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RE: Pioneer made great integrated receivers back in the day...

"i think vintage receivers drive the headphones off the main circuit through some resisters"

And that is where the mating of HD 800s to the Pioneer may come adrift from the ideal.

HD 800s are 300 ohm cans. So they deally need to be plugged into an output with an impedence that is <30ohms ( using the 10:1 rule of thumb). However the resistor network that is used to reduce the amplifier output to suit headphones may mean that the 'phones "see" a comparatively high impedence that is unsuitable from a perfectionist viewpoint.

Headpones were generally not considered as truly high end audio devices at the time of your receiver's manufacture ( certainly nothing of the standard of the HD 800s existed) and using an attenuation network would probably have been considered as adequate for the task ( but no more) by the manufacturer. Hence one reason for the creation of a market for outboard headphone amplifiers in later years when the potential quality of headphone listening improved.

Still, suck it and see.



Edits: 03/11/16

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