New to headphone amps --- I'm wondering .....


I recently got my first pair of decent headphones, AKG 545s, which I bought to use both at home on my main system and outside with my ipod for hiking etc. Since my pre-amp at home doesn't have a headphone out, I connect to my system via the tape out. I get pretty nice detailed sound at a decent volume that way, but have read that virtually everyone believes that a dedicated headphone amp improves sound quality. So I'm considering that, maybe in the $300 - 600 range. But I'm wondering how an amp at that price point could outdo or even sound as good as my main rig (Linn Exotic and 2500, with Renew DS) given the massive difference in price (amp pre-amp together list for around 7k). Is there something about headphone amps that I'm missing?

And if a headphone amp would help in my case, any recommendations for something that would work well with AKG 545s (very similar to 550s) with my home system?

Thanks .....
128x128tpy
Mechans, as Mulveling indicated my calculations are consistent with the published specs, shown near the bottom of this page. As he points out, though, it certainly seems possible that the max power handling number reflects how much power the headphones are rated to handle continuously, and that they may be able to handle considerably more on brief musical peaks. And/or perhaps that spec is very conservative, and has a lot of margin built into it.

Either way, though, the relation I described between power requirements for the phones and for the typical speakers I described remains valid, assuming the sensitivity and impedance specs are accurate.

FYI, the derivation of the 99 db figure is as follows:

The sensitivity spec for the phones is 97 db/V, which means that 1 volt in results in a 97 db SPL. Impedance is 32 ohms. 1 volt into a 32 ohm resistive load corresponds to 31.25 milliwatts (mw), based on (Vsquared/R). The 50 mw maximum power spec is approximately 2 db greater than 31.25 (based on 10 x log(50/31.25)). 97 db + 2 db = 99 db.

Regards,
-- Al
Hmmm, I just noticed that per this spec sheet the 97 db/V sensitivity spec shown at the AKG website is incorrect, big-time!

Per the spec sheet, the figure is 97 db/1mw, which seems a lot more sensible. So 99 db would be produced in response to an input of 1.585 mw, not 50 mw (10 x log(1.585/1) = 2 db).

So the speakers I described would require 40/0.001585 = 25237 times as much power to produce the same 99 db SPL at a 10 foot listening distance. And the 50 mw maximum power rating of the headphones would correspond to an SPL of 114 db.

Regards,
-- Al
Interesting but you guys are a bit over my head. What does this suggest would be the right amp -- or type of amp -- to match the AKG 545s. My budget is around $300 give or take a bit. Reading the forums at hed fi left me a bit overwhelmed with options. Are you guys suggesting that these are esp difficult headphones to drive? They don't seem to require much power. What do y'all recommend?

Thanks ...