Headphone enthusiast thread! - Page 60

On March 29 2011 16:04 Gatsbi wrote:


Well how is the volume for you? I know when I had my DT880's (32 ohm) running straight out of my PC (no soundcard) it wasn't nearly loud enough, even at 100% PC volume I was having a hard time hearing stuff in movies even. When I got my Essence ST it was a godsend, I had more volume than I knew what to do with, plus a pretty great (for the price) DAC. It was pretty night and day for me, but that was coming straight from my integrated computer sound (Realtek AC97) to the Essence ST.

I haven't heard the DX so I can't say for sure, but I have to say the Essence ST is DEFINITELY worth the price and it will serve as a decent DAC when you decide (or if you decide) to upgrade to an external amp. Even when you decide to upgrade to an external DAC too, the Essence ST has one of the cleanest (if not the cleanest) Optical Out's of any sound card, so it works great as a transport as well.

On March 29 2011 16:30 Eurekastreet wrote:
For us knobs out there : what's a Meier Audio StageDAC and what does it do exactly ?

On March 29 2011 17:01 Myrmidon wrote:


It's a device that costs several hundred dollars, which converts sound data sent in digital format to an analog voltage signal (hence digital-to-analog converter, or DAC). Functionally, you can think of it as an external sound card dedicated solely to high-fidelity output. How it precisely does this digital-to-analog conversion slightly differently and hopefully better than other devices has a lot to do with the details of the implementation. It also has a crossfeed feature--essentially, mixing left and right channel signals in a certain way.

By design, the output circuitry is not designed to power headphones directly. Therefore, users usually connect the output of the device to a dedicated amplifier that is intended to drive the headphone.

Most sound cards have a much simpler/cheaper headphone amplifier in addition to the DAC (and ADC and related parts for the inputs like for microphones). The quality of the integrated amplifier in different sound cards and even onboard audio chips varies widely. The Asus Essence ST/STX mentioned earlier has a top headphone amplifier circuit among PC sound cards.

On March 29 2011 19:45 HuggyBear wrote:

When it comes to PC audio, nothing beats the bang/buck you get from just getting a soundcard

On March 30 2011 00:41 Fyodor wrote:

Not true though. The integrated chips are the unmitigated kings of bang for the buck. They cost nothing because you already have them and they give you positively pleasant sound. As soon as you spend any money at all, you commit yourself to the impossible task of beating realtek. Can you get better sound with one dollar? No, you only have a jellybean chip with nothing attached to it. With 20 dollars? You have a bunch of jellybean chips and parts that can form a sound card and you can sell it with a certain profit. Does it sound better than integrated? probably not noticeably. With one hundred dollars you can look at something that can beat realtek if you pay real attention. Is it infinitely better? No. That's why motherboards only have realtek. They can't be beat.

Spending money on headphone rigs cannot be rationally explained in terms of bang for the buck IMO. It's an obsessive hobby that's highly subjective.

On March 30 2011 02:50 Myrmidon wrote:
Well, past a certain point of DAC and amp quality, the differences between different devices is often pretty subtle and sometimes impossible to distinguish by ear. Granted, this is less so when dealing with tube amps, intentional harmonic distortion for euphonics, crossfeed filters, and other additives). But the differences are at times smaller than expectation bias.

There's all sorts of anecdotes about headphone/speaker rigs put behind a screen, some for funsies but less with any kind of scientific rigor. A guy toggles a switch between A and B and asks people to listen and tell which is better--he gets lots of responses for A and lots for B. It turns out that the switch wasn't changing anything. Or, a person is told his awesome rig was replaced with a low-end crappy system. He then listens to the rig and describes the sound as terrible, but it turns out he was listening to his own awesome rig the whole time.

Even in an actual blind test, I frequently identify (imaginary) differences between audio tracks that are actually identical.

Best bang-for-buck is ignorance, not realizing that there may be better or different rigs out there.

On March 30 2011 05:20 ieatkids5 wrote:

Agreed. Huge huge diminishing returns on audio equipment. I'm actually very glad I can't tell the difference between a decent entry-level pair of headphones or IEMs and a mid-to-high level pair.

On March 30 2011 05:38 Chewits wrote:
60 pages in this thread, so forgive me if this has been posted already.

On March 31 2011 07:38 Unreg wrote:
Any1 has some in-ear recomendations? I have 7h at home but wanted something for my laptop and for office so I don't have to carry the 7h everyday -D

On April 01 2011 11:53 KRaver wrote:
HI TL,

Can somebody help recommend me some portable/casual headphones ?

I currently own a Zumreed Sfit, Audio technical ATH SJ3 and a Mix-style star

Looking for another to add to my collection and the max i'm willing to spend is $150

+ Show Spoiler +

On April 01 2011 12:41 JSH wrote:


Any other specific details on the headphones other than that you want it to be portable?

The widely popular and loved ATH-M50 seems like a candidate as it folds up pretty nicely and costs around $120?