AKG K702 headphones amplifier

[davepinhas]

hello people,
Recently my Shure srh940 broke and I've started to look up some new headphones to mix and master with in my home studio.
I've decided to go with the AKG k702 but I saw that a lot of people said they need a good amplifier with them to really use them to they're full potential.
So I started to look up some amps and found the Matrix M-Stage, Schiit Asgard, HiFiMAN EF-5 and others and then i saw that they need a DAC to connect to my PC which i'm using to make music, and some people said just upgrade your audio interface instead of investing in an amp and a DAC.
i saw somewhere that we need to have a mixer to connect the amp and audio interface, so i got lost and i don't know what i need to get and how i need to connect everything.
Do i need only the amplifier and should i try to connect it to my audio interface?
Should i get an amplifier and a DAC as well?
Does the amplifier and DAC replace my audio interface or should i get all three of them together?
Do i need a mixer to connect everything up?


I'm really lost here and i would appreciate some guidance with explaining those fundamental things before i make such a big purchase.


thanks in advance and sorry for my English.


Dave.

 

[krushing]

Do i need only the amplifier and should i try to connect it to my audio interface?
Should i get an amplifier and a DAC as well?

Practically almost every audio interface has a DAC built in - that's basically their primary purpose after all. A dedicated DAC is basically a one-way (out of the computer) audio interface.

Does the amplifier and DAC replace my audio interface or should i get all three of them together?

Yes and no - just a DAC & headphone amp is a one-way street, so you wouldn't have any inputs. If you're doing everything on the computer without any external sound sources, this can of course work just fine.

Do i need a mixer to connect everything up?

I've often seen people ask whether or not they need a mixer...when they only have a single source or output device. Do you have any signals you need to mix? No, it's just one output to the headphones. No mixer needed.

 

[davepinhas]

Thanks for the reply !
So if my audio interface has a built in DAC i just need to get just the headphones amplifier and there is no need i getting a DAC, but how do i connect it to my setup?
I use Steinberg UR22 and the Line output is connected to my Receiver which is connected to my speakers, if for example i get the Matrix M-stage how do i add the amp to this setup?
sorry for the newbie questions and thanks again !

 

[Salem Beats]

Audio Interfaces have headphone amplifiers built-in.

Why would you buy a separate headphone amp?
You'd want a separate headphone amplifier + DAC if your audio interface's built-in one sucks.

Generally,
Audio Interfaces come with pretty good ones,
and hence,
the separate headphone amplifier is usually recommended for audiophiles listening to music through the K702 on their iPods and Android phones.

-Ki
Salem Beats

 

[davepinhas]

Thank for the reply Salem.
I've noticed that with my SRH940 when i listened to music in higher volumes the sound was a bit distorted.
And you wrote "You'd want a separate headphone amplifier + DAC if your audio interface's built-in one sucks."
Is buying just the headphones amplifier and connecting it to the Audio interface VIA the LINE OUTPUT will be bad?
By the way i'm using the Steinberg UR22.

 

[Salem Beats]

Thank for the reply Salem.
I've noticed that with my SRH940 when i listened to music in higher volumes the sound was a bit distorted.
And you wrote "You'd want a separate headphone amplifier + DAC if your audio interface's built-in one sucks."
Is buying just the headphones amplifier and connecting it to the Audio interface VIA the LINE OUTPUT will be bad?
By the way i'm using the Steinberg UR22.

Let me respond in pieces:

I've noticed that with my SRH940 when i listened to music in higher volumes the sound was a bit distorted.

Occam's Razor: Don't ignore the simplest possible solution.

Is it possible that the music is,
in fact,
actually distorted?
(and listening at higher volumes with a detailed set of headphones simply made it easier to tell?)

A trained ear can hear distortion in a lot of commercially-released music.
My first experience with this was way back when Soulja Boy released "Crank Dat",
which sounded horribly distorted regardless of what system you played it back on.

Another possible reason that you might have been hearing distortion
is simply that your headphones were already "on their way out"
before breaking completely.

And you wrote "You'd want a separate headphone amplifier + DAC if your audio interface's built-in one sucks."
Is buying just the headphones amplifier and connecting it to the Audio interface VIA the LINE OUTPUT will be bad?
By the way i'm using the Steinberg UR22.

Gain staging is a bit of an art, and I'm not going to get into too much detail here or I'll get fairly sidetracked discussing my experiences with amplifier technology.
It's a bit of a moot point as I'd trust the mic preamps in your interface -- they're actually one of the main headlining bullet points in the marketing material for the device.

The K702 should sound great hooked directly into the UR22.

I'll reiterate that the separate "headphone amp"
is more suited to audiophile consumers who are planning to use the headphones with portable devices (iPod, Phone, Tablet, etc.)
that don't provide enough power to drive the large diaphragms to their potential.

-Ki
Salem Beats

 

[davepinhas]

Is it possible that the music is,
in fact,
actually distorted?
(and listening at higher volumes with a detailed set of headphones simply made it easier to tell?)

I've noticed that the music get distorted after i increase the phones gain knob more then 50% on my audio interface, and it happens with every song and every music genre that i listen to (i listen to only FLAC format as well).
Even if the song is a bit quieter then the other songs that get distorted, after i reach more then 50% with my phones volume knob it starts to get distorted as well.

 

[Salem Beats]

I've noticed that the music get distorted after i increase the phones gain knob more then 50% on my audio interface, and it happens with every song and every music genre that i listen to (i listen to only FLAC format as well).
Even if the song is a bit quieter then the other songs that get distorted, after i reach more then 50% with my phones volume knob it starts to get distorted as well.

Is every single one of your digital volume knobs turned up in your computer?
(YouTube/other players volume maxed out, System volume maxed out, etc.)

You might have a defective interface,
or this may have been an issue of your previous headphones degrading before they stopped working.

-Ki
Salem Beats

 

[davepinhas]

Is every single one of your digital volume knobs turned up in your computer?
(YouTube/other players volume maxed out, System volume maxed out, etc.)

You might have a defective interface,
or this may have been an issue of your previous headphones degrading before they stopped working.

-Ki
Salem Beats

All my knobs are maxed but even if i lower then to 75% or a bit lower and increase the gain in the volume know on my AI it still starts to get distorted a bit when i increase it to something like 60%-70% on my AI.
My headphones bow broke and it eliminated the sound isolated it had, but the headphones speakers still work perfectly fine so its not the headphones.
When i say the sound is distorted i mean the sound is just a bit distorted, its not like i listen to a 96 kbps audio file, but its distorted enough to lower the listening experience a bit.

 

[danstephens]

All my knobs are maxed but even if i lower then to 75% or a bit lower and increase the gain in the volume know on my AI it still starts to get distorted a bit when i increase it to something like 60%-70% on my AI.
My headphones bow broke and it eliminated the sound isolated it had, but the headphones speakers still work perfectly fine so its not the headphones.
When i say the sound is distorted i mean the sound is just a bit distorted, its not like i listen to a 96 kbps audio file, but its distorted enough to lower the listening experience a bit.

I have the same problem, I can put my headphones louder without distortion pluggged directly into my mac... please let me know if you have found a solution