Pairing Claro+ with JVC HA-RX700

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crea78

Weaksauce
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I just recently purchased the HT Omega Claro+ and now looking to get a low priced, but great sounding headset. I don't have a headphone amp and was wondering if the Claro+ can power the JVC HA-RX700 (rated at 48ohms) with little trouble. A little down the road, I do plan to get maybe the Audio-gd Compass DAC/amp, but that's not in my budget right now.
 
Easily. Perhaps in the future, instead of going for a DAC/amp, grab a quality standalone headphone amp and upgrade to some headphones of your liking :)

Although I believe that sound card specifies it's headphone amp can drive up to 32 ohm headphones, it will still be able to drive the RX700's happily.
 
Thx for the reply. How abt the JVC HA-RX900 since I couldn't find the Ohms for that in this short period of time. I'm leaning more towards the HA-RX900 ATM but still looking at both.
 
The 900's are 64ohms, so getting a little higher in the impedance area, but still not too much of a problem. Don't think you'll have any trouble with either.
 
MisterSparkle, have you heard either one before? A guy on Head-fi is selling the JVC HA-RX700 with the modded foam pads for $30 shipped. I'm hoping this will be as comfortable as the RX900,
 
Np. If you don't mind me asking, what's your headphone budget at this point?

Then again, once that path starts to get walked down... :p
 
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I would say no more than $400 for both headphones and amp. Thing is, I had the Sennheiser HD555 but never really used them that much so I like to get the best bang for the buck.
 
Was going to suggest the ATH-AD700. Only 32 ohms so you'll be able to drive them without a headphone amp, and one of the nicest pair of headphones I've heard at it's price point ($90), and well beyond, very comfortable to boot. Only issue with them is they're on the largish side, so not the best for tiny heads :p

Amazon - AD700
 
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I had looked at the AD700, but how is the sound when paired witih music with a wide range of genres + movies?
 
Could buy an audio switcher (basically just a small box with one input, two outputs, and a switch), which will allow you to switch between headphones/speakers.

Audio Out --> Switch ---> Receiver/Headphone Amp
 
According to the manual, the Claro+ also has a 3.5mm Line In which I can then I have this cable from Monoprice to connect with a Little Dot HP amp if that would be a good route?

Audio swtich would be good as well, but right now, I'm using the front audio jack on my case to listen to my heaphones which seems to be working great. Just have to turn off the receiver so the music won't come through the speakers.
 
So the route with the LD amp + Monoprice cable would be the best to go with? The cable is HQ since I have the 10ft version to go to my receiver.
 
Yeah :)

Is the amp a future goal, with you just wanting some good value headphones for listening to until you get the funds together for the amp+suitably priced headphones?
 
I'm looking to get an amp to improve the SQ from the headphones whatever they maybe. If the JVCs are a great sounding headset (I have the Senn PX100 now), then I may have no need to get an expensive headset for awhile. I looked at the Denon AH-D2000 but a little out of my price range and not sure if I would use them hours on end like alot of ppl do. Also, I'm not use to the full-sized cans on my head so going the best bang for buck route starting off will be beneficial for me.
 
impedance is NOT the entire piece of the puzzle, please stop suggesting that its that simple

as far as this receiver you've got, its probably got a better headphone amplifier than anything you'll buy within that $400 budget, and its probably got favor with higher impedance models, due to how its output is likely designed

but I'd need to know more about the receiver in order to say that with any certainty

as far as connecting the little dot, or any other amplifier, it needs Line Out, not Line In, you cannot connect Line In to Input on the LD (or any other amp, receiver, etc) and have it work out

as far as what Claro+ can plug into, more or less anything, and its going to work, as long as you an't trying to drive the differential input of an electrostatic energizer, or a few ridiculous AKG's that are floating around out there (K1000, K340, etc come to mind), anything noted in this thread will run with no issues and sound pretty good

tell us more about this receiver, its probably more than suited to what you're hooking up to it, if thats the case, look at buying a nicer pair of headphones

also, most of the headphones I'd suggest you towards will be fairly easy to drive regardless:
Audio-Technica
Denon
Sony

crea78 said:
I'm looking to get an amp to improve the SQ from the headphones whatever they maybe. If the JVCs are a great sounding headset (I have the Senn PX100 now), then I may have no need to get an expensive headset for awhile. I looked at the Denon AH-D2000 but a little out of my price range and not sure if I would use them hours on end like alot of ppl do. Also, I'm not use to the full-sized cans on my head so going the best bang for buck route starting off will be beneficial for me.
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the amp will only "improve" SQ if the original driver has impedance mismatch (which you won't hear unless you have something to compare to, so don't worry about it), or if the specific headphones in question are terribly inefficient/need current or voltage unavailable from your existing solution, in other words, most of it is hype and myth (sorry to rain on your parade), the only case where you'd really have an issue is if the amplifier you're starting with has IMD/THD numbers in the double digits at any meaningful output, and clips into whatever load you've presented it, i.e: an HTIB receiver

other than that, the level of "extra detail extraction" or "clarity" or whatever else is going to be so minimal that it could take you months, if not years, of comparison to even note portions of the differences between something considered "Flawless" (say an Eddie Current ZD, or a Grace m902) and something far less...."posh" (for lack of a better word), like a decent receiver's HP out, especially into relatively easy loads like the JVCs (or most Japanese cans for that matter)
 
The receiver is a Pioneer VSX-1015TX which I believe is 3 years old. How would I go abt using the headphones + receiver + music/movies from my computer in conjunction with one another?
 
