Do good headphones need an amp (or something else)...

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So far I have mixed with budget Sennheiser headphones, connected to PC's jacks. I thought about getting something better (like Sennheiser HD 650), but I am not sure if I need extra amp or something for that. I won't buy reference monitors and DAC, because I'm often working nighttime; can't make so much noise...

So? If I connect better quality headphones to PC's jacks, will it work? Any problems?

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If you have a dedicated quality sound card or a modern mother board with an up-to-date audio chip, you will hear the difference good phones make, especially if you connect them directly to the sound card's / audio chip's output, not at the front panel of your PC.

Since budget sound solutions tend to have lower output, the impedance of your phones should not be too high.

You might think of getting one of those room simulation plugins that allow you to kind of simulate a room on your headphones.

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From the user manual;

- Can be directly connected to stationary hi-fi components of the highest
quality, in
particular SACD, DVD-A, Blu-ray, CD players and DACs for your
Mac or PC for hi-res music files

- Tap the full tonal potential of your HD 650 with the Sennheiser HDVD 800
balanced headphone amplifier and the CH 650 S balanced connection cable

An amp, as suggested, will give these phones enough available power so the phones can react to quickly changing velocities. Lower power outputs will act more sluggishly and unresponsive, like the sound is being compressed.
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For answering a question like this, first task is to look up the actual impedance of the headphones in question.

Low impedance headphones can be used on virtually anything. High impedance headphones need much more power and do require a separate headphone amp if you want to connect it to low-end consumer electronics such as iPods, MP3 players, mobile phones and PC headphone jacks. These devices don't give enough juice for high-impedance headphones.

I just looked up the Sennheiser HD 650, and here it says the impedance is 300 Ω. That is quite high. So these cans do surely benefit from a headphone amp.
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I have these Sennheiser's, they have only 64 Ohms and are intended for music making, not for enjoying music:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,1828798,00.asp
They have been updated repeatedly over the years and they are very popular in music studios, and at the same time very affordable, 100 euros or so for the latest version :)

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Thanks for answers!

I have to rethink this; HD 650 headphones cost 340 euros here, but HDVD 800 amp costs 1850 euros. :D

Maybe I need to rethink my strategy or save some more...

But thanks anyway, this clarifies a lot!

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Markku wrote:I have to rethink this; HD 650 headphones cost 340 euros here, but HDVD 800 amp costs 1850 euros. :D
You can get a decent headphone amp for much less; probably under €100. I don't know why Sennheiser recommends their flagship, but that is a ridiculous price indeed.
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Yes, I'm considering Focusrite 2i2; apparently I'm going to studio monitor direction anyway... But no hurry. With this kind of stuff, I need to read/learn some basic stuff first. Anyway, this is interesting.

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BertKoor wrote:
Markku wrote:I have to rethink this; HD 650 headphones cost 340 euros here, but HDVD 800 amp costs 1850 euros. :D
You can get a decent headphone amp for much less; probably under €100. I don't know why Sennheiser recommends their flagship, but that is a ridiculous price indeed.
Yeah there's absolutely no need to spend that much. Though don't go too cheap either - as the low end stuff is not going to offer much if any improvement on what's in your audio interface. Something around the 100 EUR mark will do a good job - https://www.jdslabs.com/products/35/obj ... amplifier/

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What you'll probably notice (as I did when I got decent phones) is you'll now be able to hear the motherboard or some other electrical interference when using the regular phono out of your computer's onboard sound card. There will be little squiggly high pitched noises in the background whenever the drives are accessing, moving a mouse etc.

An external audio interface will get rid of those audio gremlins.

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mcbpete wrote:What you'll probably notice (as I did when I got decent phones) is you'll now be able to hear the motherboard or some other electrical interference when using the regular phono out of your computer's onboard sound card. There will be little squiggly high pitched noises in the background whenever the drives are accessing, moving a mouse etc.

An external audio interface will get rid of those audio gremlins.
Probably the amplifier will amplify any noise; makes sense.

So. External audio interface it is.

Thanks all! I'll rethink this and save some money for better setup.

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Modern quality motherboards have EMI-isolated audio components, like this here for instance, where the red line in the lower left corner indicates the separation of the shielded audio components to the left of it. http://ru.gecid.com/data/news/201406201 ... gaming.jpg

My current motherboard does not even have that, I use an old PCI Express audio card, there is no interference, either.

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If you hear motherboard noises over your headphones \ speakers check the various power settings in the BIOS, disabling speed stepping usually sorts it
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