Headphone Amp for Dt770 ??

[SillySausage]

Hi and Happy new year to everybody

After a bit of perusing I have purchased some Beyer DT770 (80 Ohm) phones.

I went for them for there bass performance and I wanted something to bring a smile to my face, for a while at least

When connected to my PM7200 amp they do not sound as i'd expected.. The bass is their but is relatively weak, and they have no volume potential to speak of before distortion.

Given that my old Sennheiser 450II sound a lot better and louder before distortion, am I right in assuming the 770s would suit a headphone amp to drive them properly.

I accept that they are new out of the box and need running in, but surely it can't make that much of a difference.

Any advice is welcome.

Cheers,
Adam.

[extremelydodgy]

Maybe it will. I don't have experience of the 80 ohm version, only the 250 ohm one but the DT770-250 hits very hard and fast in the lows. It's also horribly sharp in the highs and features a midrange trough as a result of the hugely boosted highs and lows.

However, this wasn't apparent from portables or mini system headphone jacks. I don't know anything about the Marantz amp you're using (although I did get the discount letter from Superfi ... a "proper" integrated for less than a third of my interconnects, wow!) but seems from what you're describing that the phones aren't being driven correctly along the lines of those low-powered jacks.

The DT770 effect was fully apparent however (with some smudging on the part of the amp) from a low-end integrated amp's headphone socket, one with a simple resistor arrangement for the sockets. They also displayed their character with all of the dedicated headphone amps I had at the time. They do seem to need a fair amount of juice behind the jack to get them going.

[doctorjuggles]

Originally Posted by SillySausage

Hi and Happy new year to everybody

After a bit of perusing I have purchased some Beyer DT770 (80 Ohm) phones.

I went for them for there bass performance and I wanted something to bring a smile to my face, for a while at least

When connected to my PM7200 amp they do not sound as i'd expected.. The bass is their but is relatively weak, and they have no volume potential to speak of before distortion.

Given that my old Sennheiser 450II sound a lot better and louder before distortion, am I right in assuming the 770s would suit a headphone amp to drive them properly.

I accept that they are new out of the box and need running in, but surely it can't make that much of a difference.

Any advice is welcome.

Cheers,
Adam.

I don't have the 80ohm version, I have the 250ohm. To drive this I have the Headsave Classic amp, which is an absolutely superb amp for its price range. To add to your post, I'd agree with you 100%. When I first got the Beyers I was running them straight through my PC soundcard (a TerraTec Aureon) and they sounded horrible. I ran it through a CMOY amp, and they sounded better, but I was still massively disappointed with them.
I also tried running it through my stereo system, but stereos are designed to drive speakers, the headphone amp on them is poor.
Anyway, once I got the Headsave Classic, they came to life. I would agree with extremelydodgy though, they have a slightly recessed midrange which isn't all that bad, but they have some pretty shrill treble, and I have to EQ the sharpness out of them, because I'm not a great fan of too much top end.

Anyway, as a piece of advice, I think you could do a lot worse than a Headsave Classic. I can point you to some reviews on Head-Fi on the Classic, they're highly regarded, and as a $120 amp they produce a performance that's regarded as being up there with some $300 amps.

[pbirkett]

DT770 in any ohmage needs an amp to get the best from it. The 80 ohm version is said to have a slightly smoother top end than the 250 ohm version, but definitely still needs an amp to extract the most from it. I am surprised the PM7200 does not give you plenty of bass, but then I've not heard it. I can definitely vouch for the Headsave Classic, I've had amps costing up to 4x the price which did not sound as good as this little amp.

[SillySausage]

Hi again.

Many thanks for the help with the phones.

I was waiting for a reply from Paul, as it was a few of his many reviews and in depth research that led me to the DT770's in the first place

The phones will be getting some more abuse tonight with the Pm7200, just to make me 100% sure that it was not my ears that were duff the other night

I have had a look at the Headsave Classic web site, and send them an email to get cost details for shipping here

I'll post up any feedback if and when I get one sorted.

Cheers once again.

Adam.

[extremelydodgy]

I'll put in a word for the JMT PIMETA as well. www.jmtaudio.com.

The Headsave shipping is like £5 or so, and it took only 5 days from Canada.

You will need to get a PSU from www.rswww.com - Norm from Headsave can advise.

You also have a choice of op-amps that can tailor the sound. There are the AD op-amps which have a fast, dynamic sound, and the Burr-Brown OPA op-amps, which can give a smoother, more laid-back sound.

Difficult to judge which is best for you as the synergy depends on your source, your headphones, and your personal tastes. Again, Norm can advise.