hi all,
i cant really seem to find much info on this..
apart from what it does is that it adds impedance on the output.. forcing player to output higher power giving cleaner signals.. and possibly removes hissing noise from circuits (is it?)

but there are those headphone with very high impedance,
there's also customs, ksc also has impedance modding..
so..

what i'd like to know is.. how does having the adaptor.. or changing the impedance affect the sq, eq, or signature actually?
is higher better or...?
what about impedance matching? what is so significant about matching it? how do i match my player to iem's impedance?

thx in advance for any contributions on this questions..

I've read quite a few posts in head-fi suggesting that an adapter in most cases WILL have a negative impact on SQ, but well... you know, hearsay and head-fi. take it with a pinch of salt.

I don't see how forcing anything to a higher output power creates cleaner signals man...

Impedance matching is usually done at the cable/board level to maximize power transfer. To match the characteristic impedance (Zo).

The ER-4 from Etymotic has an impedence adapter (resistive adapter) that acts in conjunction with the capacitance to form a filter that changes the frequency response of the unit using it.

well i couldnt find much info.. that's one of them that i found.. probably..
anyway if talking about signal attenuation.. if the output is not strong enuff.. there will be some attenuation, or frequency drops..

im hoping someone here (eg: PcWork ) who does have those adapters can give his experience on that..

This post has been edited by DaEMoNteNTAcLe: Mar 11 2010, 04:21 PM

Attenuation doesn't work that way. Attenuation is a fixed function for the most (sometimes frequency dependent)

If you have a level of attenuation, the signal will be attenuated by that level only.

eg; an Attenuation of 1 dB, so if you put 10 dB in, you come out with 9 dB, if you put in 40dB, you come out with 39 dB. Something like that.

Sometimes you also attenuate the noise caused by reflection due impedance mismatch.

I wonder impedance adaptor can stop the hssing sound from my low end sound card.

i have the impedance adapter on hand. u are welcome to have a listen
overall it has different sound shaping effect to different type of driver.

im not sure.. that's one of the thing i wanna try out.

hoping u'd offered.. was considering of getting one from u actually.. but i wanted to be sure first.
anytime ur free to entertain me? i live in bangi so if ur in serdang i can drop by anytime.
thx

I try get one from pc work but he too busy to reply pm.

try and let me know about the results.

will do..
when he's available that is..

One thing is the impedance adapter reduces the damping factor as the impedance is added to the source's side. Might be bad if you had high output impedance DAPs (read that some ipod had 5ohm output). General rule says 10:1 is good enough. Lower damping factor means amp have lower ability to control the diaphragm especially in the bass region. Damping factor is not the same with every frequency too, before and after adding the adapter.

2nd thing is if i'm not mistaken the impedance adapter attenuates different frequency differently, thus results in different sound signature.

I actually have one 36ohm adapter on my hand now.

It's do fix my first problem, hissing sound not longer come out from my earphone.

still need some time to figure out the sound signature that using impedance adapter.

Hope it's will come close with original sound signature

so any news from you using the impedance adapter?

Sorry for bringing up an old thread. But I have low impedance headphone and IEM at the moment (Grado SR60i, Brainwavz M1, and then later a Future Sonics Atrio).

I recently bought a cMoyBB v2.03. As you all know, low impedance demands more current, and my research has proven my slight worry, that low impedance cans/IEMs can damage the amp in time. I am a low volume listener, but just to be safe before I get myself some higher impedance gears, I would like to get an impedance adapter, just to be safe(my friends LOVE volume, wouldn't want them secretly pumping out volume using the amp without one when trying it out. They can be stubborn sometimes).

Would any cheap impedance adapter be good enough? Does it matter?

if they use the amp at high volume, most likely the IEM or more accurately the drivers will be damaged but that will take quite a long period of time. The amp wouldn't be damaged, if it cannot put out the current required, all you will get is clipping on the SQ.

a common use of impedance adapters is to remove ground loops (hissing) that you get when the gain of the amplifier is too high and the impedance of the IEM is too low.

Actually, JDS Labs says because of high current demand of low impedance IEM/headphones, the amp is the one to get damaged.

But my question to JDS Labs have been answered. Apparently, and fortunately damage to the amp this way is very rare, but does happen. Some guy over at head-fi damages his amp by driving it to distortion levels for weeks. It was fried eventually. I don't think I will be doing that......and I don't think I'll lend it to my friends that long, and I guess I just have to be extra careful when they use it.

If I find a dirt cheap one at some electronics store, might as well buy it for the sake of experimentation.

right, thanks for clearing that up!

OT: any first impressions of your JDS cMoy?

Don't have an interconnect yet. Still waiting from wotiyo. Should arrive tomorrow if he sends it today.

I can't wait to try it with my SR-60i.

i can't wait for you to try it out too!