I have the 600-ohm DT880Pros and here are my thoughts. This is not my area of expertise, but I think the differences between the various impedances/models has more to do with what is powering them than the headphones themselves. The low-impedance versions are designed to be used with the headphone amp in a typical prosumer interface/device. My old MOTU 828 interfaces could barely push my 600-ohm cans, so I had to run it at 80%+ of it's output just to hear them at a comfortable level. But, they didn't sound that great in that situation. I could be wrong, but I think it's because of both an impedance mismatch and the fact that the MOTU (and likely Focusrite etc) interfaces' headphone outputs simply are not as clean as a good dedicated headphone amp.
I subsequently bought a dedicated monitoring system (Drawmer MC201) with much better spec'ed headphone outputs that have no trouble pushing my 600-ohm DT880s. I no longer have any MOTU interfaces, but if I match the output levels of the Drawmer with the headphone outputs on my Apollo X6 interface, the Drawmer sounds night/day better with more clarity/less distortion and reaches a comfortable monitoring level at about a 25% lower twist of the headphone volume knob compared to the Apollo. So, WTH is my point? IDK![:shrug:]( "Shrug")
OK, but I guess what I'm trying to say is that, as you move up in terms of impedance, you will notice an improvement in sound, but that improvement is predicated upon the assumption that you pair the headphones with the appropriate method of powering them (i.e., the higher impedance cans are meant to be powered by a dedicated headphone amp, not just turning up the headphone level on your interface). IOW, at 250-ohms and above, I'd be looking at an external headphone amp and not relying on my interface's headphone amp. Again, this is all just based on my own personal anecdotal observations and not something that I've studied, so I welcome any corrections, additions, clarifications, etc.
I subsequently bought a dedicated monitoring system (Drawmer MC201) with much better spec'ed headphone outputs that have no trouble pushing my 600-ohm DT880s. I no longer have any MOTU interfaces, but if I match the output levels of the Drawmer with the headphone outputs on my Apollo X6 interface, the Drawmer sounds night/day better with more clarity/less distortion and reaches a comfortable monitoring level at about a 25% lower twist of the headphone volume knob compared to the Apollo. So, WTH is my point? IDK
OK, but I guess what I'm trying to say is that, as you move up in terms of impedance, you will notice an improvement in sound, but that improvement is predicated upon the assumption that you pair the headphones with the appropriate method of powering them (i.e., the higher impedance cans are meant to be powered by a dedicated headphone amp, not just turning up the headphone level on your interface). IOW, at 250-ohms and above, I'd be looking at an external headphone amp and not relying on my interface's headphone amp. Again, this is all just based on my own personal anecdotal observations and not something that I've studied, so I welcome any corrections, additions, clarifications, etc.
Statistics: Posted by cryophonik — Wed Jun 05, 2024 11:14 pm