HX Stomp with 80 Ohm headphones - volume too low

[agreenawalt]

Hi - I'm new to the HX Stomp and would like to be able to practice bass and guitar using headphones.

 

I ended up purchasing the beyerdynamic DT 770 PRO 80 Ohm after reading reviews indicating that the 250 ohm model could be challenging volume-wise.

 

I was therefore surprised to find that the 80 Ohm also seem very quiet.  I've only tested it with bass, but even with the physical volume dial turned all the way up, a lot of the presets don't go so loud.  Some of them do, especially if there's a fuzz pedal with a lot of gain etc., but I had been hoping the headphones would work well without having to go in and adjust every preset indvidually.

 

Again, I'm brand new to the HX Stomp, so any advice will be much appreciated.  So far all I've done is plug in, pick presets, and turned the physical volume dial up all the way on the unit.

 

Thanks in advance!

[Schmalle]

I don't share the opinion that the Phones Out is too quiet in any way.

 

I use the DT770 250Ohm and with guitar and stock presets (DIR:*). I set the VOLUME knob to noon (which is -12dB compared to the cranked VOLUME). I wouldn't go much above that - it gets too loud for longer use.

[silverhead]

I use the DT 990 Pro headphones, 250 Ohms. Volume is fine. I also rarely go above the 12 o’clock setting; it gets way too loud.

[MusicLaw]

 I can only reiterate what @Schmalle and @silverhead have posted. I have the DT770 Pro 250 Ω and Sennheiser HD6xx 300 Ω, either can get too loud for my preference with my HX Stomp, or Helix Floor. 

 

@agreenawalt my only suggestion is to be sure your Signal Chain and final Output Block settings on your HX Stomp are properly set as not to attenuate your signal output. Also be sure that you have updated your HX Stomp firmware and HX Edit to the latest versions, to assure nothing is amiss with the firmware.

[agreenawalt]

Thank you all.  I did update the firmware and otherwise I believe everything is at factory default. 
 

I don’t even know what the signal chain and final output block settings are but I will try to figure that part out. In any event I have done nothing to those. 

[silverhead]

I don’t think you mentioned these factors: …. Do your headphones work as you would expect with other devices? Have you tried other headphones with your HX stomp? If so, how do they behave?

[kyles3]

I'm having the same exact problem on the HX Stomp with my headphones, the DT 990 Pro 80 Ohm's. Even with the Stomp's volume knob all the way up, it's super quiet. I have to go into the output block and jack up the volume by like 15db's just to get decent volume, using a preset that's plenty loud coming out of my Headrush speaker.

 

For global settings, I've had input set to line and output set to inst. Changing these settings didn't make much difference. I usually keep guitar pad on, but turning it off only gave a slight bump in volume.

 

Using the same headphones to listen to music on the computer, the volume's totally fine. No need to crank it. Only other headphones I have to try with the Stomp are some cheap wired earbuds, and they have the same low volume problem.

 

I'm officially stumped.

[kyles3]

Okay, so I went ahead and dropped $35 on a cheap Behringer headphone amp. With the volume all the way up on the Stomp and the headphone amp, I finally get decent volume. But 90% of it is going to the left ear only. I can't win. It's just bizarre to me that my headphones work perfectly fine with everything but the Stomp.

[Schmalle]

Stuff can break.

[silverhead]

I would open a support ticket.

[kyles3]

Okay, so here's an update. Got some 50 ohm Sennheisers on sale, and whaddya know, no more volume problem with the Stomp. With the 80 ohm Beyers, I had the volume knob all the way up and it was still too quiet. Using the Senns, I only have the knob at 50% and it's the perfect volume with most of my presets.

 

I'm really glad I got these instead of the 250 ohm Beyers I was also considering. I'm guessing they would've been even worse with the Stomp than the 80 ohm pair.

 

So at the end of this whole saga, in this layman's opinion, if you've got a Stomp you want headphones with less ohms, not more. 

[Schmalle]

If 50 Ohms work fine then 80 Ohms is not the problem.

[MusicLaw]

On 7/18/2024 at 4:07 AM, kyles3 said:

Okay, so here's an update. Got some 50 ohm Sennheisers on sale, and whaddya know, no more volume problem with the Stomp. With the 80 ohm Beyers, I had the volume knob all the way up and it was still too quiet. Using the Senns, I only have the knob at 50% and it's the perfect volume with most of my presets.

 

I'm really glad I got these instead of the 250 ohm Beyers I was also considering. I'm guessing they would've been even worse with the Stomp than the 80 ohm pair.

 

So at the end of this whole saga, in this layman's opinion, if you've got a Stomp you want headphones with less ohms, not more. 

The Sensitivity Level parameter of any given headphone is far more indicative of what the SPL level will be at a given drive level. That's the spec you should be looking at, and compare between units. It is also possible that your Beyers are flawed. 

[agreenawalt]

Hi - looping back into this threat that I started.  I plugged my airpods max into the hx stomp.  They are definitely louder than the 80 ohm Beyers, but that's to be expected right?  With the Airpods Max, the Stomp is too loud at max volume, but nothing crazy ear splitting.  At half volume it's very comfortable, not close to being loud.

 

Same when I plug in an old pair Bose noise cancelling headphones.  SImilar volume to the Aipods Max.

 

I also plugged all three into the headphone output of my new iMac.  Listening to spotify, they all sounded about the same.  Max volume is too high.  Is that because the iMac adjusts for the impedance?