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On December 07 2011 10:50 victoryimminent wrote:Speaking of DACs, would anyone be able to recommend me a USB DAC that would pair well with a Little Dot MKIII amp and a Sennheiser HD600? I'm purchasing an audiophile setup for my father for Christmas and realized that he will be listening mostly out of a PC so a DAC will be necessary since he doesn't have a sound card. I've done a bit of research and read a few good reviews on the HRT Music Streamer II. I've also looked into the Little Dot DAC I which seems to be a more expensive if not more sleek and well made DAC (and the fact that it is more expensive than the amp is certainly something). Any other recommendations or concerns would be greatly appreciated.
I did some research on portable DAC and I never heard of either Little Dot MKII or HRT (nice reviews on amazon though). Only names that people praise are uDAC-2 and variations of iBasso.
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I honestly thing its a form factor of its own - being so tiny, so small.
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konadora
Singapore66356 Posts
is it okay for me to post a question on earphones here? :o
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T.O.P.
Hong Kong4685 Posts
On December 07 2011 12:18 TorontoRaccoon wrote:
Triple-fi is so uncomfortable its not even funny. X10's are single driver, no point comparing. I paid 350 bucks - I though it was kind of ovepriced, but for 99 bucks? Pfft give me five!
$350 0.0
With that kind of money I would try the Earsonic SM3.
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On December 07 2011 12:29 TorontoRaccoon wrote:
I honestly thing its a form factor of its own - being so tiny, so small.
They're still both IEMs and the same price.
Anyway I will concede that at $99, the X10s are a good value relative to what I spent (> $60) on the S4s. I guess it's hard to comment on the relative value versus something like the M6's which are so cheap.
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On December 07 2011 12:32 T.O.P. wrote:Show nested quote +On December 07 2011 12:18 TorontoRaccoon wrote:
Triple-fi is so uncomfortable its not even funny. X10's are single driver, no point comparing. I paid 350 bucks - I though it was kind of ovepriced, but for 99 bucks? Pfft give me five! $350 0.0 With that kind of money I would try the Earsonic SM3.
I'm skeptical of the value of any pair of universal IEMs over $300.
There's probably still a lot of room for improvement in the high-end IEM space considering the amount of interest in recent years. I would wait a few years before spending that kind of money on universals.
Currently, given everything I've read and heard, I would say that the triple-fis and the X10s offer the best value.
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On December 07 2011 12:32 T.O.P. wrote:Show nested quote +On December 07 2011 12:18 TorontoRaccoon wrote:
Triple-fi is so uncomfortable its not even funny. X10's are single driver, no point comparing. I paid 350 bucks - I though it was kind of ovepriced, but for 99 bucks? Pfft give me five! $350 0.0 With that kind of money I would try the Earsonic SM3.
Well the X10's are the only non customs I still own. Well I think I had the Shure 530s somewhere. I like my X10's and for all the time I had them - I do not regret.
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On December 07 2011 12:50 TorontoRaccoon wrote:Show nested quote +On December 07 2011 12:32 T.O.P. wrote:On December 07 2011 12:18 TorontoRaccoon wrote:
Triple-fi is so uncomfortable its not even funny. X10's are single driver, no point comparing. I paid 350 bucks - I though it was kind of ovepriced, but for 99 bucks? Pfft give me five! $350 0.0 With that kind of money I would try the Earsonic SM3. Well the X10's are the only non customs I still own. Well I think I had the Shure 530s somewhere. I like my X10's and for all the time I had them - I do not regret.
Wait.. you own multiple customs?
Wow, Mr. investment banker, I guess my value proposition argument/comparison doesn't apply to the 1%.
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Hello headphone/set experts.
I've been looking for a new headphone/set for a while but I have some specific requirements. With these I've found it nigh impossible to find something to my liking and I was hoping someone here could make some suggestions.
I'm primarly looking for a headset (ie with a mic, prefered to be detachable)
Wireless (so I can chill on couch for movie or bike-train while having some tunes on)
dockstation, so I don't have to replace batteries, and the phones just charge off the dockstation
said dockstation with 3.5mm plugs so I can plug it into my pc's sound card.
over-ear (mayhap with active noise canceling but that is low-prio)
I am however not an audiophile, so I am willing to make some concessions on sound quality.
Any advice? 
