Headphones?

[Phil O]

I'm not sure how my post was O.T., since I was addressing why his particular copy of DT-770-PRO's may be bass-heavy, and how an impedance-matching headphone amp may correct for this.

Sorry, I didn't mean to suggest that you were O.T. Just wanted to get back to what's out there for around $100.

Phil

[mhschmieder]

No problem. In re-reading, I see that James really made two main points, the first being that he's got problems with what he has, and the second being that he doesn't want to spend more than $100 to replace them.

I guess I'm just more focused on seeing if there are other solutions, but the headphone amp I suggested is around $200 (granted, it gives you four headphone channels, which many people need).

I'm wondering also if the current 250 ohm DT-770 PRO can be easily retrofitted to the 80 ohms rating of the older version that I have?

I don't know enough about headphone design to know how isolated a change would be, and whether any qualified technician could just swap out a transformer and improve those cans, without one having to resort to an impedance-matching headphone amp.

[daniel.sneed]

... I'm wondering also if the current 250 ohm DT-770 PRO can be easily retrofitted to the 80 ohms rating of the older version that I have? ...

AFAIK, the Beyer can line is fitted with different fixed impedance transducers. That is to say you'll have to change for spare transducers to get a 80 ohms set. Quite expensive, but easy on Beyer DT100 - DT202 line (which I still use a lot). I have been thru this replacement many times.

[mhschmieder]

Here's a new-to-the-USA headphone amp that just got mentioned on Gearslutz today, and looks a good buy (and well-featured) for under $1000:

http://www.lasvegasproaudio.com/leblcu.html

Two outputs, which is usually enough for most project studio oriented sessions. It doesn't combine digital conversion like the excellent-but-expensive Grace and Benchmark headphone amps, so fills a niche.

Even so, it might be more comparable to a hi-fi headphone amp like those from Graham Slee (who also make excellent phono pre-amps), except for having pro XLR connections. Looks like it might be racakable at least.

I'll read more details on this later to see if it does impedance-matching like the Symetrix unit that I own. Not having separate output level control for the two channels might be a PITA if using two different headphone models.

As for headphones themselves, I'm seeing more and more positive press on the new ones from Audio Technica. I hadn't given them serious thought and hadn't seen them show up on any of the three major headphone websites, but they may be too new for user feedback yet.