One can also add to a circuit to make more current available when
in reality it won’t be used.
Each active addition to a circuit is one step further away from the
purity of the source.
My design philosophy is to use minimum active circuitry in the
signal path to bring the headphone to a respectable volume and
command that headphone dynamically to be as transparent to the
source as is possible.
There is a reason a power amplifier makes a poor headphone amp.
You don’t put a dragster engine in a Porsche.
Some notes:
Headphone Imbalance vs. Volume Position.
I challenge anybody out there that says they can perceive an l/R
imbalance of less than 1dB. Yes, it’s nice when you can find a sim-
ple analog carbon pot that tracks closer than 1dB top to bottom in
the whole logarithmic scale, but if you find one that has 30 steps
within 1dB you’re doing great. The monotor pot is not a discrete
stepped attenuator, but it tracks pretty damn well for what it is.
Of course, you can use an IC based potentiometer that can track
perfectly, but then you just added another active step further from
transparency. Oh and regarding steps, how many more than 30 is
necessary?
How much power is necessary for driving a headphone?
I am using daily both the HD600 Sennheiser 300 ohms and an Au-
deze LCD-X 20 ohms and both work wonderfully with the mono-
tor, and certainly without distortion at very loud volume.
Those two phones are the two most popular used by professionals
paired with the monotor.
I listen to all genres of music and not once did I notice distortion
even at dangerously high volumes. Now I’m not familiar with the
Hifiman HE-400i, but I’ll take the reviewer at his word that the
monotor distorted before the HE-400i did.
But, and this is very important, the casual reader of this review
would most likely overlook this. This HE-400i is a rare case, a new
breed of headphone that is very low sensitivity, and also low im-
pedance (FYI low impedance phones are typically very sensitive).
Summary of Contents for MONOTOR
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