AKG, why so painfull?

[GearSlave]

Greetings Mr Field of axes,
I take it that the need for headphones is as a result of the need for silent listening as to not disturb the new addition Baby Field of Axes ?

Howzit,

That's one of the reasons. The other is that the new Vinyl setup is in the dining room as I don't want to have it in the lounge where it'll be ruined by the older (very inquisitive) rugrat. Plus I'm a gear slut and can't say no to new toys.

Anyway, I settled on the HD555's. It's as if the AKG is proportionally more expensive than the Senn's compared to pricing in the US. So, that makes the Senn's better value in South Africa.

[ludo]

The pity of it... But hey, happy listening to the new toys! The distributors certainly deserve another match of Sennheiser 64 : AKG 0

[Rodney_gold]

Phones are very dependant on what headphone amp you use with em , Senns generally work well with valve based HP amps - what amp are you using with your phones?

[GearSlave]

Rod,

I'm using my homebrew stuff on the cans. Not valve based though, but it's something I really like.

I've spent some time with the 555's last night and they are definitely a major step up from anything I've ever tried in the past. Yes, they do have their flaws as well, but they do the job superbly for what I paid and I'm very impressed with the performance. These definitely don't sound like the cheaper Senns I tried in the past, they sound more like premium cans at an affordable price (if you think R1500 is cheap of course). I just know I would've felt cheated with spending R3k on the AKG's.

[Rodney_gold]

I dont now the 555's  I have 580/600/650 and 800's
800's sound better to me on SS , the rest on valves.

[dotVIBE]

well,

unfortunately us mere mortals will have to take your word for that. what do those 800's cost in SA rands anyway? R12k or so?

[Hi-Phibian]

My 600 only really started pleasing me after putting 120 ohms in series witht them from my SS amp. The 800 are only 300 ohm rather then 600 of the others so suspect they prefer a lower output impedance amp. hence perhaps the preferences.

[GearSlave]

I'm a little perplexed, according to the Senn site both the 600 and 800's are 300R impedance. My 555's are 50R impedance. I've been curious for a while regarding the source impedance issue. As far as I understand, most studio cans are designed for a source impedance of 120R? Or have I got it wrong here? Surely such a critical thing will be mentioned in the datasheets somewhere?

[Hi-Phibian]

Forget the stuff above,I clucked that up. You are quite right. 300ohms both.
Anyhoo, a bit more info on meier audio site under tips and tricks.
Why this requirement seems to not be put out there I don't know.

[GearSlave]

Heh, I wasn't trying to be a smartass I'm actually genuinely interested in this whole source impedance issue. I'll hit up that meier audio site for some more dirt.

[ludo]

In a previous thread Timber_MG also mentioned that there is this 120 Ohm standard mentioned on the Meier Audio site. But the only reference I've found to it is on the Meier Audio site, or people quoting it from there. I don't think that constitutes a standard. I've not seen it mentioned on any headphone manufacturer's site.

My fiddling with pro equipment hasn't revealed any pattern if standardised output impedance. The pro's want big Genelecs or JBLs, not cans. And closed-back cans if they have to. Cans are a convenience only.

Headphones sound best to me with very low driving imp. It may well be because I'm pretty disinterested in the fundamental of bass instruments. It's the higher freq "blat" of the harmonics that makes them interesting/different to me. That part seems to get "woolly" with high output imp.

But eliminating the 10 Ohm that you probably have on the output of the TPA chip, will likely be impossible. I've had no end of fun and games trying to get rid of that sort of thing in the latest incarnation of my HP amp effort. A nF or so of cable capacitance can do really horrible things to fast opamps, unless there is a resistor on the output.. So for now I'm back to 5534s and such.

I'm quite open to the possibility that headphone designers do their part by the seat of their pants in the final analysis. Most of it is marketing and let the users mar see what they get. If they actually had a plan with driving impedance, surely they would have told us?

[Hi-Phibian]

BUF634

[Rodney_gold]

800's are R15k here in SA.

[Uriah]

I don't know if this will help but when browsing one of my favorite shopping sites I saw that tey are having specils on AKG head phones don't know the models but check them out soundz.co.za
regards

[chipwelder]

Actually Herr Doktor Sennheiser was here a few years ago and someone asked him, what measures do you use to evaluate cans, impulse response? Frequency response? etc... he answered... focus groups, so you are more right than you can imagine Ludo...