Pretty sure they politely ask you to leave if you do that (please intone sarcasm).
For the new page, see my impressions of the $50,000 Sennheiser Orpheus here.
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The Official Headphone Thread 2.5: We're Making WAVs and Catching FLAC
- Thread starter HiResDes
- Start date
Pretty sure they politely ask you to leave if you do that (please intone sarcasm).
For the new page, see my impressions of the $50,000 Sennheiser Orpheus here.
Antiwhippy
the holder of the trombone
I to 1989?
Chittagong
Gold Member
Excellent impressions, thanks! Man, I would love an Orpheus rig, but even in the freak event I could afford one my wife has made it clear that's where she draws the line. If you are going back I recommend Skulls by Royksopp to check out the bass.
My loudspeaker journey has been so tumultuous and not too unlike what I experienced in the headphone game just even rougher and scarier in terms of accumulation and hoarding. Like there was a time when I had like four or five sets of headphones and multiple pairs of IEMS but it never seemed overwhelming like accumulating speakers. I'm pretty much forced to sell everything and start over since I never found the sound I want but I've learned so much from buying old speakers including how to solder and about room placement subwoofer integration, just the works. I started with some old Polk Monitor 5s that I eventually recapped and sold after finding them to lack quite a lot of detail, then I acquired some Boston Acoustic A150s and I was in love with them until one of the woofers went down on me and it proved rather costly to find an original woofer to replace and rebuild the cabinet from how greatly it was damaged during shipping. Then I acquired some Polk Monitor 7s and out of the box they were completely muddy and awful sounding so I needed to replace the tweeters on em and possibly to a large scale re-cap, but I never got around to it and I just got tired of how much work vintage gear really warrants and decided to get into the modern loudspeaker/bookshelf game. I checked out some Chane ARX A5 tower speakers and loved almost everything about them except their bass presentation, so I ended up sending them back and looked into buying some really high quality bookshelf speakers and building my own subwoofer which is where I find myself now.
woaaah i totally forgot about this album
After listening to that song, yeah, that would have been a good one.
Impulsor
Member
After reading some more about the Sennheiser HD 598 CS I decided to issue an exchange on amazon and order the 598 SE instead.
I have never tried open cans, so I'm excited. I'm also really learning here, since I never have even considered getting "so deep" into this world.
I also ordered a SMSL SD 793II DAC to drive these.
The research I did makes me beleive that this Headphone + DAC combo is a really good choice, even if the 598's are not hard to drive because of the low impedance (50 ohms)
Will use them for movies, games and music, primarily on PS4 and PC.
Did I do well? The 598 SE were only 30 more than the CS.
I have never tried open cans, so I'm excited. I'm also really learning here, since I never have even considered getting "so deep" into this world.
I also ordered a SMSL SD 793II DAC to drive these.
The research I did makes me beleive that this Headphone + DAC combo is a really good choice, even if the 598's are not hard to drive because of the low impedance (50 ohms)
Will use them for movies, games and music, primarily on PS4 and PC.
Did I do well? The 598 SE were only 30 more than the CS.
I don't know much about that DAC but I have the SEs and really like them. The bass leaves a bit to be desired, but otherwise they are terrific. I find them to be super comfy, light with good padding. The sound leak really isn't that bad. You could get away listening to them with other people in the room.
The "expert" at the Sennheiser store recommended Neumann studio monitors. They were demoing them there and while, again I am not an expert, they sounded pretty damn good.
I accidentally purchased the Sennheiser HD 598 Cs to replace my HD 598 Se that my puppy chewed up. Are there any differences between them that will matter to me? I will only be using them to listen to Spotify and play videogames on my computer. Jw before I talk to Amazon about returning them.
One is opened and the other is closed, therefore making them completely different sounding headphones....And not many people seem to like the C's so far if you've been paying attention
I haven't. But I listened to a few songs on the closed headphones....no me gusta. They feel weird and don't sound as good to me. Hopefully Amazon will exchange them for me.
You could try those
http://www.xtzsound.us/shop/us/Speakers/xtz-99-25-mk-ii-piano-black
30 day moneyback guarantee. The difference to the MKIII is rather small, mostly better grille and a component upgrade in the crossover but no principal rework of the crossover like MKI->MKII. At first I found the mids in the MKIII congested/veiled but after I pushed them hard with pink noise for 2x10 mins with break for cooldown it sounded fantastic. Like €3000 fantastic. Extremely transparent without any shoutiness and some of the best bassresolution I heard in a passive 2-way bookshelf. Extremely neutral timbre.
Subwoofers maybe something like the Elac S10EQ? The calibration system works really well and I like I much more than the SVS SB-2000. Disadvantage: downfiring passive membrane. So either turn sideway (ugly) or take care with some insulation so your floor doesn't get so much bass energy (important with wood floors).
