[118900]

Is it September yet?

Lol

 

[AxelCloris]

We've removed a few posts that didn't meet our Posting Guidelines. Thank you to everyone who helped keep the thread on-track, we appreciate it.

 

[GreenBow]

If anyone is interested in the UK digital magazine subscription provider Pocketmags, now is a good time, to get bargains. They have a back edition sale on, where each edition is £0.99. The latest edition of their magazines are full price. Or as normal you can subscribe to a year's subscription, for about £33, for a magazine.

However the bargain is that every other issue, from one month backwards, is on sale for £0.99. Making a year's worth of magazine back issues come in at £12 + the special editions like yearbooks etc for £0.99.

I subscribe to Hifi+, Hifi News, What Hifi, and Hifi Choice. As much as that could be criticised, and I see some validity in that. I like looking at the mags. I just bought about twenty-five back issues, for £25. That lots of fun reading through and drooling over kit.

 

[GreenBow]

Just reading the HiFi+ review of the Hugo 2. … I have come across something I need help understanding.

This is the link for page 3 of the review. https://www.hifiplus.com/articles/chord-electronics-hugo2-transportable-headphone-ampdac/?page=3

In the second to last paragraph, it talks about headphones that are hard to drive:

The Mr Speakers Ether Flow - 23ohm planar magnetic, open back.
The Abyss AB 1266 Phi - 47ohm nominal, planar magnetic, and I think open backed.

(Note: I also saw one person state that the AB 1266 Phi are hard to drive. They were mentioned in relevance with a list of headphones that the TT2 uses a lot of gain with.)


Anyway, HiFi+ state these two headphones as being hard to drive. However as a noob, I don't know why. From my perspective, they are relatively low impedance headphones.

I thought lower impedance headphones were mostly easier to drive. Take for example the Grado SR325e. It's a 32ohm headphone, and every review states how easy these headphones are to drive. They say they can be driven from an iPod.

I was under the assumption that harder to drive headphones were e.g. the Sennheiser HD800S. That being due to them being 300ohm headphones.I also heard of 600ohm headphones being tough to drive.


Anyway, the reason I am asking n the Hugo 2 thread is important. I own the TT2 as well as the Hugo 2. I'd like to understand what's happening, is because I want to buy headphones that will run on both. There is no point me buying TT2 only headhones at the moment. I absolutely want to use whatever headphones I hope to buy, on Hugo 2 and even the mojo possibly.

E.g the planar magnetic Meze Empyrean are said to be easy to drive. They are ~32ohm. The Focal Utopia (dynamic drivers) are said to be fairly easy to drive at 80ohm.


What I am not thinking is that planar magnetics are hearder to drive. Though they might be. I was thinking soley about impedance (ohm rating) of the headphones, as being the measure of drive difficulty. I do appreciate that some very low impedance IEMs can need a lot of current.

How do I know what to look out for then, please? I for sure want any current headphone purchase to run fully on Hugo 2.

 

[rkt31]

High impedance headphones are easier drive just like lower speakers are difficult to drive. Don't confuse the less volume output with higher impedance headphones as difficult to drive. You are ok as long as you don't reach the clipping limit. The problem is with low impedance headphones and that too with lower sensitivity ones.

 

[rkt31]

Having said above,i even drive 8ohm 85db bookshelf speakers to sufficient levels directly through Hugo 2 and mojo. So tt2 driving any headphones should be lot easier . Many people are already driving speakers through tt2.

 

[betula]

Just reading the HiFi+ review of the Hugo 2. … I have come across something I need help understanding.

This is the link for page 3 of the review. https://www.hifiplus.com/articles/chord-electronics-hugo2-transportable-headphone-ampdac/?page=3

In the second to last paragraph, it talks about headphones that are hard to drive:

The Mr Speakers Ether Flow - 23ohm planar magnetic, open back.
The Abyss AB 1266 Phi - 47ohm nominal, planar magnetic, and I think open backed.

(Note: I also saw one person state that the AB 1266 Phi are hard to drive. They were mentioned in relevance with a list of headphones that the TT2 uses a lot of gain with.)


Anyway, HiFi+ state these two headphones as being hard to drive. However as a noob, I don't know why. From my perspective, they are relatively low impedance headphones.

I thought lower impedance headphones were mostly easier to drive. Take for example the Grado SR325e. It's a 32ohm headphone, and every review states how easy these headphones are to drive. They say they can be driven from an iPod.

I was under the assumption that harder to drive headphones were e.g. the Sennheiser HD800S. That being due to them being 300ohm headphones.I also heard of 600ohm headphones being tough to drive.


Anyway, the reason I am asking n the Hugo 2 thread is important. I own the TT2 as well as the Hugo 2. I'd like to understand what's happening, is because I want to buy headphones that will run on both. There is no point me buying TT2 only headhones at the moment. I absolutely want to use whatever headphones I hope to buy, on Hugo 2 and even the mojo possibly.

E.g the planar magnetic Meze Empyrean are said to be easy to drive. They are ~32ohm. The Focal Utopia (dynamic drivers) are said to be fairly easy to drive at 80ohm.


