Headphone enthusiast thread! - Page 176

On June 12 2012 22:59 Manimal_pro wrote:
hey guys I need to buy a pair of headphones to use at work. I wanna make everyone jealous here, can you guys give me a recomandation of some headphones that sound great and look really good?

On June 12 2012 20:50 antilyon wrote:

If you like it, great, but I don't see how this is a enthusiast headphone...

On June 08 2012 04:02 Myrmidon wrote:
IMHO the open and wider-sounding headphones tend to sound too wide on many recordings. Maybe you're hearing that? I guess it's just less noticeable on headphones where everything sounds like it's inside your head, but this is one of the legitimate weaknesses of using headphones to listen to sounds mastered with the intent of being played back on speakers. With speakers, some sound from the left speaker goes to the right ear and vice versa—the amount is less, and it depends on the frequency and your head/ear shape, and there's a time delay, so there's a lot going on. You don't get any of that L/R mixing together, with headphones on.

A few rare recordings are mastered for binaural (headphone) playback, and a lot of music may be mastered to kind of sound okay on both. But if you want to take matters into your own hands, there are hardware crossfeed circuits and lots of free software options to try, if you want. I like this foobar plugin:
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?s=0cb1876f4870f4be7e5b8e97450ad7da&showtopic=90764&st=0

You can also look at this, which also adds reverb and some other things:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/555263/foobar2000-dolby-headphone-config-comment-discuss

You might not like any of that at all, or maybe you use it already?


As for a sub-$200 amp, the Objective2 is popular these days. It can be bought here and a couple other places:
http://www.jdslabs.com/item.php?fetchitem=O2Full

At least with that you know what you're getting since the circuit is open-sourced, and there is plenty of documentation on the performance and design, if you can wade through the walls of text and figures:
http://nwavguy.blogspot.com/2011/07/o2-headphone-amp.html#measurements
http://nwavguy.blogspot.com/2011/08/o2-details.html#circuitdescription

If you're passable with a soldering iron, you can put it together yourself for some savings.

edit: I wouldn't be surprised if there were some issue with the NuForce Icon HDP running the HE-500, but I wouldn't assume that getting something else would really be a notable improvement. It also depends on how loud you're playing the headphones.

On May 22 2012 01:39 squattincassanova wrote:
Seriously after having my Sennheiser HD800, I dont feel like listening to anything else.

They are way better than my HD595s, and they are much better than my in ear Westone 3 earbuds. I have headroom ultra dac/amp at home, and at work I use the Fiio E17.

I been bring it to work, but three problems. 1. The sound bleeds out like crazy and the old lady next to me keeps complaining. 2. Gotta be careful transporting it to and from work. 3. Its a big distraction because everyone comes ask me what it is.

On June 13 2012 05:35 Schashlik wrote:
I am currently using a Sennheiser Siberia V2. I like it quite a bit. Espacially the microphone which slides into the Headset. Its sound is rather rich, definately not really usable for lets say Audiotechnicans but for me it does the job quite well. I had a Sennheiser before but it was an on-ear Headset which i wouldn't buy anymore. It slips off the ear way too easily.

On June 14 2012 05:10 Kilby wrote:
I just have to say that the first time I noticed there might be something wrong with my sound card was when I just randomly tried my Sennheiser HD380 Pro headphones to listen to the radio from my phone. I was really surprised that there was much better sound than what my computer was ever able to create even though I had i guess pretty OK speakers (Logitech Z-2300). And so I purchased a new sound card (replacing some incredibly old sound blaster) and the difference was like night and day. However, the difference is by far the largest when using my headphones, the sound quality is just incredibly good with them. With the speakers the difference is much smaller between old and new, it kind of feels that the difference gets absorbed in the room somehow. And so nowadays I basically have headphones on all the time.

I guess the lesson of the story is that even if your headphones/speakers would be capable of producing high quality sound and good bass, they will not do it if your source is crap. And also, Sennheiser seems to be pretty good at making headphones.

On June 13 2012 08:30 Soulstice wrote:
Hello, im looking for some advice as to which pair of headphones i should get. I mostly listen to old school hip hop, and id rather have a bass that pops than a bass that slams, if that makes sense. Id like to pay around 200 dollars for a pair and here is what ive come up with:

Sennheiser HD 595's - I really like what i hear about these, but are they worth $250?
and the
Audio-Technica ATH-M50's - at $159, i hear most people payed sub $100 for these which makes me salty, but ive also heard they are still worth the money.
Any suggestions?

On June 13 2012 02:15 Milkis wrote:


Interesting. I thought software based things were usually bad though? What's the difference, and what kind of things are going on when you do?

I looked at the O2. I'll try for it once my budget frees up again. And yeah, I'm not looking for a "notable improvement", I'm just looking for something "different". It's hard to compare things when you don't have anything to compare it to.

On June 09 2012 23:31 ThePurist wrote:


Dunno about soundcard but what is your source for your 598s? You won't need an amplifier but on mobile devices it might be a tad quiet.

On June 13 2012 05:35 Schashlik wrote:
I am currently using a Sennheiser Siberia V2. I like it quite a bit. Espacially the microphone which slides into the Headset. Its sound is rather rich, definately not really usable for lets say Audiotechnicans but for me it does the job quite well. I had a Sennheiser before but it was an on-ear Headset which i wouldn't buy anymore. It slips off the ear way too easily.

On June 16 2012 01:48 starstern wrote:



headroom ultra dac/amp at home, and at work I use the Fiio E17...
how in your words ,you put the difference in sound output quality ?