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$500 cans on, this is how you dream right - Official Headphone Thread

TabletopTictacs

TabletopTictacs

Member
HiResDes said:
I see they have Etymotic earphones I think those would be the better bet, unless you really love bass, then I'd say go with those Bose...Although the clarity might not be there
Click to expand...

Ok, I'll have a look for those then as they're cheaper as well. If they don't have any of those in stock I'll just go for the Bose ones as I remember seeing them yesterday and I need new ones asap. Thanks :)
 
D

Danoss

Member
jambo said:
Anybody?

=[
Click to expand...
I don't know of a headphone that doesn't benefit somewhat from amplification.

From what I can see, the DT990 maximum power input is 100mW, so extremely easy to run that at its peak. I don't know the maximum power output of your soundcard is though; if it's anything like the common AC'97, it will be around 45mW.

Assuming the above is correct, something like a little FiiO E5 might do you a little better at $39.
 
S

swoon

Member
Danoss said:
I don't know of a headphone that doesn't benefit somewhat from amplification.

From what I can see, the DT990 maximum power input is 100mW, so extremely easy to run that at its peak. I don't know the maximum power output of your soundcard is though; if it's anything like the common AC'97, it will be around 45mW.

Assuming the above is correct, something like a little FiiO E5 might do you a little better at $39.
Click to expand...

yea there are plenty of headphones with low impedance that require amps. those ultrasones from the last page, grados, new round of othros all are below 70 ohms.

http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/325883/earphones-16-ohm-v-s-32-ohm-any-difference

this thread should clear up the need for amps and headphones though it gets kinda catty. there might be a less annoying one somewhere, but whateva.
 
A

Alucrid

Banned
swoon said:
yea there are plenty of headphones with low impedance that require amps. those ultrasones from the last page, grados, new round of othros all are below 70 ohms.

http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/325883/earphones-16-ohm-v-s-32-ohm-any-difference

this thread should clear up the need for amps and headphones though it gets kinda catty. there might be a less annoying one somewhere, but whateva.
Click to expand...

If there was, I'd believe in a god. Head fi gets reaal catty all the time. :lol
 
S

soul creator

Member
I don't even really need any headphones or anything, but take a wild guess at why these caught my eye :lol

soul-by-ludacris-headphones-ces-2011.jpg
 
E

Extollere

Sucks at poetry
I'd post some more, but I already told myself to stop so I don't clog the thread with needless images (...of beautiful headphone moé.)
 
H

HiResDes

Member
K.Jack said:
Account hijack confirmed.
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Hey there weren't a lot of choices at HMV, and honestly I didn't want to jump on him for wanting Bose...I've pissed people off people before like that who have been wooed by the Bose name, and sometimes just the brand name and bass is enough to satisfy them :lol
 
E

Extollere

Sucks at poetry
Extollere said:
...or of headphones just being sexy. I'd post some more, but I already told myself to stop so I don't clog the thread with needless images (...of beautiful headphone moé.)
Click to expand...

...but I will come back to flaunt my avatar of a Grado GS1000 clad sexy ninja babe :D Goddam there are some nice headphone images!
 
T

trilobyte

Member
I love/hate these threads :p I wasn't thinking of getting new headphones until now hah hah

I'm currently wearing Grado SR225's on my home PC w/ the HeadRoom total bithead amp.

I also have a Senn HD 280 Pro that I use for office and for flights (closed ear, blocks a lot of noise, sounds great, etc)

I do plan to get a high-end pair of cans somewhere down the road
 
Jesus Carbomb

Jesus Carbomb

From Water into Guinness
SR225's are nothing to sneeze at. Properly amped and sourced the 225's will slay most headphones in this thread when it comes to Rock/Metal.
 
A

Alucrid

Banned
Jesus Carbomb said:
SR225's are nothing to sneeze at. Properly amped and sourced the 225's will slay most headphones in this thread when it comes to Rock/Metal.
Click to expand...
I could never wear on the ear headphones. :(
 
S

swoon

Member
Alucrid said:
If there was, I'd believe in a god. Head fi gets reaal catty all the time. :lol
Click to expand...

hah. it's not as catty now that all the older guys left. now it's just people asking about $40 headphones and then people yelling at them for asking and people recommending things they've never heard. head-case is the resting place for all the catty folks.

alas.
 
P

poweld

Member
Extollere said:
As someone with huge ears and glasses, I'm with you bro... the pain... the ear and temple PAIN...
Click to expand...
Well I don't like on the ear either, but for other reasons. If your only problem is that the pad isn't large enough, I'd suggest you look at Grados, as the pad on those babies is large enough to land a jumbo jet on, and they're soft as a baby's bottom.
 
