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What's the lowest amp wattage that could drive realistically ANY production headphone? (alien.top)

submitted 1 year ago by extremity4@alien.top to c/headphones@hi-fi.community

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I see a lot of variance on people's amp recommendations for products. It seems to me like a clean 1W into 32Ω is enough to drive the majority of headphones to 120db, which is extraordinarily loud to the point of being unlistenable. Tons of middle-tier desktop amps can handle going over 5W per channel at the same impedance and some even go over 10W. Are these wattages actually useful for anything? What wattage would set you up for any headphone, regardless of budget?

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[–] eckru@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This audeze article does a better job explaining the terms and how they relate to each with regards to how much power is needed better than I ever could.

It kinda does but IMO only to a point. And that point is where they claim that your amplifier should be able to handle transients that are 50 dB louder than the average SPL.

It would mean that if you listen to music at an average SPL of 80 dB, your amplifier should be able to output enough power for peaks up to 130 dB.

Let me give you some examples of how much power would that be for some headphones (based on measurements from SoundStage Network or RAA):

~60 mW for very sensitive IEMs like KZ CRN.

~1.3 W(!) for a low sensitivity planar IEM like 7Hz Timeless.

~1 W for popular sensitive headphones like ATH M50x.

~126 W (a hundred and twenty six Watts) for one of the least sensitive headphones on the market like Hifiman HE6se.

[–] PH-GH95610@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What? A 126 W into the headphones?

[–] eckru@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

If you want to get them to 130 dB - yes. Exponential growth goes wild.