Need help finding a good amp for the Beyerdynamic dt 770 pro 250 ohm headphones.

W

Wiznic

Audiophyte
I bought the Beyerdynamic dt 770 pro 250 ohm. Now i need to buy an amp to power it since the soundcard on my desktop computer is not powerful enough. Any recommendations? Preferably something under 100 dollars. I'm gonna be using the headphones for producing music. The soundcard I have right now is the Realtek ALC892 if that's any help.

Btw, I don't know anything about amps which has made it pretty hard to find a good amp. So, feel free to explain like I'm 5 years old lol.
 
j_garcia

j_garcia

Audioholic Jedi
It isn't necessary to post the same thing in multiple forums, as new post will show up in the "new posts" view regardless of forum. Headphones is probably the correct place for this one.
 
Trell

Trell

Audioholic Spartan
I bought the Beyerdynamic dt 770 pro 250 ohm. Now i need to buy an amp to power it since the soundcard on my desktop computer is not powerful enough. Any recommendations? Preferably something under 100 dollars. I'm gonna be using the headphones for producing music. The soundcard I have right now is the Realtek ALC892 if that's any help.

Btw, I don't know anything about amps which has made it pretty hard to find a good amp. So, feel free to explain like I'm 5 years old lol.
You produce music so what are your requirements? Do you need a mic preamp? Line input for, say for a guitar? MIDI for an electric piano?

Other inputs, like ADAT or SPDIF?

Or just a desktop DAC/headphone amplifier connected using USB?
 
Trell

Trell

Audioholic Spartan
It isn't necessary to post the same thing in multiple forums, as new post will show up in the "new posts" view regardless of forum. Headphones is probably the correct place for this one.
We can just as well continue here since we are posting in this thread.
 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
I bought the Beyerdynamic dt 770 pro 250 ohm. Now i need to buy an amp to power it since the soundcard on my desktop computer is not powerful enough. Any recommendations? Preferably something under 100 dollars. I'm gonna be using the headphones for producing music. The soundcard I have right now is the Realtek ALC892 if that's any help.

Btw, I don't know anything about amps which has made it pretty hard to find a good amp. So, feel free to explain like I'm 5 years old lol.
If you are producing music, then you need a pro external DAC. That will have enough power to drive pro 250 Ohm phones. It is a bad idea to use a soundcard in a computer. That sound card is a domestic product and not pro, and it will also give a boat load of DRM issues.

You need a pro external DAC and not an amp.
 
BoredSysAdmin

BoredSysAdmin

Audioholic Slumlord
I have a bigger version (UMC404HD for balanced outputs) of this USB audio interface (it's both USB DAC/ADC and a headphone amp)
It does require a driver install but supports 24/192 just fine, and no issues powering up any headphones I have, currently using Senn's HD600, which are 300 ohms rated.
I got mine on eBay for $80 4 years ago.
 
Last edited:
W

Wiznic

Audiophyte
You produce music so what are your requirements? Do you need a mic preamp? Line input for, say for a guitar? MIDI for an electric piano?

Other inputs, like ADAT or SPDIF?

Or just a desktop DAC/headphone amplifier connected using USB?
I just need a desktop dac/amp connected using usb. Yes. I just need to be able to connect my headphones to my computer and hear them clearly. Since without an amp/dac I can barely hear anything and the sound quality is horrible.
 
W

Wiznic

Audiophyte
It isn't necessary to post the same thing in multiple forums, as new post will show up in the "new posts" view regardless of forum. Headphones is probably the correct place for this one.
Yeah, sorry. I literally just made my account on here today since I didn't get much help on reddit.
 
BoredSysAdmin

BoredSysAdmin

Audioholic Slumlord
I just need a desktop dac/amp connected using usb. Yes. I just need to be able to connect my headphones to my computer and hear them clearly. Since without an amp/dac I can barely hear anything and the sound quality is horrible.
Did you see my other post above?
 
