youngj123 Posted August 13, 2014 Report Share Posted August 13, 2014 I spent the better part of last weekend researching amps for a new pair of headphones. Reading other people's reviews and seeing their pics is fun, but figuring out whether the amp outputs enough power or if the damping factor is >= 8, well that's tedious. So what started as a few formulas on paper eventually (over the span of a week) turned into a website that calculates all this for you. It's a tool I built for myself, but I hope you'll find it useful too: www.audiobot9000.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevin gilmore Posted August 13, 2014 Report Share Posted August 13, 2014 (edited) you are missing the most important, and least important amplifiers! Edited August 13, 2014 by kevin gilmore Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
youngj123 Posted August 13, 2014 Author Report Share Posted August 13, 2014 you are missing the most important, and least important amplifiers! Please advise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nikongod Posted August 13, 2014 Report Share Posted August 13, 2014 (edited) Who cares if the amp achieves a (highly) arbitrary damping factor of 8 or more. At one time the rule of thumb in your ass was 10:1. When did it change and why? The IEC standards used to say that 120ohm output impedance is right, although MFR's are free to follow or ignore that at this point. With some headphones that puts the damping factor at 2, or even less. How do you account for these? What about headphones that seem to match up with amps with greater than 220ohm output impedance, for reasons nobody understands, but are largely agreed upon? PS, you are welcome for free consulting work to improve a rough-sketch headphone/amp matching chart for your website. Which site is it? Edited August 13, 2014 by nikongod Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RudeWolf Posted August 13, 2014 Report Share Posted August 13, 2014 Amps are not just output power and output impedance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spritzer Posted August 13, 2014 Report Share Posted August 13, 2014 All amps sound the same -Peter J. Walker Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grahame Posted August 13, 2014 Report Share Posted August 13, 2014 * Of adequate quality * When used within their capabilities To verify or disprove that amplifiers of adequate quality sound the same, Quad commissioned James Moir to organise and conduct listening tests comparing Quad II, Quad 303 and Quad 405 amplifiers. Statistical analysis of the expert listening panel's scores showed that "the decisions of the panel were no better than might be expected from sheer chance".[3] http://personal.crocodoc.com/oS7FBUJ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dusty Chalk Posted August 13, 2014 Report Share Posted August 13, 2014 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emooze Posted August 13, 2014 Report Share Posted August 13, 2014 I am curious why Stax is not on there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grahame Posted August 13, 2014 Report Share Posted August 13, 2014 Try this for size. http://reocities.com/ResearchTriangle/Lab/6722/pwint1.txt From 1978! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jgazal Posted August 14, 2014 Report Share Posted August 14, 2014 Grahame, thank you for linking Peter Walker interview. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dusty Chalk Posted August 14, 2014 Report Share Posted August 14, 2014 Try this for size. http://reocities.com/ResearchTriangle/Lab/6722/pwint1.txt From 1978! No, that wasn't at you, that was at OP and whole thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sherwood Posted August 14, 2014 Report Share Posted August 14, 2014 I think it's a neat tool that could benefit from a larger selection of amplifiers, as Kevin suggested. I agree with the groupthink here that amplifiers are more than output power and impedance, but those are awfully important measures of performance. More information can only serve us well. Thanks for sharing this with us, youngj123 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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