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Drop + Dan Clark Audio Aeon Closed X Headphones

$499

Drop + Dan Clark Audio Aeon Closed X Headphones

Audiophile Product Question

I'm new to high-end headphone overall. I was told that I need a DAC/AMP combo so I'm thinking of getting the Schiit Hel 2. Can anyone tell me if this headphone will work with that combo?

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DerpyDev

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DemonzOW

Nov 25, 2021

No it will not run them. Sure you can make them loud, but they will sound flat and NOT like $400 headphones. You want to run them balanced on an amp so a90 $500 schiit MAGNIUS $250(I have this with open x's ran them on a hel for a month and upgraded, I immediately heard the difference). The magnius isn't the best amp, so maybe look at something different unless that price is unbeatable. But The aeon's are a trap because you need beefier equipment to run them CORRECTLY.

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Robson

213

Feb 11, 2023

A3 should be excellent with it as well, more than enough power for them. I had previously used the Aeon with the Asgard 2 with great results.

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parowOOz

Sep 30, 2023

Always lower on balanced, are you sure about that ? :) Balanced output does not magically give you better signal characteristics.It all boils down to how well a given unit is engineered and built. See the above mentioned Topping A90 where both outputs have nearly identical, measurable (apart from power ofc) qualities. In fact, BAL measures a bit worse than SE noise-wise. Then you can take a look at Topping’s A30 Pro which isn’t a real balanced amp and yet it has even lower noise floor than the A90 (especially at lower volume levels). So can we stop with this ‘’balanced is better in and of itself‘’ notion already ? The only thing a trully balanced amp will (or rather should if it’s well designed) give you through it’s BAL output is more power, that’s it. Secondly, what do you mean these cans are more sensitive to output impedance than power ? Are you talking about the damping factor ? Cause if you are, then you should know that these particular cans, and most other planars, have the exact same impedance throughout their entire frequency response range. So there’s no "gradient" and it doesn’t matter if your source has high or low output imepdance as far as sound signature is concerned. The only thing that would happen with a higher impedance source would be less volume. And so to drive Aeons you’d need, contrary to your words, more power. That’s it. There is also no link between low impedance headphones and their supposed impedance variability. That’s just not a thing. What they SOMETIMES are is more sensitive to noise from your amp. Think IEMs. The variability of impedance based on frequency you speak of occurs primarily on dynamic cans and it does not matter if they have low or high nominal impedance. That’s just the nature of their design. For example, Beyerdynamics T1s (v1/v2) have 600Ohm impedance. However in some frequencies they can go over 900Ohms. That is wild. Planar-magnetics do not (for the most part) have the same issue. So for output impedance to have an effect on the sound of your headphones you’d need low impedance dynamic cans and a high output impedance source. You then run the risk of actually changing your headphone’s frequency response curve – their sound signature. While that may be the case, we should consider the fact that most decent headphone amps on the market today have < 1Ohm output impedance. So even with lower impedance dynamic headphones you’d be ok as far as impedances or damping factor go. Oh and btw, halving of output impedance going from SE to BAL ? Yeah, that’s also not a thing. Every decent amplifier will have nearly identical output impedance on both SE and BAL outputs. Aeons are simply hard to drive. Because of their low impedance they need a high current amp and this is where many amps fail. Then there is the fact that Aeons have a rather low efficiency which further puts a strain on the source. So propper amplification and they will sound as intended. No gradients or varying impedances matter here.

jgillingham

177

Nov 10, 2021

I took a quick look at the specs for the Aeon Closed X and the Hel, and estimate that the Hel can drive the Aeon to peak levels of 121 dB SPL, so the Hel should have plenty of power. From that point of view, the combo will work.

Megazine

544

Nov 7, 2021

Not sure if this helps but I upgraded from Drop + combo/dac to Schiit Modius and Magnius and I'm happy with the stack.

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