• Registered: 2015-04-02
  • Posts: 6

Topic: Do I need headphone amp for AIO with AKG K712 Pro?

Hey guys,

first post from me in this forum and this maybe a bit like a super newbie question but I am a bit confused after research on the Internet.

I have a RME HDSPe AIO with analog breakout cable and I want to get an AKG K712 Pro Headphone.

The AKG has an impedance of 62 Ohm, while the RME HDSPe AIO is said to have an impedance of 30 Ohm (but I never found out if this is the correct value when using the balanced analog breakout cable).

After a bit of research I found the rule that the Impedance from the headphone output of the interface should be somewhere around 1/8 of the headphones impedance.

Even the Impedance is lower, it's not 1/8.

So here is my question: Do I need an amp for using the headphones? What would you recommend?

Thanks for helping.

All the best,
Jan

2 Reply by MC

  • MC
  • MC
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  • From: Germany/Thailand
  • Registered: 2007-04-06
  • Posts: 25,432

Re: Do I need headphone amp for AIO with AKG K712 Pro?

This rule is about changes in sound that some headphones produce when driven from an output where the impedance is not much lower than the one from the headphone. The AKG will most probably not suffer from this effect in a way that is really obvious. So I would say: simply try it, it might work very good on the AIO's output.

The balanced outputs have 150 Ohm, unbalanced 75 Ohm, and the phones output has only 24 Ohm (it never had 30, no matter what the - my -  manual says).

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

MC's Website

  • Registered: 2015-04-02
  • Posts: 6

Re: Do I need headphone amp for AIO with AKG K712 Pro?

Perfect. Thank you for clarifying and your fast response!

Best regards,
Jan