W

Wiznic

Audiophyte
Did you see my other post above?
Yes. It sounds like it's good and it's in my budget. I'm just wondering why there are so many knobs on this one while I've seen other amp and dac combos like the Schiit Fulla E that's a lot smaller and just has a gain knob. What's all that for? Am I paying for a bunch of features that I'm not going to use? Also what's an adc? Looked it up on google and it says it's a anolog to digital converter. So a dac but in reverse? lol. Again, I'm completely clueless when it comes to this sort of stuff.
 
Trell

Trell

Audioholic Spartan
I just need a desktop dac/amp connected using usb. Yes. I just need to be able to connect my headphones to my computer and hear them clearly. Since without an amp/dac I can barely hear anything and the sound quality is horrible.
How loud do you want to listen to your headphones? That is important to figure out and in the end only you can do this.

Buying from a seller with a good return policy lets you test at home.

Your headphones are not that difficult to play very loud (I’ve the dt880 Edition 250 Ohm that is similar for loudness). Headphone output into around 20 mw for 300 Ohm worked very well for me for most of my listening unless the source was quiet or very dynamic, or I wanted to listen loud. For me around 100 mw was more than good enough and that is ca 6 dB louder where 10 dB louder is considered as twice as loud perceptually. A doubling of power gives you 3 dB more loudness.

There are a number of excellent DAC/headphone amp combos that have 100 mw into 300 Ohm but they cost more than $100 and more around $200, but far cheaper than an audio interface.

For this I recommend going to audiosciencereview where many of those devices are measured along with user experience.


List of reviews where electronics is found:

 
Trell

Trell

Audioholic Spartan
Yes. It sounds like it's good and it's in my budget. I'm just wondering why there are so many knobs on this one while I've seen other amp and dac combos like the Schiit Fulla E that's a lot smaller and just has a gain knob. What's all that for? Am I paying for a bunch of features that I'm not going to use? Also what's an adc? Looked it up on google and it says it's a anolog to digital converter. So a dac but in reverse? lol. Again, I'm completely clueless when it comes to this sort of stuff.
It’s an audio interface for recording where you connect microphones and instruments, thus more inputs as well as knobs. This is what I asked you in my first reply.

If you don’t need that a DAC/headphone amp at a comparable price will give you much more power for your headphones, if you need/want that.
 
BoredSysAdmin

BoredSysAdmin

Audioholic Slumlord
Yes. It sounds like it's good and it's in my budget. I'm just wondering why there are so many knobs on this one while I've seen other amp and dac combos like the Schiit Fulla E that's a lot smaller and just has a gain knob. What's all that for? Am I paying for a bunch of features that I'm not going to use? Also what's an adc? Looked it up on google and it says it's a anolog to digital converter. So a dac but in reverse? lol. Again, I'm completely clueless when it comes to this sort of stuff.
You could safely ignore the extra controls. I do. If you decide to connect speakers AND headphones, you'd find that Behringer has separate volume controls for both.
I am hesitant to buy products from a company that ironically names itself similar to feces.
Amir at ASR forums does in-depth reviews and measurements, but how much of these measurements are auditable is another question.
If you want a device that both measures well and is excellent for high-impedance headphones while staying near your budget in the current (lots of shortages/high prices) market, you may have to chart to waters of bay of the E
like this device:
ASR Review:
 
Trell

Trell

Audioholic Spartan
Amir at ASR forums does in-depth reviews and measurements, but how much of these measurements are auditable is another question.
Indeed, but given all else equal I’ll take the most performant one.

What Amir, and others, shows with their measurements is that many excellently performing devices can be bought quite inexpensively while there are dumpster fires like recent review of a $6000 upsampler from CHORD that at best does no harm.
 
djtetei

djtetei

Audiophyte
A very useful tool for what you said you do (producing music) would be a high quality studio monitor controller with built-in headphone amplifier, which offers you the ability to switch between small / big monitors.
 
jinjuku

jinjuku

Moderator
I have the Hidizs S9Pro. It's a $109 portable USB 3 HP DAC/AMP. Drives my Planar HifiMan HE4XX just fine.
 

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