- Oct 18, 1999
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Its not that I want to blast the crap out of my ears. Im over 40 and my hearing is perfect (as can be
). The reason I am looking for headphones that can take a lot of power is because, yes, I play my music loud and many headphones either clip or rattle. Take the "for the life of me I dont know why" highly regarded Sennheiser 280 Pro cans, which I own and dont use because even at a normal level they will clip and rattle. I gave them over 200 hours of burn-in and even when I use them on my mp3 players they will clip on bass. My V6 cans can take a lot of power but are too bright. My V700DJ can take it all but the sound leakage annoys my wife and son due to their round earpads. Thats why I was looking into the 7509HD, as according to the specs they can take the same amount of power as the V700DJ but the earcups are more oval so they would cover my ear better like my V6. Plus I dont want to spend a fortune. I own many Sennheisers and while they sound great, they are open. I prefer closed so as not to annoy.I don't really want to preach, but I do want to caution. Headphones can produce a lot of SPL at the ears with ease, and due to their nature, it's very easy to be unaware of how high they're going. This is compounded with sealed designs. It's harder to do this with speakers just because your roommates / neighbours /etc., will tell you how loudly you're playing them, and this "annoying sound leakage" business could just be another side of this problem -- the problem is not the sound leakage, but that they're too loud. If they're too loud at a distance with normal ambient noise, etc., for others, then they're likely to be very loud for your own ears at such proximity with sealing, however inefficient.
Perhaps you're one of the lucky few with cast-iron ears or whatever who aren't damaging them with high SPLs, so fine, I won't preach to you, but for many many others, this is a path to permanent hearing damage.
Perhaps you're one of the lucky few with cast-iron ears or whatever who aren't damaging them with high SPLs, so fine, I won't preach to you, but for many many others, this is a path to permanent hearing damage.
The thing is... your reciever is probably not putting out more than 50mW per channel from the headphone jack, if that. I rather doubt that it's capable of pushing any serious headphone beyond its power handling capabilities. Now, I'm not the most knowledgeable in this field, but I'd speculate that the headphone amp in your reciever is actually the one having problems. You're probably pushing it past its limits, which will cause clipping (AFIAK, clipping occurs in amps only, not drivers). I'd suggest picking up a cheap headphone amp (CMOY, PA2v2, etc) to see if that makes a difference. I'd also recommend posing this as a serious question about headphone power handling and amps on head-fi.org to get some better answers.
That said, if you want something that can really take some power, pony up for a set of AKG K1000's - at 3W, you'll barely be able to hear them, let alone overpower them.*
*I am, of course, joking. They're not at all what you're after and I think they'd be wasted on you anyways.
That said, if you want something that can really take some power, pony up for a set of AKG K1000's - at 3W, you'll barely be able to hear them, let alone overpower them.*
*I am, of course, joking. They're not at all what you're after and I think they'd be wasted on you anyways.
- Oct 18, 1999
- 22,071
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Trust me, my receiver can pump from the headphone jack. I have dozens of headphones, earphones, canal phones and have tried most of them to test your amp theory and only the V700DJ, V6, ec3 and beleive it or not, my tri-ports do not clip or rattle at the same volume level I tested at.
Anyway, I am on my way to test them out. I made arrangements with some I know at J & R to let me try them on a simularly specced receiver using my own source material. I'll let y'all know the results. I packed a few of my headphones for comparision.
You are going to get a much better response from headfi for this question, as it IS their area of expertise. I don't understand why you discount the validity of their advice simply becuase they generally hold an opinion about a particular manufacturer that you disagree with. They do have the most experience in this field, though their advice may be taken with a grain of salt due to their audiophile nature, which can lead to extravagent, yet impractical solutions at times. By asking here, however, you are simply drawing a response from a (typically), less informed, and less-experienced audience. I would heed what they have to say, or at least, to open my mind to the possibilities that they may have some valid opinions.
Baked
Lifer
- Dec 28, 2004
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The ability to drive high ohm headphones and the ability to make them sound good is two different stories. If you appreciated listening to music through your headphones, you would be using a dedicated headphone amp and not the headphone jack from an A/V receiver.
It may sound loud, but it certainly won't match the output of a dedicated headphone amplifier. Although, for your hearing's sake, I think that's a good thing!
One thing I noticed about the headphones you listed that don't clip or rattle is that they're all very low impedance phones (with the exception of the V6). It may be that your amplifier is more capable of producing the higher currents needed to drive these 'phones than the higher voltages needed for headphones with a high impedance (or maybe it's the other way around). Or those ones may just be unsually resistant to distortion, I guess - it just seems a little strange to me.
That said, if none of your auditions pan out, you might want to take a look at the AKG 81DJ. It's sealed and is supposed to have plenty of bass. It's also a DJ headphone, so it's probably safe to say that it's capable of very high volumes without distorting - that AKG rates its power handling at 2W certainly says something.
- Oct 18, 1999
- 22,071
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Well, I tried em out. They are ok. They take a lot of power BUT lacked the oomp that the V700DJ can reproduce. That being said I decided NOT to go for the 7509HD as they did not sound better nor worse than my other headphones that I brought for the test. I will, however, test the cans some of you have mentioned. My preference is not just pounding loud bass, i'm sorry if my post has come off that way. I listen to many kinds of music and have noticed that a lot of cans just cant take even a moderate amount of volume. I beleive music should be HEARD so thats why I put an emphasis on power capabilities. No, I am not the kind of guy who cranks up his car stereo for the world to hear (That annoys me) I am the one who believes music should be heard at a decent volume. Sometimes, depending on the sound, power is needed to get the full experience. Even in games, you want to "feel" as well as hear the explosions. It makes for a more thrilling experience, same with music, you want to "feel" the bass line in tunes like as if you are at a concert. I just want that in a set of headphones.
And Maluno, I dont discount Head-fi, I respect them and have been perusing their site for years. They just had no info on the cans I was looking at.
Anyway, this thread is dead. Thanks everyone. Gonna listen to some Police tunes.
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