Headphone amp/audio interface advice.

[calum666]

Hi everyone, I'm just looking for a bit advice. I have a set of Sellout Dynamic DT 770 Pro headphones. I have the 80ohm version. I should have bought the 32ohm when I got them but that was over a year ago. They are amazing headphones but I just can't crank them up when I want to. I was running them straight out my MacBook and the volume is fine when listening to finished mastered tracks but when I am producing in Ableton they lack the volume. I decided to buy the Behringer MicroAMP MA400 Headphone Amplifier but it has not really done anything in terms of boost the volume of the headphones.

I have been trying to decide whether to go for another amplifier or go for an audio interface. I'm guessing an audio interface will have some kind of built in amp?

I have been looking at the M-Audio M-Track 2X2 USB Audio Interface and the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 USB Audio interface, 2nd Gen.

Would appreciate any advice on this. I am looking to buy soon as I have a 3 month posting the the Falkland Islands coming up soon which means lots of production time

[dippy egg]

I have a pair of AKG K701 which are around 60ohms. When I used them with my old Scarlett 18i20 and gain staging appropriately (-18 to -12 for each channel) I found that the interface introduced a lot of noise from the headphone output that was pretty intrusive when getting the level high enough to mix with. This was the 1st gen and I don't know if this has been improved on the 2nd gen.

I changed to an Audient iD22 interface and there is very little/almost no noise when cranking the headphone output level to get it loud enough but I need to push it to around 75-80% volume to get a reasonable level when producing. The iD14 may be worth looking at if you don't need much i/o and can be had for around £100ish used.

I think there are a couple of threads about headphone amps on this forum that you could search for that may help you out.

[calum666]

I've been looking around the net for a good while for information on this. Might just bite the bullet and get some new Headphones

[Lost to the Void]

Soundcards don't usually have the best of headphone amps, a dedicated one is never a bad idea.

I use a Project Headbox S to drive my 701s and my ER4XRs

It's not the best, definitely not the worst, but hits a good target of relative affordability, clarity, power and build quality. Whilst I have a better driver up in my mastering room, down in the production room I use it all the time as I compose in headphones at night.
I noticed an improvement in overall dynamic and clarity when I started using it and it has served me well for years.

https://www.superfi.co.uk/p-2468-projec ... ifier.aspx

But either way a dedicated headphone amp is a good idea of you use cans a lot.