happens are a bit different - you might saturate the output voltage if the source is too high compared to the rail voltage driving the amp into clipping or distortion and under different conditions the amp's output might drop further away from the rail voltage.
It will also depend a bit on the amp topology.
EDIT: Here is a simulation of a simple amplifier:
The setup on the left has low gain (2) at high volume (as set on the dial) and the one on the right has high gain (6) with low volume - in theory the output volume as heard should be about the same though I can't be 100% sure without actually building it :s the output Vrms is pretty much the same - the peak voltage for both was about 1.47V IIRC.
It will also depend a bit on the amp topology.
EDIT: Here is a simulation of a simple amplifier:
The setup on the left has low gain (2) at high volume (as set on the dial) and the one on the right has high gain (6) with low volume - in theory the output volume as heard should be about the same though I can't be 100% sure without actually building it :s the output Vrms is pretty much the same - the peak voltage for both was about 1.47V IIRC.
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Probably not imagination - amps can behave in funny ways under different conditions i.e. lower gains could potentially mean their voltage swing is reduced from their nominal figure, etc. from looking at the simulation of a typical amplifier though - driving the amp from a low power mobile source for instance with the volume in the low position with high gain results in ~245mV input source at the gain stage while low gain and high volume set results in ~735mV which would make a fair difference to how much the source stands out from noise. It is one of the nice things with the O2 topology that the volume control hangs off the output of the gain stage so you are always amplifying the least amount of noise to signal but on the downside it is easy to overload the gain stage and drive the amp into clipping if you don't know how it operates :s
i.e. here a quick dirty simulation of the core of the O2 with a 6.5x gain:
With a higher end PC soundcard type audio source without controlling the output level at the PC it easily drives the amp into clipping while running on both battery power +/- 9V and off mains at +/-12V - fortunately on 2.5x gain it doesn't happen.
i.e. here a quick dirty simulation of the core of the O2 with a 6.5x gain:
With a higher end PC soundcard type audio source without controlling the output level at the PC it easily drives the amp into clipping while running on both battery power +/- 9V and off mains at +/-12V - fortunately on 2.5x gain it doesn't happen.
Cheers Rroff, bit over my head tbh, briefky looked at vdd etc last night which made a bit of sense
again speculation but I think I need more overall volume on lo gain to get the same clarity/punch that I can get at lower volume with hi gain. Ie don't need it as loud. Its like more air is getting moved on hi.
Question...do you prefer the 02 or the Magni?
I'm back down to the HD600 only and the Magni2, whether its in my head or not HD600 with hi gain is keeping me satisfied, for now!
again speculation but I think I need more overall volume on lo gain to get the same clarity/punch that I can get at lower volume with hi gain. Ie don't need it as loud. Its like more air is getting moved on hi.
Question...do you prefer the 02 or the Magni?
I'm back down to the HD600 only and the Magni2, whether its in my head or not HD600 with hi gain is keeping me satisfied, for now!
Personally I don't rate the stock O2 for stuff like the HD600s - its a great design engineering wise and a decent amp for moderately current hungry headphones but needs some modification IMO to get the best out of the HD600s. I don't have extensive experience with the Schiit range - I've listened through some of their stuff but never sat down and compared against other stuff like I have the O2 - but generally you can't really go wrong with them.
I built a couple of modified versions of the O2 which I'm pretty happy with though.
I don't think it is in your head - I generally sense more life and dynamic with the HD600 series with high gain where I can get it to work (my main audio sources tend to have quite high voltage level output which can cause some issues with high gain on some amps) even though on paper its a less straightforward story.
I built a couple of modified versions of the O2 which I'm pretty happy with though.
I don't think it is in your head - I generally sense more life and dynamic with the HD600 series with high gain where I can get it to work (my main audio sources tend to have quite high voltage level output which can cause some issues with high gain on some amps) even though on paper its a less straightforward story.