The Neumann KH-120 have an almost impeccable reputation. Their only "downside" is their extremely wide dispersion so depending on room setup and listening distance the soundstaging/detail retrievals in the highs plus perceived balance will vary a bit more than usual. Oh yeah, in return when you listening situation is great, the Neumann will have an advantage in depth staging. Give them a listen.
There is a post on Head-fi though that compares the same low star reviews or upset individuals at the same time as the black friday that the 598 SE's went on stock and said it is more about clueless consumers expecting something else or different than what they thought 'these have less bass than my beats'.
The one or two video reviews I saw on youtube while waiting for mine to arrive said they really liked it. For what it's worth, they sound amazing to me, I don't really know any better though.
Good price on those thanks I have a chance to grab a Sunfire 12" for a cheap price so I might opt to do that instead of building my own as fun as it sounds it wouldn't be much more cost effective.
Antiwhippy
the holder of the trombone
I've always liked the audeze stuff except for their treble, which I feel is pretty bad, especially for the price.
Antiwhippy
the holder of the trombone
Nope.
No idea about the JBL 530 but I definitely don't recommend lower end commercial Hi-Fi speakers from the likes of KEF and Bowers & Wilkins. The crossover implementations in them are just dire. First order crossovers are hard to get right and they most definitely do not get them right.
Like with headphones, overall components aren't actually all that important. Its all in the crossover design and driver/cabinet implementation.
Any opinions on the little guys Chane, HTD, or Emp Tek?
SolarMystic
Member
And mids, pretty much everything after the lower mids on an Audeze is a gamble.
Other than the LCD line they are not too bad IMO. You'd think they could put some R&D into making them more ergonomic, no excuse anymore, they are not some super tiny one dude company anymore.
Got a question.
My speakers are going through my rear slot LINE OUT, and I just got a Senheiser 598SE.
I forgot that I don't have a second "LINE OUT" . How can I fix this? Sure I have a Headphone OUT on the front of my PC, but I don't wanna use it, not only it looks bad but also there is a chance my cat reaches it easily and cuts the cable.
I could probably buy a 2 jack into 1 Right? But there goes my second problem, using 2 jack to 1, means I will have both devices running at the same time? Also bad considering I wanna use them splitted.
(My old headphones were USB so easily I could change to jack speakers or USB headphones, easy life) how can I solve this?
My speakers are going through my rear slot LINE OUT, and I just got a Senheiser 598SE.
I forgot that I don't have a second "LINE OUT" . How can I fix this? Sure I have a Headphone OUT on the front of my PC, but I don't wanna use it, not only it looks bad but also there is a chance my cat reaches it easily and cuts the cable.
I could probably buy a 2 jack into 1 Right? But there goes my second problem, using 2 jack to 1, means I will have both devices running at the same time? Also bad considering I wanna use them splitted.
(My old headphones were USB so easily I could change to jack speakers or USB headphones, easy life) how can I solve this?
Xander51
Member
Using a line out port with headphones might not work that well, as it won't have any amplification on it. You could either live with using the headphone out, or you could buy some kind of small USB DAC/Amp combo, like a Soundblaster E1, or something.
I ordered a couple of earbuds when Best Buy had their preview Black Friday Sale.
*Power Beats 2 - I got for $99, they were $30 off.
*Bose wired Sound Sport - I got for $40, which was $60 off.
I am not a fan of the Power Beats 2, at least not for the price I much prefer the Bose Soundsports, although I wish it had phone control buttons. Anone have any expierence with the Bose SoundSport?
I am sure there may be better options out there? I use them at work but have one earbud in almost all day. I will look through the thread and see what people are really enjoying, but I think for what I use them for, I may just enjoy wired earbuds more.
*Power Beats 2 - I got for $99, they were $30 off.
*Bose wired Sound Sport - I got for $40, which was $60 off.
I am not a fan of the Power Beats 2, at least not for the price I much prefer the Bose Soundsports, although I wish it had phone control buttons. Anone have any expierence with the Bose SoundSport?
I am sure there may be better options out there? I use them at work but have one earbud in almost all day. I will look through the thread and see what people are really enjoying, but I think for what I use them for, I may just enjoy wired earbuds more.
What do you mean? Even if you implement it right, a cheap driver will never be as transparent as a good one. Plus making a good speaker from expensive drivers is much easier than from cheaper drivers since their extension is often larger and breakup is much better controlled.
That may be why I enjoy them so much. I'm not a massive treble fan. I just like it to be there just enough to keep the music engaging, but treble focused music gives me headaches. The one 'treble-focused' headphone I do remember liking is one of the mid tier AKGs
I don't find these headphones all that comfortable, but they aren't as bad as I thought, but then again these have the carbon fiber headband on them, which is supposed to be a deal more comfortable than the stock headbands.
Antiwhippy
the holder of the trombone
No I think it's bad in a way that is bad for the treble sensitive. It's really sizzly and uneven and just stands out especially on badly mastered songs.
Nope, selling my lcd-3 because they are heavy and uncomfortable as f.
What do you find to be headphones with great treble?