T

trilobyte

Member
Jesus Carbomb said:
SR225's are nothing to sneeze at. Properly amped and sourced the 225's will slay most headphones in this thread when it comes to Rock/Metal.
Click to expand...

Don't have to tell me :) I pretty love these cans aside from the lack of comfort.
 
C

ChoklitReign

Member
:D I finally have the AD700s. I don't know why it doesn't sound better than my old headphones (I've only listened to Aphex Twin's ambient stuff) but they're a lot comfier. The headband is weird and a little pressurized but the earpieces feel like nothing at all. What music should I listen to?
 
A

Alucrid

Banned
ChoklitReign said:
:D I finally have the AD700s. I don't know why it doesn't sound better than my old headphones (I've only listened to Aphex Twin's ambient stuff) but they're a lot comfier. The headband is weird and a little pressurized but the earpieces feel like nothing at all. What music should I listen to?
Click to expand...

The music you enjoy the most. :D
 
L

LCfiner

Member
ChoklitReign said:
:D I finally have the AD700s. I don't know why it doesn't sound better than my old headphones (I've only listened to Aphex Twin's ambient stuff) but they're a lot comfier. The headband is weird and a little pressurized but the earpieces feel like nothing at all. What music should I listen to?
Click to expand...


I don't know if you have an amp but if you do, it will fill out the low end of the AD700 and give the bass much more presence (but definitely not overpowering). really improves the sound, imo.
 
Dice

Dice

Pokémon Parentage Conspiracy Theorist
I'm still confused on the whole issue of amping 32Ohm headphones. As I am considering a pair of 325is it is relevant to my interests. Would the Matrix Mini-i, which I have in mind, have enough current/voltage to optimally drive them? I have no idea what I'm looking for in those specs, and those specs don't seem to be listed as often. Obviously I don't want to drop $300 just to realize the amp is only good for 300Ohm cans. I've seen some recommendations for Grados but they aren't DACs and I'll be a bit limited in funds to have separate source and amp.
 
C

ChoklitReign

Member
I don't mind the minimal bass. I can hear it fine except it's not punchy--which I like. I like them but I think I paid too much for them when I can't hear the difference. I never thought I was an audiophile, I just like good equipment.
 
H

HiResDes

Member
ChoklitReign said:
I don't mind the minimal bass. I can hear it fine except it's not punchy--which I like. I like them but I think I paid too much for them when I can't hear the difference. I never thought I was an audiophile, I just like good equipment.
Click to expand...

Honestly I didn't list them because I thought the JVC HARX700 were comparable, although not quite as good, but they are half the price.
 
A

Alucrid

Banned
Dice said:
I'm still confused on the whole issue of amping 32Ohm headphones. As I am considering a pair of 325is it is relevant to my interests. Would the Matrix Mini-i, which I have in mind, have enough current/voltage to optimally drive them? I have no idea what I'm looking for in those specs, and those specs don't seem to be listed as often. Obviously I don't want to drop $300 just to realize the amp is only good for 300Ohm cans. I've seen some recommendations for Grados but they aren't DACs and I'll be a bit limited in funds to have separate source and amp.
Click to expand...

The impedance of headphones isn't the end all be all of deciding whether or not a headphone needs to be amped. It's simply one of many factors which determine whether or not headphones require greater amplification.

I've never listened to the 325is (when I googled them I got the BMW 3 series :lol) but my suggestion would be to do some research and see what people think. Hearing what people who own the headphone is probably the best advice you can get.
 
H

HiResDes

Member
@Alucrid - Just wanted to cosign this. Nothing is entirely concrete in head-gear. There are headphones and IEMs of high impedance that are efficient enough to sound well unamped and vice versa. But anyway if an amp is good at driving 300OHM cans, then surely it will work well with 32OHM cans as well. Almost every headphone and IEM sounds at least slightly better when amped.
 
Dice

Dice

Pokémon Parentage Conspiracy Theorist
Alucrid said:
The impedance of headphones isn't the end all be all of deciding whether or not a headphone needs to be amped. It's simply one of many factors which determine whether or not headphones require greater amplification.
Click to expand...
I wasn't talking about whether or not they needed an amp. There seems to be a solid consensus that Grados greatly benefit from proper amping.

I was under the impression that any fullsize headphone benefits from an amp, you just need to properly match the needs of the particular headphone to the offerings of the particular amp you have in mind. I hear for low impedance phones the significant quality is current. Not to discount other aspects, but that is the main one. However, I haven't seen the principle explained with real numbers outside of some DIY sites for building a Grado amp, which were too technical and explained mostly through schematics rather than words.