Also, a guy on Head-fi went from the Denon AH-D2000 to the modded JVC HA-RX700 and preferred the sound more. That's a $350 headset to a $35 one which is a big price difference for abt the same sound.
 
crea78 said:
The receiver is a Pioneer VSX-1015TX which I believe is 3 years old. How would I go abt using the headphones + receiver + music/movies from my computer in conjunction with one another?
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user manual notes that "All speaker systems (except Second Zone connections) are switched OFF when headphones are connected."

simply plug them in, and all is well

of course Pioneer is lovely enough to not list headphone output specs, although the rest of the receiver looks fairly good, so I've no reason to assume they'd totally jip you on the headphone output (its not like we're talking Sony or anything ;))

my suggestion:
grab whatever you like, be it AT or JVC, and have a go with your receiver, I doubt you come back looking for an amplifier unless you let forums/internet rants get under your skin far enough

crea78 said:
Also, a guy on Head-fi went from the Denon AH-D2000 to the modded JVC HA-RX700 and preferred the sound more. That's a $350 headset to a $35 one which is a big price difference for abt the same sound.
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theres also a guy on head-fi who insists that wrapping his power cords in paper improves the bass response of his headphones
another guy who says that a $600 USB cable will improve midrange harmonics
other people who punch holes through their Grado drivers to "lighten them up"
and so on and so on

don't believe everything you read, especially from a polarized source
I would not suggest you start going down the road of "this sounds better than that" and "this is better than that", audio equipment can't be rated like that, it isn't a graphics card which has empircal benchmarks to test its performance, so please just leave that notion at the door

aside from ALL OF THAT:
price means next to dick regarding audio components, unless you're a snob, because of things like the law of diminshing returns and general "luxury item mark-up", not to mention a number of "audiophile exclusive" vendors are just trying to push Veblen goods, because theres sadly no end of people who will spend $250,000 on a power cable, a million plus on speakers, and so on and so on, the actual improvements wrought by this kind of equipment is debatable, it surely isn't in the specs or anything else modern science can defend though ;)
 
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I guess I'll go the receiver route as a HP amp. With my current setup, will it be possible to listen to music and videos on my computer even though the headphones are connected into the receiver?
 
So what would be a good headset to get that is less than $200 playing a variety of music and movies?
 
crea78 said:
I guess I'll go the receiver route as a HP amp. With my current setup, will it be possible to listen to music and videos on my computer even though the headphones are connected into the receiver?
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I'm not sure what you're asking?

I'm assuming your connection looks something like this:

Claro+ -> [something (be it analog or S/PDIF] -> VSX-1015 -> speakers

if you connect your headphones to the 1015's headphone jack, it will mute its speakers, and just the headphones will play, so whatever its selected to (FM tuner, whatever input the PC is using, and so on) is what you get on headphones

when the headphones are disconnected, the speakers will play again

does that answer your question? (hopefully, or did I miss it by a mile?)

crea78 said:
So what would be a good headset to get that is less than $200 playing a variety of music and movies?
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well, I would've said Denon AH-D2000, as they were down to ~$200 for a decent strech, but they're back to around $250-$300 depending on which retailer you go with, and they're also showing up out of stock more often than not

so, if those are out of the question, let us turn to other brands

now, take my suggestions with a grain of salt, mostly because, I don't have your ears, so I can't tell you what you like

I would suggest the JVC's you were originally looking at, its only ~$30-$40, and great sound quality for the price, nothing at all wrong with that
I would also suggest a look at Audio-Technica, either the AD700 (open, larger soundstage, less bass) or A500/A700 (Closed, narrower soundstage, more bass)
Sennheiser HD-595 seems to be popular these days as well, I found them a bit cold sounding, but not bad as an allrounder
M-Audio Q40's, again a decent allrounder, fairly comfortable from what I remember, bit dorky styling, price is a bit high at ~$140, other than that, not terrible
 
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Yeah, that pretty much covers it. I guess now I need to find a good set of headphones. Probably go with the JVCs first, then move up to something better down the road.
 
obobski, since your pretty well educated in all this, how well does an upgraded cable improve on sound. I've been looking at the website: Moon-Audio which is very close to my house. Is it really worth paying up to $200 more for an upgraded cable??
 
crea78 said:
obobski, since your pretty well educated in all this, how well does an upgraded cable improve on sound. I've been looking at the website: Moon-Audio which is very close to my house. Is it really worth paying up to $200 more for an upgraded cable??
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to some people, yes

scientifically/rationally, no

copper is copper is copper is copper from now until the end of eternity,
so unless you're creating a microrprocessor, arguing 7N vs 9N and so on doesn't really matter, the cable that comes with the headphones meets their requirements (i.e: is large enough gauge), beyond that, not much else you can do/gain with an upgraded cable

personally I wouldn't bother with it
 
Thx for both of your help!! I've decided to go with the Audio-Technica ATH-AD700.
 
They're a little on the large side, so I hope your head isn't too small :p However, their wing system allows for easy adjustment for any head size, and even with my relatively small head they fit comfortably. Most comfortable headphones I've worn though.
 
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