Amplifier recommendation

[Mosselman]

Hi Guys,

As some of you might have seen I was in the market for headphones, now I ordered the Beyerdynamic DT 770-Pro (80 ohm) and I am wondering what kind of (portable) amp I should get.

I want it to be somewhat portable, so I was looking at the fiio E6 and E5. For now the budget is fairly low, lets say below $50, the headphones themselves were at the top of my can budget, so I will look at some better amp/EQ later on. But I probably need some amp to power the 80 ohm DT770.

Any tips? What should I look out for?

[CrowdAds]

[dfkt]

Usually the 80 Ohm DT770 don't need an amp to sound their fullest - only with players with really weak outputs. So, which player do you use?

[Mosselman]

I will be using a MacBook Pro and a Logitech Z5500 5.1 set amp and on the road: an iRiver simple MP3 player and a Samsung Galaxy SII for now:

http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-THX-C.../dp/B0002WPSBC

http://anythingbutipod.com/2008/03/iriver-e100-review/

[The DarkSide]

I use either a FiiO E11, or the iBasso T5. Both are great,...

[saratoga]

The amp on the Galaxy S2 isn't great, but then again you've got a pretty easy to drive pair of headphones. Would probably help a little, but no idea if you've actually notice the difference or consider it worth the money since it sounds like you're on a budget.

[The DarkSide]

PowerAMP allows the user to increase the volume of music playback,...so volume shouldn't be an issue with it.

[Gastronomic]

Hi everyone.

I have a spiralear 3-way reference and a sansa clip.
Do i need a amp?

Thank you for the help.

[WalkGood]

Originally Posted by Gastronomic

Hi everyone.

I have a spiralear 3-way reference and a sansa clip.
Do i need a amp?

Thank you for the help.

I don't see why you would need an amp with those customs, unless they are overly sensitive with some DAPs. That said, the sansa Clip is very forgiving with sensitive phones IMO. Which ones do you own: the 5, 4, 3, 2 or 1s and what are the specifications?

Edit: you might want to read thru this thread http://anythingbutipod.com/forum/showthread.php?t=44202

[Gastronomic]

Originally Posted by WalkGood

I don't see why you would need an amp with those customs, unless they are overly sensitive with some DAPs. That said, the sansa Clip is very forgiving with sensitive phones IMO. Which ones do you own: the 5, 4, 3, 2 or 1s and what are the specifications?

Edit: you might want to read thru this thread http://anythingbutipod.com/forum/showthread.php?t=44202

It's the 3. The specifications i don't know, it's not on their site and i never asked, but i assume that they're similar to the acs t1.

[saratoga]

Balanced armature drivers tend to be really hard to drive properly on pretty much anything but a clip because they need extremely low output impedance. So the Clip series is your best bet.

As for using an amp, that might help too, but you'd have to very carefully pick one. Even a lot of high end amps are probably going to do worse then the clip for a headphones like that because they just won't have the output impedance needed. Maybe look at the Fiio E6/E11, or just don't bother with an amp.

[Gastronomic]

The only amp that i consider is the O2 portable. But i'm loosing faith on more that a clip, since i tried my monitors in a hi-fi system ( nad515 cd player and nad315 amp), and the improvement in sq is quite subtle or maybe none.

[WalkGood]

Originally Posted by Gastronomic

It's the 3. The specifications i don't know, it's not on their site and i never asked, but i assume that they're similar to the acs t1.

I don't know the specs either but if you do not hear any hissing, I would pass on an amp. Because that is about all an amp would do unless you need one with bass enhancement. Hissing is a possible issue on some Balanced armature monitors if they are overly sensitive, this is why I asked you about the specs. Many amps can even make that hissing worse, if you determine you do need one I'd look at the Headstage Arrow or similar amps. Unfortunately the higher end amps like that are more expensive than the fiio's but much better for this specific issue with high end custom monitors.

Edit: On my UE11s I can hear it with most my Cowon player but with an added amp I can’t. BTW I do not hear the hiss with them when I use them with my Clips (v1, v2 or the Zip).

[Gastronomic]

Originally Posted by WalkGood

I don't know the specs either but if you do not hear any hissing, I would pass on an amp. Because that is about all an amp would do unless you need one with bass enhancement. Hissing is a possible issue on some Balanced armature monitors if they are overly sensitive, this is why I asked you about the specs. Many amps can even make that hissing worse, if you determine you do need one I'd look at the Headstage Arrow or similar amps. Unfortunately the higher end amps like that are more expensive than the fiio's but much better for this specific issue with high end custom monitors.

Edit: On my UE11s I can hear it with most my Cowon player but with an added amp I can’t. BTW I do not hear the hiss with them when I use them with my Clips (v1, v2 or the Zip).

My 3-way reference with clip is dead silent.
Thank you very much for all the explanation.

[WalkGood]

Originally Posted by Gastronomic

My 3-way reference with clip is dead silent.
Thank you very much for all the explanation.

Then I wouldn't spend a penny on an amp, there's no need IMHO

[saratoga]

Originally Posted by Gastronomic

The only amp that i consider is the O2 portable. But i'm loosing faith on more that a clip, since i tried my monitors in a hi-fi system ( nad515 cd player and nad315 amp), and the improvement in sq is quite subtle or maybe none.

You're not going to be able to properly drive those headphones with that equipment, so its not a good comparison. The clip will do much, much better.

[WalkGood]

Originally Posted by Gastronomic

The only amp that i consider is the O2 portable. But i'm loosing faith on more that a clip, since i tried my monitors in a hi-fi system ( nad515 cd player and nad315 amp), and the improvement in sq is quite subtle or maybe none.

Originally Posted by saratoga

You're not going to be able to properly drive those headphones with that equipment, so its not a good comparison. The clip will do much, much better.

saratoga has a good point and don't take his word for it, read up on it because IIRC the O2 is not designed to drive low impedance and overly sensitive balanced armature IEMs/customs. For example UE11s have an input sensitivity of 119db @ 1mw and a impedance of 18 Ohms at 1kHz. So I'm guessing you would hear hissing with the O2.

[saratoga]

Originally Posted by WalkGood

saratoga has a good point and don't take his word for it, read up on it because IIRC the O2 is not designed to drive low impedance and overly sensitive balanced armature IEMs/customs. For example UE11s have an input sensitivity of 119db @ 1mw and a impedance of 18 Ohms at 1kHz. So I'm guessing you would hear hissing with the O2.

No I mean the nad amp won't drive them well, so no surprise they didn't sound great. The O2 will drive anything, thats the whole idea of it.

[WalkGood]

Originally Posted by saratoga

No I mean the nad amp won't drive them well, so no surprise they didn't sound great. The O2 will drive anything, thats the whole idea of it.

I thought I once read it didn't preform well with overly sensitive low impedance phones but like I said above, I could be wrong as I'm going from memory.

[Mosselman]

Thanks for the tips guys.

One question though, you guys talk about 'clip' and 'non-clip' amps. Do you mean the difference between clip: something like Fiio E6 and non-clip: iBasso T5?

[Marvin the Martian]

Originally Posted by Mosselman

Thanks for the tips guys.

One question though, you guys talk about 'clip' and 'non-clip' amps. Do you mean the difference between clip: something like Fiio E6 and non-clip: iBasso T5?

When they say "Clip" they are talking about the Sansa players....Clip+, Clip Zip.