MESA SUBWAY D800 – WITH BEYERDYNAMIC DT 990 PRO HEADPHONES (250 ohm impedance)

[Bassfingers]

Couple of quick questions about pairing my Subway D800 with Beyerdynamic DT 990 PRO headphones....

 

 

New neighbours have prompted me to spend more time practicing through headphones.

 

The DT 990 Pros are 250 ohm impedance – the D800 manual notes that the headphone output will drive headphones between 8 – 32 ohms.

 

Has anyone here paired these headphones directly with the D800?

 

Is there anything I can do / add to maximise the sound quality if the DT 990 impedance is too high?

 

Should I be looking for alternative cans?

[BassmanPaul]

Let's ask the man himself: @agedhorse

 

 

[fretmeister]

If the amp will only drive up to 32ohm cans, then the lovely DT990 set will be extremely quiet to use. Quite possibly to the point of not worth bothering at all.

 

8-32ohms really is at the cheap end of the headphone market for over-ear cans as that is usually what is used for smart phones / ipods etc. They just don't have the power to drive high impedance cans for long.

 

If you like the DT990 then Amazon currently have the 32ohm version at £139

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0024NK344/?coliid=I2WKA13PUS20DR&colid=36GAI3AM1AYTJ&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

 

 

I understand why Mesa have done it - almost everybody has a cheap set of headphones about whereas not everybody has a set of 80-600 ohm cans, but it would have been nice if the headphone amp in the head could at least deal with 80ohms.

 

The other option is to get an external headphone amp to sit between the amp head and your cans. But that's a faff.

[Dan Dare]

I use a mixing desk for headphone practice. It works well and you can route tracks through it to play along with and mix/balance the whole lot to your liking. Rather than buy new cans, a small, cheap (you don't need dozens of channels, etc) used mixer may be a good idea and will probably cost less than new cans that are as good as your Beyers. If you already have one, job done.

[Bassfingers]

Cheers Dan - I hadn't thought of that work around.  👍

[agedhorse]

5 hours ago, BassmanPaul said:

Let's ask the man himself: @agedhorse

 

 

Yes, the amp will drive 250 ohm headphones without any difficulty, but the vast majority of players use lower impedance phones and by far the greatest number of questions (and issues) is with the lower impedance phones. To refresh my memory, I checked the top 30 selling headphones and ~90% were 60 ohms and less. There were just a couple over 100 ohms.

 

Just beware that there are quite a few high impedance phones that do not get as loud at low frequencies, the headphone out will drive some of them beyond their capability without them getting as loud as players expect.

[agedhorse]

Just now, agedhorse said:

Yes, the amp will drive 250 ohm headphones without any difficulty, but the vast majority of players use lower impedance phones and by far the greatest number of questions (and issues) is with the lower impedance phones. To refresh my memory, I checked the top 30 selling headphones and ~90% were 60 ohms and less. There were just a couple over 100 ohms.

 

Just beware that in general, high impedance phones that do not get as loud at low frequencies The amp's headphone output can drive them beyond their capability without them getting as loud as players expect.

 

[Bassfingers]

Thank you for the reassurance @agedhorse - much appreciated. 👍🏼 

[fretmeister]

@agedhorse Why does the manual say 8-32 ohms then?

 

That might cause people to spend money when they don't have to. (Unless Mesa are going to start making headphones!   )

[agedhorse]

2 hours ago, fretmeister said:

@agedhorse Why does the manual say 8-32 ohms then?

 

That might cause people to spend money when they don't have to. (Unless Mesa are going to start making headphones!   )

Because the vast majority of players are concerned with the ability to drive the lower impedance phones, something many headphone amps can not do well. We will look at updating the manuals at the next revision cycle to change this to include higher impedance phones too. 
 

I had to design a headphone amp for another product (guitar related) recently and the big issue was to be sure the new headphone amp could drive low impedance phones because more and more are going this direction. Many modern digital devices have limited voltage swing therefore can’t drive high impedance phones to more than a low volume. 

[RhythmJunky]

I recently bought a pair of DT770 Pros (also 250 ohm) and have had a pair of DT880 (600 ohms) for many years. I bought the 770's as I wanted something with better noise isolation than the 880's for practice. There's nothing more annoying than having the theme to Coronation Street bleed through when your concentrating on learning a new song.....

 

They also both use the same drivers as the 990's (at equivalent impedances).

 

In general they can be a bit low if driven by something that's battery powered like an mp3 player, but are fine with anything that's mains powered (provided you're not looking for immediate and irreparable hearing damage volume levels). 

 

The entire high impedance means low volume thing, is a bit misleading as its actually the sensitivity that's important, but higher impedance headphones need a higher voltage to drive them than lower impedance ones. That's why it's become a bit of an issue with smaller battery powered devices. (Just like agedhorse said). 

 

My favourite amp to drive the 880's is a diy valve amp that i made a few years ago and which can deliver higher voltages, but that's just headphone geekery and I'm probably biased...

 

[BassmanPaul]

OH NO!! Not Coronation Street!!!

 

Sometimes when I'm busy I'll find myself whistling that theme and my Wife will ask why I'm whistling the theme from Coronation Street!  I hated the show. :😩

[Dan Dare]

32 minutes ago, BassmanPaul said:

Sometimes when I'm busy I'll find myself whistling that theme and my Wife will ask why I'm whistling the theme from Coronation Street!

 

It's even more embarrassing when you're caught whistling one of those earworms from a TV advert.