One of many things that confuse me is dynamic headroom. I get the basic concept but wonder about the practical conditions where it makes an actual difference.
Specifically I’m thinking of low vs high power amps. I have a pair of M1200 playing through 90dB 4 ohm Spatial M4 Sapphires. Sounds great. I just bought a Schiit Lyr headphone / preamp and Gjallarhorn 10wpc speaker amp for the desk top. Also sounds great playing through the same M4s.
My torture track, as a reviewer described it a few years ago, is “Luminol” (Steven Wilson, “The Raven That Refused to Sing and Other Stories”), which I’d think is a good test of dynamic headroom.
To compare the systems I played this track at uncomfortably loud levels, which for me in my space is upper 70s average with 80s peaks (unfortunately I didn’t record actual levels). I honestly could not tell any difference in the into drum attack. Overall I thought how the 2 very different sets of gear presented this and other tracks was very similar.
Maybe I’m just deaf to what others might find to be significant differences but I’m having a tough time reconciling the dynamic headroom argument for high power amps. Besides general curiosity I’m wondering if my listening preferences are better suited to a low power system that does more with less.
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