HELP Please! Headphone issues with Harmon Kardon AVR5500

[Whiting442]

Hi,

I'm a newbie to all this so apologies if this is too basic, but really need help with an issue I'm having regarding a new pair of headphones I bought and my Harman/Kardon amp. I bought a pair of Monster Inspiration headphones yesterday that sound great when plugged into my phone but when I plug them into my amp have to turn the volume up to almost full! With out the headphones plugged in the amp is usually set at around -30dB playing something on my turntable as is well loud enough, but when I plug in the headphones I have to turn it up to -15dB to get it at a medium volume but has an obvious degeneration in sound. Trawled all over the web to get an answer but most posts are regarding issues with headphones plugged into a laptop etc.

I've tried the headphones using the 6mm adapter in my bass amp and they sound as good as they do in my phone which I think rules out the adapter?

Any ideas?

setup is:

Project Turntable

Maplin £15 Phono pre-amp

Harman/Kardon AVR5500 Amp

Monster Inspiration Headphones

(cheap Maplin 6mm adapter)

Thanks

 

[nopiano]

Welcome to the madness! I am not intimate with your gear but unless turning up the volume is causing distortion then I'd not worry. I suspect your cheap phono amp has too little gain or your phones need more driving than the amp offers. It is v unlikely to be the adaptor.

aV amps are not really made for phones, it us just handy to check it works. Unless you can change the cans for more sensitive ones I'd suggest getting a dedicated headphone amp to drive off your line outputs. However, are you using noise cancellationas I read in the WHF review that it worsens the sound.