Impedance Converter for Headphones

[currly30]

Would it be wise to buy an impedance converter to try out Ortho/dynamic headphones on the Kaiju with the DC upgrades?

would something like this be a wise purchase?

https://www.linsoul.com/products/goldplanar-gfi1200p-ic

[Paul Birkeland]

Would it be wise to buy an impedance converter to try out Ortho/dynamic headphones on the Kaiju with the DC upgrades?

I'd post the specs and/or model you're interested in using, you may be able to go straight out of the Kaiju.

would something like this be a wise purchase?

https://www.linsoul.com/products/goldplanar-gfi1200p-ic

I would not buy that without seeing the inside.  There's not a lot of room in that box for a pair of transformers, and there are no specs to tell you what the ratio is between the speaker jacks and headphone jack.  I would be willing to bet a few dollars that there are either 4 or 8 resistors inside that box and not much more.  You could realistically implement the same setup in your Kaiju and just mount the resistors to the wood inside the base and drill a hole on the front for your headphone output, though really it's quite likely that you can just connect to the speaker jacks. 

-PB

[currly30]

I'd post the specs and/or model you're interested in using, you may be able to go straight out of the Kaiju.I would not buy that without seeing the inside.  There's not a lot of room in that box for a pair of transformers, and there are no specs to tell you what the ratio is between the speaker jacks and headphone jack.  I would be willing to bet a few dollars that there are either 4 or 8 resistors inside that box and not much more.  You could realistically implement the same setup in your Kaiju and just mount the resistors to the wood inside the base and drill a hole on the front for your headphone output, though really it's quite likely that you can just connect to the speaker jacks. 

Yeah, one of my major concerns with that unit was there is no information on whats in it.

My main headphones are the Final Audio D8000 Pro, Kennerton Rognir, JM Audio XTC2 300ohm, and ZMF Aeolus.

That is an interesting idea. Where would I find how to build a 8 ohm resistor? I don't know much beyond being able to follow directions.

[Paul Birkeland]

I would just try all of those directly out of the amp as-is. 

Typically what you'd do for a high power amp to make it suitable for headphone use is to use something like an 8 ohm resistor in series with a 1 ohm resistor with the 1 ohm resistor connected to ground and the 8 ohm resistor connected to speaker +.  The headphone output is taken across the 1 ohm resistor.  This pads down the output of the amp and reduces gain in a way that's suitable for driving headphones off an amp that's just way too powerful to otherwise do so.  This will also reduce the noise floor a bit as well, but may decrease damping a bit.

The Kaiju is neither a high power amplifier nor particularly high gain.  If you set it for 4 ohm speakers, then you probably aren't going to want any reduction for high impedance headphones, and ultimately the more power hungry headphones may want the full output of the 8 ohm winding configurations.

[currly30]

I would just try all of those directly out of the amp as-is. 

Typically what you'd do for a high power amp to make it suitable for headphone use is to use something like an 8 ohm resistor in series with a 1 ohm resistor with the 1 ohm resistor connected to ground and the 8 ohm resistor connected to speaker +.  The headphone output is taken across the 1 ohm resistor.  This pads down the output of the amp and reduces gain in a way that's suitable for driving headphones off an amp that's just way too powerful to otherwise do so.  This will also reduce the noise floor a bit as well, but may decrease damping a bit.

The Kaiju is neither a high power amplifier nor particularly high gain.  If you set it for 4 ohm speakers, then you probably aren't going to want any reduction for high impedance headphones, and ultimately the more power hungry headphones may want the full output of the 8 ohm winding configurations.

Thank you for the information! I currently have the amp set up for 8ohm speakers. I will have to build a cable to try out my headphones on the amp.