Headphone amplifier or not?

[imral3]

My Scosche headphones have the following specs:
Impedance: 32ohm
Sensitivity: 105db 1mW
Power rating: 20mW min - 40mW max

Unfortunately, I do not know what the headphone output is on my Pioneer receiver (model in signature) but from the research I've done it sounds like a quality, dedicated headphone amplifier would overpower my current headphones. Is this assumption correct?

 

[cratz2]

Those do not appear to be difficult to drive.

I'd stick to the receiver until I was ready to upgrade the phones themselves.

 

[WobblySam]

cratz is right, you certainly don't lack drive power for those phones. I would try to find out about the output impedance of your receiver's headphone jack. If it's more than 2 or 3 Ohms, it will most likely color the sound with those phones due to frequency response perturbations. Then again, if you like the way the phones sound, don't worry about it.

 

[imral3]

cratz is right, you certainly don't lack drive power for those phones. I would try to find out about the output impedance of your receiver's headphone jack. If it's more than 2 or 3 Ohms, it will most likely color the sound with those phones due to frequency response perturbations. Then again, if you like the way the phones sound, don't worry about it.

I've been trying to locate this info, but can't as of yet.

 

[KG_Jag]

If you’re looking for headphones to use with a portable player or laptop, stick to the range of 16 – 32 Ohms with a sensitivity (efficiency) rating of at least 100 dB/mW. There are some higher impedance headphones, up to 80 Ohms or so, that are efficient enough to work well with at least some portable gear—especially if you don’t like it very loud. But, in general, the lower the impedance the better the match with battery powered devices.

So--you don't need a headphone amp. Your non-vintage receiver (as well as a battery driven low powered device) has enough power to drive it. Whether it will sound good with you receiver is a bit of crap shoot. For many decades the headphone sections of receivers have been the target of cost cutters. In addition it may or may not play well with 32 Ohm cans.

 

[keilau]

If you’re looking for headphones to use with a portable player or laptop, stick to the range of 16 – 32 Ohms with a sensitivity (efficiency) rating of at least 100 dB/mW. There are some higher impedance headphones, up to 80 Ohms or so, that are efficient enough to work well with at least some portable gear—especially if you don’t like it very loud. But, in general, the lower the impedance the better the match with battery powered devices.

So--you don't need a headphone amp. Your non-vintage receiver (as well as a battery driven low powered device) has enough power to drive it. Whether it will sound good with you receiver is a bit of crap shoot. For many decades the headphone sections of receivers have been the target of cost cutters. In addition it may or may not play well with 32 Ohm cans.

For as long as I can remember, the consumer market receiver had ditch the headphone amplifier but not the headphone jack. The headphone jack was connected to the power amplifier output through a pair of padded down resistors of a few hundred ohms. It has plenty of power to drive any headphone, but destroy the transient response and the sound stage of the headphone.

 

[keilau]

My Scosche headphones have the following specs:
Impedance: 32ohm
Sensitivity: 105db 1mW
Power rating: 20mW min - 40mW max

Unfortunately, I do not know what the headphone output is on my Pioneer receiver (model in signature) but from the research I've done it sounds like a quality, dedicated headphone amplifier would overpower my current headphones. Is this assumption correct?

Your Scosche headphone is so efficient that it should work with any headphone drive, including plugin to smart phone directly. The headphone jack of a receiver usually has several hundred ohms of resistance ahead of it as a voltage divider. You phone receives only a small fraction of the power. It should be safe to use, but the sound quality is another question.

 

[keilau]

My Scosche headphones have the following specs:
Impedance: 32ohm
Sensitivity: 105db 1mW
Power rating: 20mW min - 40mW max

Unfortunately, I do not know what the headphone output is on my Pioneer receiver (model in signature) but from the research I've done it sounds like a quality, dedicated headphone amplifier would overpower my current headphones. Is this assumption correct?

The Pioneer VSX-D457 receiver has a pair of NJM4558D IC chips (according to the parts list) which are popular with Japanese manufacturer for headphone amplifier in their upper mid range product in the 1990's. It is moderate in output power, but should work much better than the pad down resistor in most other receivers. Your phone has very high sensitivity. The Pioneer VSX-D457 headphone jack may just be the very good match for it. If you like the sound, you are all set. But there may be room for improvement in the headphone itself.

I cannot find a schematic of the Pioneer VSX-D457. My comment above is half guess, but likely to be true about the NJM4558D IC.