Question for Hugh: Drawmer MC2.1 / Avantone Planar

[ConcertinaChap]

I'm considering treating myself to a special Christmas present of a set of Avantone Planar headphones. However I'm mindful of Sam's review which says they require a decent headphone amp. I would normally use the headphone amp built in to my Drawmer MC2.1 as I'm currently doing with my K702's. The Drawmer being the excellent bit of kit that it is I'd expect it to be up to the job of driving the Planars but I thought I'd ask the man who reviewed the Drawmer and Who Really Knows about these things if I'd be right in that expectation. What do you think, Hugh?

TIA

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[Hugh Robjohns]

As I recall, the planars have a 32 ohm impedance (roughly half that of the AKGs), but the mc2.1 has quite powerful headphone amps, so I'd be surprised if the combo won't work well -- unless you find you have to run the amp flat out with your k702s.

[ConcertinaChap]

Nowhere near. My thanks, Hugh. Looks like a Planar Christmas coming up

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[Sam Inglis]

Yes, it's not level that is the issue with the Planars but bass response. I found that the bottom octave was missing with a cheap headphone amp.

[ConcertinaChap]

Would you class the Drawmer as a cheap headphone amp? On the one hand the headphone is just one small part of a larger unit, rather than the main thrust of it. On the other the MC2.1 is clearly a well-specced bit of kit and I've been happy with its performance with my K702s so far.

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[Hugh Robjohns]

Yes, it's not level that is the issue with the Planars but bass response. I found that the bottom octave was missing with a cheap headphone amp.

With a low impedance headphone like the Planars they will need quite a bit of current at low frequencies and if the amp has a significant output impedance that would be a problem and curtail the bass response.

I can't remember what the output impedance of the Drawmer is, but I'd expect it to be pretty low and able to cope with low-z phones.

[ConcertinaChap]

Thanks again both.

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[ConcertinaChap]

I should mention that I'm not a complete stranger to planar magnetic phones. Back in the 70s I owned a pair of Wharfedale Isodynamic headphones. They were, I think, the first magnetic planar headphones made, previous designs being electrostatic, I believe. They were so inefficient they were actually designed to be plugged into a pair of speaker outputs! They were nice phones, though.



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[ConcertinaChap]

And thank you to the ever helpful ebay:



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[Drew Stephenson]

And thank you to the ever helpful ebay:



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I got an advert for shipping containers in my instagram feed the other day. I think all these people who are worried about social media data mining can relax a bit!