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Quick headphone question. I've got about 10 year old Audio Technica ATH-50's right now. They're 36 ohm. They've been great but they are completely disintegrating. My Arcam 550 is 32-600 ohm on the headphone jack. I've always found there's a minor hiss when using these headphones with this amp. Is that something that may be alleviated by switching to a higher ohm headphone since these are right at the edge of the specs?
 
Quick headphone question. I've got about 10 year old Audio Technica ATH-50's right now. They're 36 ohm. They've been great but they are completely disintegrating. My Arcam 550 is 32-600 ohm on the headphone jack. I've always found there's a minor hiss when using these headphones with this amp. Is that something that may be alleviated by switching to a higher ohm headphone since these are right at the edge of the specs?
I’m not an expert on this topic, but if the output impedance from your amp is high a higher Ohm (150+)headphone may sound better and possibly eliminate the hum.

The problem could also be internal to the amp. Headphone outputs in integrated amps aren’t always the best. Similar to phono inputs.

If you’re looking for new headphones what’s your budget?

Or are you just going to replace the pads on your ATs?
 
I’m not an expert on this topic, but if the output impedance from your amp is high a higher Ohm (150+)headphone may sound better and possibly eliminate the hum.

The problem could also be internal to the amp. Headphone outputs in integrated amps aren’t always the best. Similar to phono inputs.

If you’re looking for new headphones what’s your budget?

Or are you just going to replace the pads on your ATs?
Yeah my second thought was definitely. "it's an integrated surrounded by a zillion other electrical units" HOWEVER it's dead silent on everything else so I suspect it may be the headphones not liking the very hot up to 600 ohm output.

I haven't decided yet if I'm going to replace them. It's really only noticeable on vinyl and I really don't listen to vinyl via headphines, it's more that I'm just curious if this is possibility as to why I'm getting this slight buzz on the phones.
 
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Yeah my second thought was definitely. "it's an integrated surrounded by a zillion other electrical units" HOWEVER it's dead silent on everything else so I suspect it may be the headphones not liking the very hot up to 600 ohm output.

I haven't decided yet if I'm going to replace them. It's really only noticeable on vinyl and I really don't listen to vinyl via headphines, it's more that I'm just curious if this is possibility as to why I'm getting this slight buzz on the phones.
It’s probably your turntable and not the headphones if you only hear it when vinyl is playing.
 
It’s probably your turntable and not the headphones if you only hear it when vinyl is playing.
Yeah sorry no that's not what I meant. Vinyl is silent through speakers, but slight hiss through headphones when dead silent. However it's not noticeable through any video mainly because video is almost never silent but it's still there, just doesn't get in the way of video watching. It's not really a problem so much as it is something I'm interested to know the answer to. Do high sensitivity headphones with high power amp equal hiss (in some cases).
 
Quick headphone question. I've got about 10 year old Audio Technica ATH-50's right now. They're 36 ohm. They've been great but they are completely disintegrating. My Arcam 550 is 32-600 ohm on the headphone jack. I've always found there's a minor hiss when using these headphones with this amp. Is that something that may be alleviated by switching to a higher ohm headphone since these are right at the edge of the specs?
Go with a higher impedance headphone if your headamp allows it. 32ohm is about standard for your portable devices. I've got an 80ohm pair of Beyer DT770's and a 250ohm pair of 990's. Higher the impedance, the more it's gonna take to drive, but when it's a good match of amp/headphones, boy is it good.

Re: the noise, tough to say exactly, because you'll need more out of your headphone amp, but it could do the trick as lower impedance headphones have to be more sensitive to work with less powerful headamps.
 
Go with a higher impedance headphone if your headamp allows it. 32ohm is about standard for your portable devices. I've got an 80ohm pair of Beyer DT770's and a 250ohm pair of 990's. Higher the impedance, the more it's gonna take to drive, but when it's a good match of amp/headphones, boy is it good.

Re: the noise, tough to say exactly, because you'll need more out of your headphone amp, but it could do the trick as lower impedance headphones have to be more sensitive to work with less powerful headamps.
Thanks yeah this is kinda what I figured. I'd assumed they were above 32 and was kinda surprised to find that. I never really considered them a portable headphone.
 
Somebody find me somewhere in North America that sells the Degritter MarkII on sale.

I shall await the flood of responses, over here with a pint.

Now.... GO!

No idea about price on these
 

No idea about price on these
Haha I saw that but it's local pick up only, from Texas.
 
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