Glad you brought this up - let's work the numbers.
The DT990 is 96 dB/mW, so at 250 Ohms is 102 dB/ 1V RMS. The Zen Air spec indicates it can deliver at least 6.5V into 250 Ohms, which would be 118 dB SPL. Just a couple of minutes at this volume can damage hearing. If the OP is unhappy with the volume they can get out of this amp then I suspect either they already have hearing damage or the specs are wrong (EDIT: or their source delivers too little voltage to the amp).
jason
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Its loud . I dont think i have hearing damage. I listen to louder volumes for just 2-3 min. Not maxed out cause it hurts. Then for longee listening knob is at 12 . I just think more power headroom would let me play with my eq more. I have a tube preamp with eq. Connected to the air stack . When i listen a little bit louder and I crank the bass up sometimes it distorts . Like on newer songs most of the time. I dont know why i thought maybe it needs more juice. Cause on the fidelios i can do that no problem and it sounds fine. But beyers cânt do it
So the Zen Air DAC can output 1V at least. The Zen Air CAN has 18 dB of gain (x8 for voltage) in ‘high’ gain mode, so in principle the input to the amp can be high enough to push the amp to its limit of 6.5ish volts into 250 Ohms.
Here is the Air CAN ‘manual’, by the way
https://ifi-audio.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/ZEN-Air-CAN-User-Manual-Ver1.02_ok.pdf
Here is the Air CAN ‘manual’, by the way
https://ifi-audio.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/ZEN-Air-CAN-User-Manual-Ver1.02_ok.pdf