[ear8dmg]

Now all - just looking for a little reassurance here. Got into a wee argument on another forum regarding running HD600s out of a portable amp - specifically the Victor SU-DH1.

JVC don't seem to publish the output current ratings for various impedances. Nevertheless I've tested it and the HD600s dont seem to distort at comfortable listening volume. There's plenty of extra headroom on the volume control. I've heard the HD600s do much better out of different amps but I think that's where the problem stops - they just don't sound as good out of the SU-DH1 as they would with a better amp.

Hence my advice: Don't drive the HD600 to stupidly high volume or to distortion. That's pretty safe advice isn't it? The other guy is claiming that the SU-DH1 will definitely damage the HD600 or vice versa.

I refer you to the original thread here: JVC SU-DH1 or astro mix amp - Page 9 - AVForums.com (I'm Uriel on that forum)

If I'm giving bad advice - I'm more than happy to take a step back and admit it but I think he may have misunderstood ohms law a little there. He claims that the 300 ohm HD600s will demand massive amounts of current etc. Surely the amp will have a 'safe' volume level that it can drive the headphones to? Having given it a listen - I think that's higher than comfortable / safe listening levels anyway.

 

[Germancub]

Hopefully, I'm understanding what you're saying. Basically you're trying to figure out whether or not it's OK to listen to HD600's without an amp (or a powerful one?). If that's the case, by all means... YES! No worries at all as long as it's not distorting. I've listened to a pair of HD600's right out of an iPod nano and while they didn't sound their best, it certainly wasn't bad and I'm certain it didn't hurt anything.

 

[paaj]

It is unlikely to me that you can damage the headphones by under powering them. That'd mean you can't plug them into pc's and mp3 players as well.

--
in that topic there is some weird ohm/mW calculating going on... anyway, the HD600 goes to 97dB with 1mW according to specs so getting a normal volume is really no problem.
the problem could be the maximum power output of the small amp but if that guy is throwing 100mW figures around (how did he get those?), 1mW should be no problem and will easily damage your ears

 

[ear8dmg]

Well - I'm more confidently stating "Your're not going to break HD600s by running with an underpowered portable amp" and have come up up with some equally confident (and I believe totally misguided) opposition that's basically claiming that "an underpowered amp will break the HD600s".

So this is just a check saying "Right guys?".

 

[paaj]

Right

if you stress the amp you may get into damaging clipping, but that would be pretty loud sound levels considering the 97dB/1mW sensitivity (maybe using the headphones to be desktop speaker replacements).

 

[Currawong]

As long as whatever amp you use doesn't start clipping, that is, hitting its maximum power to the point that it's sending straight DC to the headphones, then you're fine.

 

[wasp131]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Currawong /img/forum/go_quote.gif As long as whatever amp you use doesn't start clipping, that is, hitting its maximum power to the point that it's sending straight DC to the headphones, then you're fine.

x2

 

[ear8dmg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by paaj /img/forum/go_quote.gif It is unlikely to me that you can damage the headphones by under powering them. That'd mean you can't plug them into pc's and mp3 players as well. -- in that topic there is some weird ohm/mW calculating going on... anyway, the HD600 goes to 97dB with 1mW according to specs so getting a normal volume is really no problem. the problem could be the maximum power output of the small amp but if that guy is throwing 100mW figures around (how did he get those?), 1mW should be no problem and will easily damage your ears

As per Sennheiser's manual the power handling capacity of these headphones is 0.2w with a nominal impedance of 300 ohms.

http://www.sennheiser.com/sennheiser.../HD600_bda.pdf

I was suggesting that you would never actually attempt to use 0.2w because it would be ear-shatteringly loud.

 

[paaj]

I was suggesting the same thing

I quoted the sensitivity since that was all on the Sennheiser website. With 0.2W maximum that would be somewhere around 125dB(?) but that is basically irrelevant since you won't even get close to that with normal use. It's also the max of the headphone, not necessarily the amp in question (which has an unknown maximum power).