| Electronics > Projects, Designs, and Technical Stuff |
| Headphones DAC |
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| magic:
Are there actually any headphones with 4Ω impedance? I don't think they get below 16Ω, except for some recently introduced crazy ribbon stuff which is less than 1Ω. |
| Kasper:
--- Quote from: magic on December 11, 2019, 06:23:15 pm ---Are there actually any headphones with 4Ω impedance? I don't think they get below 16Ω, except for some recently introduced crazy ribbon stuff which is less than 1Ω. --- End quote --- I don't know, I'm not really familiar with this area, just want to make it flexible enough to handle whatever is out there. Search on digikey for waterproof speakers between 30mm and 50mm shows 4ohm and 8ohm is most common but most of them are rated for about 2W which I think makes them more suited for portable speakers, not headphones. Ideally my product can drive portable speakers or headphones but headphones is the main focus so if the extra power required for portable speakers causes too much extra size or cost then I'll scrap it or consider making a 2nd model for that. Any idea where I go to find good waterproof speakers for headphones? |
| SiliconWizard:
--- Quote from: magic on December 11, 2019, 06:23:15 pm ---Are there actually any headphones with 4Ω impedance? I don't think they get below 16Ω, except for some recently introduced crazy ribbon stuff which is less than 1Ω. --- End quote --- You can find older headphones with 8 or 4ohm impedance. I think they were more common in the 60s/70s? Maybe some ultra-audio("phile") stuff? Even the Grado headphones, which are expensive shit (well regarded but eek.), are typically 32ohm. I personally have AKG headphones which are good without a bullshit price, and they are 32ohm IIRC. (Most of AKG line is between 16ohm and 60ohm+). That said, even at 16 or 32ohm, good headphones (like the AKG) need a somewhat "beefy" amplifier - they are usually not as efficient as low-end headphones (in terms of dB SPL/W), and kinda sound like shit with low volume when plugged into those small crap integrated headphones amps. |
| Kasper:
Ok, let's talk specs. 1 - What specs do I need to make high quality headphone audio? 2 - What specs do I need to get sales? In the market I've been watching, products with over the top specs get way more sales than products with good prices. I don't want to spend $50/DAC and I don't want to hose the audiophiles. I just want to fill that void between great and good. Specs to appease audiophiles without going too far overboard and making it needlessly expensive. I think $10/DAC at qty 100 should get specs that rival the audiophile grade over-priced stuff. Does that sound reasonable? |
| SiliconWizard:
--- Quote from: Kasper on December 11, 2019, 06:39:24 pm ---Ok, let's talk specs. 1 - What specs do I need to make high quality headphone audio? 2 - What specs do I need to get sales? In the market I've been watching, products with over the top specs get way more sales than products with good prices. I don't want to spend $50/DAC and I don't want to hose the audiophiles. I just want to fill that void between great and good. Specs to appease audiophiles without going too far overboard and making it needlessly expensive. I think $10/DAC at qty 100 should get specs that rival the audiophile grade over-priced stuff. Does that sound reasonable? --- End quote --- As far as DACs go, any good 24-bit DAC is all you need here. A lot of choice really for a few $ each. 32-bit would really be overkill here IMO and would make your product almost look close to "audiophool" stuff. The PCM1794A for instance is a "classic", and very good ($9.9 per 100 at Digikey). Supporting sample rates over 192kHz is IMO unncessary. No audio material is routinely available with higher than this anyway, and if you look at the figures carefully, you'll find out that the DACs supporting higher than 192kHz will have degraded performance for the higher rates. Not much benefit in practice. The "critical" part will be the power amplifier stage IMO. Whereas getting better than 100dB (or even 105dB) SNR is definitely not too hard with a decent DAC, proper supply and proper PCB layout, getting this level of SNR for the whole chain up to the headphones will be much more difficult. |
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