What I am not thinking is that planar magnetics are hearder to drive. Though they might be. I was thinking soley about impedance (ohm rating) of the headphones, as being the measure of drive difficulty. I do appreciate that some very low impedance IEMs can need a lot of current.

How do I know what to look out for then, please? I for sure want any current headphone purchase to run fully on Hugo 2.

When you look at headphones drivability, sensitivity is more important than impedance. Headphones with low sensitivity (HE6) will be harder to drive than headphones with high impedance (HD600).
That said, to my experience even efficient headphones like the HEXV2 or even the Empyreans scale surprisingly well with better gear. Low sensitivity headphones however will scale even better or just sound like utter crap from a weak source.

IMO H2 can drive almost any headphones (with perhaps a handful of exception) to enjoyable levels, but some of these headphones will sound even better with something like the TT2.

I am pretty sure soon you will get a better explanation from an expert.

 

[GreenBow]

When you look at headphones drivability, sensitivity is more important than impedance. Headphones with low sensitivity (HE6) will be harder to drive than headphones with high impedance (HD600).
That said, to my experience even efficient headphones like the HEXV2 or even the Empyreans scale surprisingly well with better gear. Low sensitivity headphones however will scale even better or just sound like utter crap from a weak source.

IMO H2 can drive almost any headphones (with perhaps a handful of exception) to enjoyable levels, but some of these headphones will sound even better with something like the TT2.

I am pretty sure soon you will get a better explanation from an expert.

When you said 'sensitivity', it was practically a lightbulb moment for me. I will look back at the headphones I mentioned and check the sensitivity spec for them. That should give me a good impression of what sensitivity level is easy and hard to drive.

Surprising I missed it when it's something we talk about regularly with the TT2 and speakers sensitivity. I think that since headphones have such a vast difference in ohmage, I figured it was the deciding factor. Plus I kept somehow overlooking the sensitivity specification when looking at headphones.

Many thanks.

 

[jlbrach]

the 4Z will be dirven quite nicely out of the H2....no problem at all and will sound wonderful

 

[Hellraiser86]

I can confirm that

 

[JaZZ]

I see you have the Shure SE846s. What are you powering them with and how do you find them?

I apologise if this is not the correct forum I ask because I am looking into an Dragonfly cobalt se 846 combo for air travel etc.

Since I also use it with the Hugo₂, it must be the right forum. Although these are rare occasions, because I have since bought some other IEMs I like better – see this list. It's particularly the new FiiO FH7 that has captivated my senses, its extraordinary musicality, and not due to a special coloration, but in fact tonal accuracy. I apply some equalizing with all my headphones, though. In the case of the SE846 it's particularly extreme, since I use an empty filter tube, which causes quite some treble excess. With the appropriate EQ curve it sounds better than with any of the filter variants, though. Those filters are just there to eliminate sound waves that have previously been produced – and don't even have a useful resonance-damping effect, just muffling the sound. I prefer to not produce the sound that I don't want in the first place. I'm not criticizing its sonic characteristic in any way, not even the allegedly rolled-off treble (doesn't bother me), it'just that the other three are more to my liking: better (cleaner) bass with (even) better extension (with the exception of the Andromeda), greater clarity and resolution. Compared to the Campfires the SE846 may please with a more organic characteristic, though, whereas the Campfires have a very slight technoïd timbre (not enough to bother me, but the FH7 can do without it, which I prefer).

I use my IEMs on the go – with a FiiO X3 II, just upgraded to 400 GB –, on the balcony – with the Hugo₂ and often with the M Scaler – and in bed, mostly with the Hugo solo, but at times with M Scaler and sometimes with the Mojo.

 

[mightyKyn]

the 4Z will be dirven quite nicely out of the H2....no problem at all and will sound wonderful

Untrue

 

[jlbrach]

well let me amend that then, it was a wonderful combination for me with zero issues

 

[CreditingKarma]

Untrue

I previously owned a hugo 2 with an mscaler. I had them when I owned the LCD4Z. The hugo 2 did a great job of driving the 4z. There was plenty of headroom to spare as well. The 4z was actually able to be driven well from the sp1000 from the balanced output as well. The 4z is pretty easy to drive. It is almost the same as the lcdx in that regard. I actually liked both out of the ALO CV5.

The TT2 is a different sound signature from the hugo 2. It is a bit warmer than the hugo 2. That might be what you are hearing with the 4z.

 

[118900]

I previously owned a hugo 2 with an mscaler. I had them when I owned the LCD4Z. The hugo 2 did a great job of driving the 4z. There was plenty of headroom to spare as well. The 4z was actually able to be driven well from the sp1000 from the balanced output as well. The 4z is pretty easy to drive. It is almost the same as the lcdx in that regard. I actually liked both out of the ALO CV5.

The TT2 is a different sound signature from the hugo 2. It is a bit warmer than the hugo 2. That might be what you are hearing with the 4z.

Although I already know the answer I have made the effort of writing to audeze directly to have the answer directly from the horse’s mouth.

I have also had to put someone on ignore due to the constant noise......