Nighthawk headphones L PAD

[joralieu]

I am using audioquest nighthawk headphones with the sex 3.0 amp, they are plenty loud about 7 o'clock on the volume knob. I would like to build an adaptor with resistors to get more range out of the volume control. What value and power rating resistors do I need to do this? Hopefully something small enough to fit inside a swithcraft headphone plug.
Thanks
Joe

[Paul Birkeland]

You can pad down the pot with four resistors, and that is described in #3 here: https://forum.bottlehead.com/index.php?topic=4295.0

To pad down the output, I would use a box with cables coming out that can go to the speaker jacks.  I would start with an 8 ohm 5W resistor in series with a 1 ohm 1/2W resistor, or if you are setup on the 4 ohm configuration (if you're not, start with this!), then you could try a 4 ohm 5W resistor in series with a 0.47 ohm 1/2W resistor.

[joralieu]

Is there a way to pad down the output on the headphone side of of the jack? I like where I am at on the speaker side (Omega Sams). I would like to have a similar volume range when when I switch between the Nighthawk's and the Omega's.
Thanks
Joe

[Paul Birkeland]

You can build an adapter box that plugs into the headphone jack.

[scblock]

I have used an iFi IEMatch to good effect with the S.E.X. and sensitive headphones. It's marketed for using IEMs with powerful amps but works fine with full size headphones as well. I prefer the sound without, but have a few pairs of phones it really helps with.

[onelivewire]

Seconding scblock's comment - the IEMatch has worked well for me to get high-sesitivity IEMs/headphones running with the SEX

[joralieu]

The picture in the FAQ about L pad is of the Crack amp. Would the SEX amp be any different?

[Paul Birkeland]

The picture in the FAQ about L pad is of the Crack amp. Would the SEX amp be any different?

to just get more range out of the pot, that same setup will work on the SEX amp.

If you want to both lower the output and lower the noise floor, then you'd need to pad the output.

[joralieu]

Okay, these are 2 different things?  Pad down the pot and pad down the output? I think I need to pad down the pot as I don't have much volume range with my speakers either (Omega Sam's)? What value resistors should I use. The amp is wired for 4ohms.

[Paul Birkeland]

Oh yeah, if you have speakers you want to pad down the pot.  You can do exactly what's done in the Crack FAQ drawing with 33K and 75K resistors.  There's a lot of leeway in those values too if you happen to have two pairs of resistors floating around that are close to those values.

[joralieu]

So 75k and 33k 1/4 watt? I have those on hand.

[Paul Birkeland]

Sure, 1/4W will work.