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On December 07 2011 18:03 Karok wrote:
I'm primarly looking for a headset (ie with a mic, prefered to be detachable)
Wireless (so I can chill on couch for movie or bike-train while having some tunes on)
dockstation, so I don't have to replace batteries, and the phones just charge off the dockstation
said dockstation with 3.5mm plugs so I can plug it into my pc's sound card.
over-ear (mayhap with active noise canceling but that is low-prio)
I'm not sure if you'll find anything satisfying all of those conditions, because it doesn't make much sense to do it that way from a technical perspective. To transmit the audio data wirelessly, you want the data still to be in the digital domain. Then the receiver on the headphones side can get the signal and convert into analog. It doesn't make too much sense for the transmitter on the computer side to take in analog audio if it's going to be transmitting it in digital format. i.e. computer D/A -> 3.5mm cable -> dock A/D -> wireless -> headphones receiver D/A -> headphones. That would be an extra D/A and A/D cycle, introducing additional latency, degrading the signal a little bit, and reducing the control the manufacturer has over the signal chain.
So as a guess, I'd think that these devices would not have analog inputs on the dock.
edit: nevermind some have analog inputs on the base station transmitter, probably intended for say a portable player, which sounds like something people would use
I know Sennheiser has a gajillion headphone models, and their MM and RS lines may be applicable to some degree. I think RS has no mic, but MM does have a microphone. A lot of stage crew / professional communications headsets / etc. would be wireless and have a microphone, but those tend to be single-sided (single ear) or in-ear rather than fullsize.
http://www.sennheiser.com/sennheiser/home_en.nsf/root/private_headphones_wireless-headphones
http://www.sennheiser.com/sennheiser/home_en.nsf/root/private_headphones_travel-line
I'm not that familiar with wireless headphones, so I can't think of other reputable manufacturers who make those.
edit: wouldn't a wired clip-on mic defeat the purpose of going wireless?
rofl the flagship MM 550 at like $400 are officially used by the Dallas Mavericks (NBA team). There's a quote from Cuban.
http://www.sennheiserusa.com/bluetooth-wireless-headphones-noise-cancelling_portable_502417
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Hm ok, so, just the docking station/charger thingy then, dropping the 3.5mm pins (and asuming it'll be usb powered then?)
I'd just really hate working with replacing batteries all the time and using some external charger for them.
Thanks for the suggestions!
The Zalman mic looks like an awesome solution to the whole mic deal.
So I guess all that is left is a wireless headset with docking station/charger! :D
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Oh yeah, well disregarding "reputable" (with respect to audio), many of the gaming peripherals brands may have a wireless headset, so I can't imagine they're that uncommon.
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On December 07 2011 18:37 Karok wrote:
Hm ok, so, just the docking station/charger thingy then, dropping the 3.5mm pins (and asuming it'll be usb powered then?)
I'd just really hate working with replacing batteries all the time and using some external charger for them.
Thanks for the suggestions!
The Zalman mic looks like an awesome solution to the whole mic deal.
So I guess all that is left is a wireless headset with docking station/charger! :D
At that point I'm pretty sure the Senn RS180 is the best there is with a docking station.
Oh, and I posted the WoW headsets facetiously  .
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Just been looking at that RS180 idd, looked interesting. How well does it combine with a generic PC soundcard? (ie, only 3.5mm 5.1 plugs and a digital out)
Also what is the major difference compared to the RS170? theres around a 50euro difference between them :o
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The transmitter accepts 3.5mm, so it'll be fine.
As for the difference, from what I can tell the 170 is closed, the 180 is open. Also 180 has velour pads, 170 has leatherette pads (I highly recommend velour, but this is up to what you like to wear).
You can peruse this thread to learn more:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/443740/sennheiser-rs160-170-180-anyone
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I had recently been looking for portable circumaural headphones (over rather than on) and picked up some Denon 1100's. I just have to say wow and I am never going back to any other portable headphone ever again. I run it with LOD iPod into a "Head-fi amp" (I forgot who made it but it was sold through Head-fi a few years ago) and it sounds fantastic. Would highly, highly, highly recommend for 160$.
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T.O.P.
Hong Kong4685 Posts
On December 07 2011 12:48 c0ldfusion wrote:Show nested quote +On December 07 2011 12:32 T.O.P. wrote:On December 07 2011 12:18 TorontoRaccoon wrote:
Triple-fi is so uncomfortable its not even funny. X10's are single driver, no point comparing. I paid 350 bucks - I though it was kind of ovepriced, but for 99 bucks? Pfft give me five! $350 0.0 With that kind of money I would try the Earsonic SM3. I'm skeptical of the value of any pair of universal IEMs over $300. There's probably still a lot of room for improvement in the high-end IEM space considering the amount of interest in recent years. I would wait a few years before spending that kind of money on universals. Currently, given everything I've read and heard, I would say that the triple-fis and the X10s offer the best value.
SM3's price is currently $380. People who listened to it say it's a whole tier above stuff like shure 535, triple fi 10, westone UM3X.
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Hey, maybe someone can help me out.
I need a pair of headphones with a mic.. however I may just get an attachable one due to the fact that I would also like to use these headphones on the go.
So, if I were to get a pair of headphones around $50-60 (no mic required), what is the best option for sound quality? (I want some decent bass in them)
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EPT
