Not enough headphone volume

AKG240's ARE 600 Ohm impedance and need a good headphone amp to drive them. Sony MDR-7506, Senn HD280+ or any other set of phones with impedance under the 60+ Ohm range, should blow your head off. 32-Ohm drivers, should barely need the volume up at all...
FWIW - I use my MDR7506's at less than 1/2 volume (10 o'clock position) and its W-A-Y loud!
 
K240=55ohm. Should not be a problem. How loud do he play with a poweramp and cabs i wonder?? ;)

Or is it the really old 240´s??

Sennheiser HD25II or HD650.. Or HD800 :) Just get a good HP-amp
 
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I've heard good things about the AKG ATH-M50s. I personally have the Beyerdynamic DT770 PROS 80 ohms and they're great. One of the many used headphones in studios.
 
Kriig said:
K240=55ohm. Should not be a problem. How loud do he play with a poweramp and cabs i wonder?? ;)

Or is it the really old 240´s??
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204 MKII and Studio are 55-Ohms.. the "old" ones are 600-Ohm.. have a few of those. The HD's I have are 280's.. (not PRO) are 64-Ohm.
 
You need to look at the ohms and at the Sensitivity.
32 ohm will be loud
600 ohm will not be loud
The higher the sensitivity the louder it gets.

AKG K240 (not the MKII)
600 ohm
88 dB SPL/mW (AMAZINGLY LOW)

That means you need to push 32watts into it (it can not take 32 watts)
to reach the level of your average Sony that's rated at 103 dB
In other words, it will never be as loud as a Sony..... but it's still one hell of studio accurate cans.

;)
 
I'm using AKG K240M and I think the headphone amp is sufficient. I haven't had to turn it up past halfway. fwiw, have you had your hearing checked recently?
 
cinealta said:
I'm using AKG K240M and I think the headphone amp is sufficient. I haven't had to turn it up past halfway. fwiw, have you had your hearing checked recently?
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I agree, same cans here and never went above about 10 o'clock on the volume, and it was plenty.
 
Yea, gottA watch out for your ears with phones. That being said, my Grados are the best sounding headphones I've ever had. I have the SR-60's. I know they have a lot better models, but I've never had a complaint with them. They sound great!
 
I picked some Sennheiser HD 280's 64 ohm and they are fantastic! I have the output1 volume at about 10 oclock and plenty loud. I couldnt find the sony's or Audio Technica models reccomended at my local guitar center but they suck in selection but these Senns rock and only 100 bucks. It was for sure impedence problem. If i would have known that I wouldnt had to about a year ago get a higher power presonus headphone amp for drummer during tracking because my daws headphone out would have sufficed! LOL Thank you everyone for your help. Thing about these Senns they have perfect eq to for the default factory presets sound near perfect eq wise a very good match.
 
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Less likely to clip/have distortion/blow your cans if it's higher (you have to drive it harder). (waits for inappropriate comments...)

Studios in the past used to have tube based headphone amps and a high impedance was necessary to compensate for the high output of those amps.

Construction of the drivers come in to play as well as different drives require a different impedance and can affect the sound. A higher impedance set of headphones usually is capable of having a better sound quality or "flat" sound, but most manufacturers are able to engineer it so it can be decently flat at lower impedances.

Really, you should use your ears though. Additionally, if you're not looking to mix/engineer/whatever with your cans, just find something that's a lower impedance and have fun.
 
I just received a new Sennheiser HD380 Pro set of headphones to use with the Axe II to save my neighbors. Paid $199.00. They sound great with my ipod but must have been expecting more from the Axe II headphone out. These are 54 ohms and still I turn it up almost all the way but then it introduces some distortion. First and only disappointment so far with the Axe II and sure my neighbors are going to be disappointed also. It just sounds so good through my speaker cabs thought it would be even better with the phones. Expected a clearer sound if that makes sense and don't want to have to rework the patches everytime I use headphones. Anyone else? Headphone amp?
 
If It's closed back it might sound a bit enclosed (i dunno if that makes sense but it does to me since I own the hd280s and akg 240 studio) and if you want the headphones too have more air or openness (again I'm making up words to describe what I hear) you may wanna try open backed headphones. That or another pair of closed back headphones. Also if you're driving the headphone volume too loud to get it to sound good, fletcher munson curves are probably at work so it does have to be reasonable volume but not too much.
 
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My Sony MDR 7506s do NOT sound good at all through the headphone jack - trebly, harsh, and thin. Patches sound great through my QSC K12.

I am wondering - is there a threshold to how good the Axe II is going to sound through headphones? Is it completely unrealistic to even expect the sound quality to sound near what is coming out of the FR? I am on my second pair of headphones, need to know if it is worth trying one more pair or just living with the Sonys.
 
TheReflex said:
Is it completely unrealistic to even expect the sound quality to sound near what is coming out of the FR? I am on my second pair of headphones, need to know if it is worth trying one more pair or just living with the Sonys.
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Yes, it's unrealistic. Or I should say it's economically unreasonable in that you might have to go to $600 cans to get the exact sonic properties of your FR solution. For example, I had some decent Sony's that my direct patches sounded like @ss. I upgraded to some very nice (and underrated) Grado's, and it was better. But if I tweaked those patches with headphones, all the wrong stuff came out when I cranked up my FR's (spiky highs, flubby bottom end, odd midrange that I just didn't hear with the headphones...)

I've tried this several ways, and in the end, I needed 2 banks of patches...one I would practice with headphones, and ones that I piped through my Atomic FR's.

Ron
 
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