Amp/Headphone Pairing Question

johnnymaelstrom

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Through chance - as I had the kit lying around - I've started using an SMSL M6 Mini DAC and headphone amp with Sony MDR-XD200 over the ear headphones for my working day listening. Reading up on impedance and sensitivity I was curious about this pairing.

The headphones have an impedance of 70.0 Ohms (link) and sensitivity of 102.0 dB/mW.
The headphone amp manual says the following range of impedances:
33 Ohms at 130mW
66 Ohms at 270mW
150 Ohms at 220mW
300 Ohms at 120mW

How do they pair and also what I would do to improve the sound. I know these are not the best kit around, but I hope to learn from this for any future purchases.
  • Are the amp and headphones adequately paired at the moment?
  • If I was thinking about a new headphone amp what range of impedances should I be looking at for these headphones?
  • If I was thinking about a new set of headphones what range of impedances would I need to look for this headphone amp?
 
70 ohms 102 db is not that hard to power. Your DAC amp would drive the Sennheiser HD600 / HD650 for example

No comment on quality, never heard the unit
 
70 ohms 102 db is not that hard to power. Your DAC amp would drive the Sennheiser HD600 / HD650 for example

No comment on quality, never heard the unit

Thanks for your reply. I can’t find the impedance for the Sennheiser headphones. Are they the same/similar to my Sony’s so that’s why my amp will power them or is there a calculation or rule of thumb you used to work that out?
 
Bedtime reading:


70 ohms and 102db sensitivity is relatively easy to power

The HD600 and HD650 HDD have been headphone benchmarks for 15 years. 300 ohm and 97db sensitivity
 
Bedtime reading:


70 ohms and 102db sensitivity is relatively easy to power

The HD600 and HD650 HDD have been headphone benchmarks for 15 years. 300 ohm and 97db sensitivity
Thanks, looks like my kind of analysis.

When you say the Sennheisers are benchmarks did you mean that my amp can drive them so I should have no problem with any decent headphone as they should be compared to the Sennheisers?
 
No, benchmark in the sense of famed balanced audio quality at a reasonable price

300 ohm 97 dB sensitivity requires more power to push to a listenable volume than 70 ohm 102 dB. However thanks to modern connected economies and everyone opening a factory, even a budget device like your SMSL can power the Sennheisers 😎
 
Hello and help,

I have a Kenwood HiFi system (M76MG) with a A-76 Amplifier.
The amplifier has a dedicated headphone socket but what I can't find anywhere on the net is whether it can accommodate a pair of Beyerdynamic DT770 headphones and if so whether it would be best suited to 32,80 or 250 ohm impudence.

Back in the day I had a pair of Wharfedale DD1 headphones and they worked perfectly

Would appreciate any advice offered
 

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Play it safe and go for the 32 ohm version.
 

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