Headphone enthusiast thread! - Page 20

On December 07 2010 13:58 zyglrox wrote:



yea the chord is obnoxious, and my mic crapped out about a week ago =\ ordered some AD700s should be in tomorrow hopefully those are an improvement of some sort.

On December 07 2010 14:08 Fyodor wrote:

AD700 are serious headphones. turtle beach stuff is toys. All I'm gonna say.

On December 07 2010 13:48 Fyodor wrote:

The best headphones out there huh. I can name a few that are contending.

Stax SR007 O2
Audez'e LCD2
Yamaha YH-1000
Sony R10
beyerdynamic T1
Sennheiser HD800
Sennheiser HE90
AKG K1000

Just the obvious super expensive or rare headphones. I can tell you they're all worth over $1000 but I can't tell you if they're worth it. Something you have to find out for yourself.

On December 07 2010 13:56 Fyodor wrote:

lol I think my Audio-GD came with an OP2137. It's pretty decent. When I finally let my discrete opamp burn in there was no turning back though. Talking about OPA Earth here.

On December 07 2010 16:33 Myrmidon wrote:


Forgive my ignorance, but what's the technical explanation behind op amp swapping? Or any rationale at all? I have a degree in EE and am working on another, but my specialty has nothing to do with electronics, so I only have limited knowledge in this area.

If you look at the SNR, THD, etc. of the expensive (well, above a couple dollars a piece is expensive as far as op amps goes) op amps used for audio buffers and current drivers, they're specced way beyond the threshold of human hearing. Slew rate, max voltage swing, etc. are usually more than sufficient, and the transient response looks great too. Many of the op amps used are actually often intended for other applications that have much more stringent requirements than audio. e.g. a lot of them pass frequencies much higher than 20kHz.

Granted, those specs are what the manufacturer is listing under their controlled testing environment and implementation. Maybe performance is different in a different circuit, like in a complete amplifier device? If the exact implementation is that important (I wouldn't think it would be with many classes of op amps), wouldn't the amp circuit be designed for the stock op amp? Then wouldn't the circuit be suboptimal for a different op amp you are switching to?

Or maybe humans are good at hearing certain types of transient distortions that don't show up in the traditional canned response and distortion tests listed on the specs?

(Another, much simpler explanation maybe would involve concepts like placebo and group think, but I'm not that quick to dismiss something I don't have much experience or knowledge of.)

On December 07 2010 16:07 Comprissent wrote:


Just going to throw in my $.02 here; I was originally an xbox360 gamer. I am currently using the Turtle Beach x31's, and i'm super pleased with them. (They work just fine on computer as well, which i was psyched about) I don't have much experience with other headsets at all, so these are a huge treat for my ears. They're wireless and really comfortable to use for extended periods.

I do think the best reason they are the perfect headset for me is that I live in a college dorm right now, and have a minimal gaming setup. I only use a laptop to play sc2 ( i do have a second monitor for other things as well), and i don't have a real committed gaming desktop @ home or here. Being a relatively cheap headset (~$80), they're a relatively nice pair to have around my dorm, and the wireless feature is fantastic for lying in bed to watch streams or just walking around without having to get tangled cords all the time. All that being said, i don't think a very expensive headset would be justified for me at the time (not very easy to open up the wallet while in school!)

On December 09 2010 05:49 zyglrox wrote:



i have the X31's for my not used so much x-box as well. the HPX series is way better for less money, however it requires some adapters and such for x-box usage. i agree that turtle beach makes pretty cheap feeling stuff, the HPX are very different from the rest. they use metal and are very very durable and fit extremely well.

got my AD700's today in the mail and was not as impressed as I thought I would be. my biggest complaint would half the be the fitting system. i apparently have a small head, and they will actually slide almost off depending on the degree of movement. the sound is good, lacking bass but i knew this when i bought them as i love mids (guitar player :D) haven't tried them with gaming yet, i'm sure they are fine but i'm thinking about returning them as for the investment it's not as big of an improvement as i was hoping and they just don't fit that well.

i originally wanted senn 555's, but couldn't find them from a known retailer like newegg and didn't want to use amazon.com, maybe i'll just wait and save for 595's and see how those are. will try the AD700's out for a few days before making a decision though.

On December 07 2010 21:32 b_unnies wrote:
How good are Firestone fubar amp/dac combos?

On December 09 2010 07:13 Fyodor wrote:
That series was hailed by Sennheiser as true audiophile headphones for a cheap price when it comes pretty pathetically short of their HD600 series. What we got are headphones which perform below their price point. What they have going for them however is a very low street price where they start to have comparable company. Still I think the AD900, M50, SRH-840, K701, DT880 are much better options in that overall price category.

On December 07 2010 19:49 Fyodor wrote:

That's an excellent question, probably the best question asked in my thread so far. I can't tell you much about the science but opamps do sound different from one another.

Generally you want an opamp with a flat frequency response from 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz, audio is extremely sensitive to that. You also take out opamps with power/bandwidth ratings that aren't suitable for audio applications and you're not left with that many choices. Chips that are left have different SNR, frequency response, input/output impedance etc and you have to find which one works for you. Opamp switching is more about altering flavor though, some opamps might be more popular in audio despite that they don't have a perfectly flat frequency response.

Did my best to talk to you about opamps but I'm not an engineer, you can tell me if I'm being a fool here, I'd be glad.