Newbie headphone/amp/DAC question(s)

Will Duffay

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I have a Marantz PM6004 from about 10 years ago, which I'd like to use with a fairly decent set of headphones (prob AKG 702 or Sennheiser 599 (unless anybody can recommend a much better set for less than £130)). I play from a CD player or a Pro-ject turntable, both the same vintage and fairly budget.

There are four things I don't understand:

1) Will my Marantz PM6004 drive those headphones okay?
2) How can I tell from the amplifier data spec whether it will drive them okay?
3) If it won't, would a headphone amp like the Schiit Heresy work with an older amp like that?
4) And finally, if I had to get a headphone amp do I need additional hardware - a DAC? - to drive the headphone amp from the Marantz?
5) Supplementary question: how would I know from the published Marantaz data spec whether or not it would work with a headphone amp without additional hardware?

Thanks all! Please assume I am very stupid and know nothing at all, so plain English answers with maximum patronising are certainly welcome!!
 
1. Maybe
2. Amplifiers for speakers rather than headphones normally provide a headphone jack for convenience. The headphone spec may not even be published! Pure guess i would suggest yes, except for the power hungry headphones that would benefit from an external amp
3. See 4
4. Your CD player should have a built in DAC so go CD player > analogue out > new headphone amp. An external DAC may or may not be an upgrade on the CD player DAC. Using the CD player means not spending money and taking a slower upgrade path, spread out the spending
5. It might be possible to go CD player > stereo amp > new headphone amp but I have not looked at the connections on your kit
 
Marantz headphone sockets are not too shabby. The ones fitted to their CD players are around the 27-30mW area but with the amps themselves will be quite a bit higher but not as high as the power you can expect from a standalone headphone amp.

Connection to a headphone amp could be achieved by using either of the two record loops that the 6004 has onboard. This is how I have my headphone amp connected to my stereo amp which doesn't have a headphone jack available.

Connection would be CDP analogue>Marantz amp analogue>headphone amp. If you just wanted a headphone only set up then it's CDP analogue>headphone amp.
 

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