Some amps have been recommended to me by Grado owners, like the Woo Audio 6, which has separate settings for low and high impedance phones, but that in itself is pushing my budget and doesn't include DAC functions. I just don't know what in particular I should be looking for in a DAC/amp to make sure I don't get something that would only make a nominal difference with the Grados.
 
A

Alucrid

Banned
Dice said:
I wasn't talking about whether or not they needed an amp. There seems to be a solid consensus that Grados greatly benefit from proper amping.

I was under the impression that any fullsize headphone benefits from an amp, you just need to properly match the needs of the particular headphone to the offerings of the particular amp you have in mind. I hear for low impedance phones the significant quality is current. Not to discount other aspects, but that is the main one. However, I haven't seen the principle explained with real numbers outside of some DIY sites for building a Grado amp, which were too technical and explained mostly through schematics rather than words.

Some amps have been recommended to me by Grado owners, like the Woo Audio 6, which has separate settings for low and high impedance phones, but that in itself is pushing my budget and doesn't include DAC functions. I just don't know what in particular I should be looking for in a DAC/amp to make sure I don't get something that would only make a nominal difference with the Grados.
Click to expand...

I feel like you're looking for specs to use in order to match an amp to the headphone, which is good for seeing if it'll get the required power to your headphones, but finding a pleasing combination is another story, and extremely subjective. It's difficult since you can only go by specs or opinions of others (unless you have a good headphone store near you, if so then going and seeing if they have the grados and trying them out with different amps would be the best). Since I have no experience with them I'm probably no help, but head-fi post might help you understand how the impedance and sensitivity come into play.
 
S

swoon

Member
Dice said:
I wasn't talking about whether or not they needed an amp. There seems to be a solid consensus that Grados greatly benefit from proper amping.

I was under the impression that any fullsize headphone benefits from an amp, you just need to properly match the needs of the particular headphone to the offerings of the particular amp you have in mind. I hear for low impedance phones the significant quality is current. Not to discount other aspects, but that is the main one. However, I haven't seen the principle explained with real numbers outside of some DIY sites for building a Grado amp, which were too technical and explained mostly through schematics rather than words.

Some amps have been recommended to me by Grado owners, like the Woo Audio 6, which has separate settings for low and high impedance phones, but that in itself is pushing my budget and doesn't include DAC functions. I just don't know what in particular I should be looking for in a DAC/amp to make sure I don't get something that would only make a nominal difference with the Grados.
Click to expand...


what is your budget?

my first headphone was the grados 225 through a little dot II and a modded lite-ah dac and it sounded wonderful and much better than out of my integrated amp and out of my ipod.

the mapletree audio hd i think is the best amp i've heard for the grados and can be found for ~300 used. good dacs can be had fairly cheap now, especially if you go back a few years. that said an ipod dock to headphone amp isn't bad.
 
P

PalaceBrother

Member
I've checked the OP and didn't see an answer....

I'm looking for a pair of surround sound headphones. They will mostly be used for gaming, but I'd likely use them for music as well.

The caveat here is that I'd like to get them at Best Buy. I have a gift card from that store and it's really the only thing I'd like. I keep seeing Senheiser recommended but I don't know a thing about them. All I know is that I bought a pair of on-ear Sony headphones for $140 about 6 years ago and they were garbage.

Any suggestions?

edit: I'm not an audiophile and I don't care about noise-cancelling features. Less expensive is preferable but I don't know enough about surround sound headphones to define a price range.
 
Dice

Dice

Pokémon Parentage Conspiracy Theorist
swoon said:
what is your budget?
Click to expand...
Small. Like $500 for DAC & amp. I'm thinking now that maybe the way to maximize it would be to get an HRT MS2 (not +) and the rest for an amp. The amp would need an put to my speakers, but that's pretty common.

swoon said:
the mapletree audio hd i think is the best amp i've heard for the grados and can be found for ~300 used.
Click to expand...
$300?! I'd totally go for that. Does it really happen all that often? I guess with the Super II out now, it may...
 
P

PflargBlarg

Member
PalaceBrother said:
I've checked the OP and didn't see an answer....

I'm looking for a pair of surround sound headphones. They will mostly be used for gaming, but I'd likely use them for music as well.

The caveat here is that I'd like to get them at Best Buy. I have a gift card from that store and it's really the only thing I'd like. I keep seeing Senheiser recommended but I don't know a thing about them. All I know is that I bought a pair of on-ear Sony headphones for $140 about 6 years ago and they were garbage.

Any suggestions?

edit: I'm not an audiophile and I don't care about noise-cancelling features. Less expensive is preferable but I don't know enough about surround sound headphones to define a price range.
Click to expand...

