Im here listening to my hd650s with my ifi go bar and they sound cleaner in low gain, but are they properly amped or should they sound better in high gain? I switched to high gain and it sounds maybe with more body but not as controlled, what is the proper Gain for an hd650?
Just do what sounds better.
So long you ain’t blowing your eardrums out then whatever sounds better. If you get enough volume on low gain, use that. If you don’t, high gain.
On my ifi zen dac, i’ve got it on high gain simply because i want a little headroom. It’s set to about 1 o clock on the dial.
What is headroom?
So from what ive noticed from MY OWN TESTING is once you have enough power to drive a headphone with an amp in low gain, you get more dynamic range. Idk the science behind it but the music sounds more even in low gain to me. It isnt as graiting or as sharp. Maybe its my dac/amps (btr5 and ifi hip dac 2) but i notice it too friend it isnt only you
Could be poor ifi quality. My zen dac 1 had awful noise and distortion when running planars.
get the ifi xDSD Gryphon .