headphones sound rubbish

[Craig M.]

hi, i've got some sennheiser hd 465 headphones and plugged into my roksan kandy amp they sound terrible - dull and lifeless. is it the headphones or the socket on the amp? if its the headphones any recommendations for around £60? mainly listen to floyd and the doors, and stuff like that on them. if the cable isn't long enough would there be any sound degradation using an extension cable?

 

[Anonymous]

Grado SR-60, fantastic headphones, they look very retro and to me weren't the most comfortable I owned, but gosh they sounded amazing. They sound great on just about anything, but really excell at rock music.

 

[peanutfrenzy]

Built-in headphone amps are usually an after thought - a simple op-amp circuit barely suitable for driving any kind of loudspeaker, even the tiny ones found in headphones. According to the Sennheiser website, your HD465s are 32 ohm, which makes them fairly hard to drive and might explain why your headphone/amp combination sounds poor. Grado headphones are excellent but are also 32 ohm so, if your amp is to blame, a set of SR-60s probably won't help. I'd recommend trying to find a dealer who will let you borrow a different pair of headphones and a separate headphone amp (you'll probably find the Pro-ject Head-Box fits into your £60 budget) and try each individually, and then buy whichever makes the most difference. Or, if you can find a dealer with a Kandy on display, try the same experiment in the shop.

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="Craig M."]
hi, i've got some sennheiser hd 465 headphones and plugged into my roksan kandy amp they sound terrible - dull and lifeless. is it the headphones or the socket on the amp? if its the headphones any recommendations for around £60? mainly listen to floyd and the doors, and stuff like that on them. if the cable isn't long enough would there be any sound degradation using an extension cable?

[/quote]The amp is to blame- try a separate headphone amplifier.