Hi - I’ve read that the Beyerdynamic DT880 Pros are 250 ohm, and require a fair amount of oompphh to be driven well.
I have the old M-Audio Omni i/O Studio (it’s a break out box for the Delta 66 sound card). I’ve gone through the manual stem to stern twice, and it doesn’t describe any technical specs for the headphone out.
Does this mean there’s really no way to tell whether the headphone out from the Omni i/O will drive the headphones except to just try them? Would anyone have any feeling or knowledge on this?
250 ohm isn’t a low impedance so I would imagine that any limitations on your output would be a lack of max volume rather than signal degradation due to impedenace mismatches/overload.
You should consider getting a proper headphone amp to proved some real meat to drive heapdhones if tat kind of listenign is goign to be a frequent method monitoring.
Seems like it’d be quite early to be up over there, and as I recall, you are answering various posts not infrequently in the earliest morning hours not infrequently. Vlad.
Yah, maybe seems like the thing to do. Paul mentioned something about sound quality being degraded with impedance mismatches, I wonder if I’d be shelling out for high end phones and then not being golden-eared enough to realize an impedance mismatch makes them as stereophile as the ones that come with the Deluxe version of Mr. Microphone.
Hi Steve - You are a Prince, thanks so much for taking the time!
My M-Audio Omni i/O came with two manuals - one for the breakout box, and one for the Delta 66 sound card itself, the link looks like the .pdf for the booklet I got for the Delta 66 - I saw the input impedance, but couldn’t figure out why they didn’t post an output impedance. (The sound card itself actually doesn’t have a phone out - that’s a feature of the breakout box only).
I looked at your second link, which I hadn’t come across before (thanks!). The Audiophile does have that 300 ohm balanced/150 ohm unbalanced output. It came out around the same time as my Delta 66/Omni i/O breakout box, so maybe it will be the same as my phone outs - I guess for now that’s the best we have to go on! (I’ve got a post in on the M-Audio forum as well, if I hear back I’ll update here).
Wow, that card is long in the tooth also, isn’t it? Nice to know that a tune as good as the one you posted a few weeks back can be made on that … I guess it’s true … “All You Need is Ears!” *.
I hear what you’re saying. What’s holding me back is not lack of technology/latest sound card (is that even the right term anymore??)/96kHz/moving faders/etc., but lack of hours in front of my DAW, and very possibly I may find out in the end that it’s lack of engineering/production skill. But in any case, having taken a few years off from computer music (playing in a garage-band), I realize how much I love writing music, and will keep on trying my best to create it in some fashion that is more “share-able” than multiple MIDI tracks and a comped vox track!!
Thanks -
P.S.Just ordered those BeyerDynamic DT880 Pros … be still my beating heart!!
Hi All - Thanks for the feedback and help. I got the phones yesterday, played around a lot with them, listening to music and test tones http://www.binkster.net/extras.shtml . They were definitely able to get enough volume going, I could even hear a 1kHz test tone at -60dB without any/much preamp “noise”.
In terms of sound … I compared them to my Audio-Technica ATH-M40fs. Although there was a clear difference, It’s actually hard for me to find the words to describe it. The easy comparisons relate to the low and high ends - both are more prominent in the B’Dynamics. I could actually hear some 16 kHz on them, I don’t think I heard any 20 kHz on either. Similarly, the bass on some CDs was clearer and more powerful on the B’Dynamics. Of course that by itself could be good or bad, but I take comfort in people more experienced than I saying the overall response on the B’Dynamics is pretty good Studio Headphones .
Otherwise, I don’t know, maybe the B’Dynamics didn’t sound as “tinny” as the ATHs overall, but it’s hard to be objective about that.
Friggin’ kudos dude, for putting out that track a few weeks ago - awesome sounding as I’ve said before - no way I would have guessed that was made in an untreated bedroom studio!
I know what you mean about “making do with everything I have”. When I was younger (“so much younger than today”), I thought I needed more gear to be top gear. Now, I realize the world really is according to Hippo - it’s not lack of gear that is keeping me from making better recordings, at least not at this point. I do have a plan to treat my recording room “sometime”, but logistically it just isn’t happening soon. I’m trying to see about putting together a good list of “reference” CDs to use, and that + the headphones + the frequency tones listed in twighlight song’s recent post (yesterday, I think) will have to do (unless Paul wants to make a Christmas gift of his Genelec’s to me)!
The problem with open cans is that when recording vocals the sound may spill into the recording. But I agree that it’s really difficult to sing without hearing your own ‘natural’ sound.
I’ve read that to get around that, some people take the headphones off one ear so they can hear themselves naturally, routing all the sound to the other ear to avoid spillage into the mic. I’ve tried that, but they kept sliding off. I think the technique only works for good singers.
- Why do you ask?