dttmtongYes, it'll drive the E-MU. No, it won't damage them. However, it won't sound good, for several reasons:
- this kind of amp has high output impedance and if the impedance and phase curve of the E-MU is not super flat their sound signature will be altered (maybe in a good way, or a bad one, IDK).
- you'll get a ton of background noise & hum, because the E-MU have low impedance and high sensitivity and this amp is designed to run high impedance headphones.
If you plan to drive the E-MU and/or some other low impedance headphones, get a solid state amp (like a O2, or a Schiit Magni 3 better). If you want some tubey-ness, get a hybrid amp like the LD I+ and roll some tubes.
dttmtongI ran a pair of 18 ohm IEM's out of my Darkvoice for several months. Eli35 is correct. They work and sound amazing however the noise floor is significant. Lots of hiss, pops and other small microphonics. For me the sound quality was a worthy trade off, but now using 300 ohm HD6XX's and having a totally silent background I'm not sure I could go back!
Eli35I would definitely NOT recommend the Darkvoice for low impedance headphones or IEM's. I was simply trying to break in the tubes waiting for my 6XX's. This is a weird situation and I don't want people to think this is normal or recommended. I have an SS amp so if I wanted to ditch the microphonics or serious hiss I could at any time. If you have a low impedance headphone or IEM's look at SS's or Hybrids. OTL is not the way to go.
GallicdwellerWell, if you're looking for an amp to drive some low-impedance headphones, I'd say it's easier to just buy a proper one than buying this and have to modify it (and void the product warranty too) to make it sound good. If you already have the DV, ok it makes sense, but buying it just to mod it's kinda stupid (unless you really want that tubey sound and can't afford something more adequate for your headphones).
Eli35You obviously don't know that there is precious little commercial gear that can't be bettered and sometimes significantly by changing out components or altering some of the parameters. Why are you worried about product warranty?
If you look at the various threads on a few forums you would see that by changing some caps you can use a different set of cans - I use 600ohm but supposing I wanted to use 32ohm - I should buy another amp to do that, that really doesn't make any sense - MrNefarious gave you the answer.
GallicdwellerI perfectly know this gear is modder-friendly, I myself have rolled tubes & opamps on my LD I+ amp, swapped pads on some headphones, removed foams and/or added dampening materials... My point is that joining this drop when you plan to drive low-impedance headphones is not a smart move, IMO, because you could do better buying some SS amp that'll drive your headphones better without any modding required, which was exactly what OP asked. Other thing is that you already have a DV lying around and wanna drive low-impedance headphones, or plan to drive both high and low impedance cans, in which cases it might make sense to buy this and/or modding.
thanks!