If headphone amps could only drive real sounding speakers
David Matz -- Sun, 06/13/2010 - 10:59
I attended Can Jam. It was eye opening how some of the lowest powered amps can provide dynamic verve and weight and slam to headphones. I actually heard a Cary amp sound dynamic!!!! Too bad a 301B tube can't drive a demanding speaker like a Soundlab or a Logan.
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This experience at Can Jam made me realize how few people have enough power in their amps to drive their speakers. Too bad one can't just hook up a pair of good headphones to an amp to hear what it would really sound like driving the easiest load. Cary driving a headphone sounds like a completely different amp than the same Cary driving a speaker.
Not having heard their speaker properly driven, most people don't even know what they are missing. Taking a quick glance at the Reviewers' systems, it is interesting that many but not all reviewers have powerful amps... I hope they are only reviewing wimpy speakers or get some other amps in house to do a proper evaluation.