A cheap driver like those from the likes of Dayton Audio? No, in this day and age even products from the likes of Dayton Audio measure exceptionally well and sound just as good. Price and exoticness doesn't guarantee "transparency" or ease of use just like Beyerdynamic's Telsa drivers don't guarantee better performance than their decades old drivers despite costing significantly more. More often than not, I haven't seen a lot of evidence that really expensive and exotic drivers are heads and shoulders better than the competition...companies like Bowers and Wilkins seem to use stuff like diamond tweeters and Kevlar woofers more as a marketing term.
I thought I was pretty clear in my post...basically the overall component choice is mostly irrelevant. Yes, certain components are objectively better than others but in the grand scheme of things its a pretty small aspect of speaker design. Especially when the real magic is in the actual crossover and cabinet design.
Case in point: the KEF Q300's cost-cutting first order crossover results in obvious cone breakup. Since the Q300 uses a 6.5" cone, you get a double whammy of earlier cone breakup and inconsistent dispersion. Unfortunately, the part you can't see seems to be the first thing that goes under cost-cutting so poor crossover design seems to be an extremely common occurrence with Hi-Fi speakers...even with higher end multi-thousand dollar passives like those from ATC.
So 100 out 100 times I would pick a speaker with "cheap" drivers that actually use a properly designed crossover over an expensive speaker with an average crossover. The JBL LSR305 or Philharmonic Audio's Affordable Accuracy Monitor don't really use expensive parts but honestly sound better than a lot of more far more expensive speakers for a reason.
No idea, not a whole lot of detailed information regarding them.
At around the $200-$300 price range, Philharmonic Audio's Affordable Accuracy Monitor should be one of the best on the market. Dennis, the owner, basically takes a good Dayton Audio DIY kit with larger 6.5" woofers and implements a much improved 4th order crossover that also decreases the crossover frequency. Measurements definitely indicate its better than the ELAC B5 that everyone is going nuts over right now.
Antiwhippy
the holder of the trombone
My HD600. I tend to not like bright headphones though. I tend to prefer a downward sloping signature with very smooth treble.
Audezes, or at least the one I've auditioned, has a lower treble dip that tends to make it sound zingy.
Xander51
Member
Haha weird, must be some stuff going on with the onboard audio then. You might consider an external DAC or a sound card!
I just ordered a pair of Audio-Technica SR5BT's. Not as cheap as they were over the weekend but still a good deal. I've really enjoyed other headphones in their hi-res range, and although I'm always leery of the fit for on-ears, I'm still eager to give them a try. It'll also be my first AptX headphone, so I'm excited to see if I can hear a difference with that on my Mac.
Just got my HD 598 Cs deal from the Amazon deal last week. Not too sure about them. I'm giving them another listen today.
Anyway, I am curious... I own the regular, open-back HD 598, and I also own the Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro. I generally prefer the Beyerdynamic even if it's a bit more fatiguing. Would these two headphones be a huge step up from what I have?
HifiMan HE-400i
BeyerDynamic T90
Anyway, I am curious... I own the regular, open-back HD 598, and I also own the Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro. I generally prefer the Beyerdynamic even if it's a bit more fatiguing. Would these two headphones be a huge step up from what I have?
HifiMan HE-400i
BeyerDynamic T90
Xander51
Member
I saw that. If I hadn't just ordered a different pair yesterday I would have jumped in! I owned the wired version in the past and it was a solid can.
this thread is full of poison :O
would this be vastly better than the 598s?
Wireless cans would be good for portable gaming :X
Having had my Sony MA900's for about a week now I am finding myself enjoying them and using them more and more. I actually brought them to work today to use in my space while I was catching up on email and paperwork. Even with them on my head off and on all day they have been super comfy.
That being said, when I use them on my home setup I am using my receiver's headphone port (My setup passes audio and video over HDMI through my 980ti video card out to an Onkyo receiver) and I am finding that I have to turn the volume up substantially.
Like, normal volume is 11 and a good headphone volume is 20 or more. And even then, I feel like the sound could use some more "oomph". Do I need an Amp to improve the situation? And excuse my ignorance but can you go out from the receiver to an amp for the headphones or is that just needlessly complicated?
Ideally I want to keep my receiver and 5.1 setup for when I am not using my headphones.
That being said, when I use them on my home setup I am using my receiver's headphone port (My setup passes audio and video over HDMI through my 980ti video card out to an Onkyo receiver) and I am finding that I have to turn the volume up substantially.
Like, normal volume is 11 and a good headphone volume is 20 or more. And even then, I feel like the sound could use some more "oomph". Do I need an Amp to improve the situation? And excuse my ignorance but can you go out from the receiver to an amp for the headphones or is that just needlessly complicated?
Ideally I want to keep my receiver and 5.1 setup for when I am not using my headphones.
I will check. Thank you.
Don't forget to use Direct mode/an profile without processing because the headphones will sound worse with the speaker corrections.