Uh oh, you've doomed us all.

In my opinion (and many others) surround sound headphones are a scam. The drivers in a headphone are usually an inch or less away from your ear, surround sound doesn't even make logical sense for headphones. Any pair of decent headphones giving you stereo sound will do just as good for giving you directional audio. Directional audio is far more to do with the audio software than audio hardware and surround sound headphones aren't going to help at all with directional audio.

They'll probably also be lower build quality and sound worse than a comparable stereo set.

This goes into more detail: http://www.overclock.net/sound-cards-computer-audio/640943-why-5-1-headphones-scam-pictures.html
 
P

pmj

Member
Speaking of amps, I need some help with that. Some googling suggests that my headphones would benefit from one, but I've never had one, never seen one, in fact never even heard of amps for headphones until I read this thread. Maybe the OP would benefit from having a few recommendations?

I think I only need something very simple, and I don't think I need a DAC at all, but I'm not sure about the FiiO E5 that's been linked a few times in the thread. The price is right but it has a battery in it. I'm never going to use the amp with a portable music player so the battery would only serve to make the device larger, more expensive and I guess possibly a fire hazard.
 
P

pmj

Member
LCfiner said:
The E5 is not a fire hazard. it's a tiny little battery charged by USB.
Click to expand...
It's not a lithium-ion battery?

I'd feel safer with a simpler and battery-less device, but if there's truly no drawback to having it, I won't let that stop me.
 
P

PalaceBrother

Member
L

LCfiner

Member
pmj said:
It's not a lithium-ion battery?

I'd feel safer with a simpler and battery-less device, but if there's truly no drawback to having it, I won't let that stop me.
Click to expand...

how much you want to spend? E9 is a well regarded desktop Amp with no battery for only 130 bucks. about as cheap as you can get and not get garbage quality with a desktop amp.

edit: the uDac also has no battery and is 130. but the E9 is a waaay more powerful amp

desktop amps are usually pricier than portable amps and may be overkill for your needs considering their typical cost and power.

The E5 is ~25 bucks. you can also get an E3 (which really just kinda works as a simple bass boost) for <10 bucks and you can put in whatever type AAA battery you like.

if you're concerned about all the options and potential cash outlay, just enjoy your headphones as is.
 
C

CiSTM

Banned
pmj said:
It's not a lithium-ion battery?

I'd feel safer with a simpler and battery-less device, but if there's truly no drawback to having it, I won't let that stop me.
Click to expand...

I just got this http://www.project-audio.com/main.php?prod=headbox
I'm more then satisfied with it. It's not cheap but not too expensive either. You can find good deals on it pretty often 80$ to 90$. In EU area the asking price is around 100 euros to 130 euros.

jDQ8r.jpg

WwbqX.jpg

Ikp1e.jpg

not my pics but gives you some idea how it looks.
 
P

pmj

Member
LCfiner said:
how much you want to spend? E9 is a well regarded desktop Amp with no battery for only 130 bucks. about as cheap as you can get and not get garbage quality with a desktop amp.

edit: the uDac also has no battery and is 130. but the E9 is a waaay more powerful amp

desktop amps are usually pricier than portable amps and may be overkill for your needs considering their typical cost and power.

The E5 is ~25 bucks. you can also get an E3 (which really just kinda works as a simple bass boost) for <10 bucks and you can put in whatever type AAA battery you like.

if you're concerned about all the options and potential cash outlay, just enjoy your headphones as is.
Click to expand...
I'm sure you're right that I'll be fine without an amp. I figured why not though, as the E5 was really cheap. I'm not picky enough about sound to spend over 100 bucks, but I'll probably get the E5 if I can find it.

Thanks for the help.
 
S

swoon

Member
Dice said:
Small. Like $500 for DAC & amp. I'm thinking now that maybe the way to maximize it would be to get an HRT MS2 (not +) and the rest for an amp. The amp would need an put to my speakers, but that's pretty common.

$300?! I'd totally go for that. Does it really happen all that often? I guess with the Super II out now, it may...
Click to expand...

it happens. the last couple went for $350 and $300 and there is one up now for $435 and not moving at all. $500

there's a bunch of 3-4 year old amps and that range worth exploring for sale now that are great steals because of the current fotm driving prices down. the gilmore lite for $350 is a steal though i don't think it fits your needs.
 
J

JumpJeff84

Member
Just hit ebay and pulled the trigger on a pair of Yuin Pk3s. Had to get 'em there because Amazon don't ship to Canada.

Fuck knows how long it'll take for them to ship from Hong Kong, but I'm looking forward to trying these babies out.

Thanks for the tip, Des!
 
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