EPTHeadphone enthusiast thread! - Page 89
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papyrus
Philippines716 Posts
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CatNzHat
United States1599 Posts
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Blisse
Canada3710 Posts
On August 20 2011 21:39 CatNzHat wrote: I keep seeing people using quality headsets (Sennheisers, Grado, the likes) with crappy sound cards, and it makes me want to cry. Get a nice soundcard (HT Claro for example), or a more expensive amp/DAC combo, if you're going to be investing in a good headset, then you need a good DAC solution to be able to utilize it. After thinking about it, I'll make it clearer. Modern sound cards are not crap. Amplifiers for most common headphones like the M50 and HD555 will not noticeably increase the sound. People with Grados probably know what they're doing. You're much better off spending the $150 from the sound card on a better pair of headphones. Headphones are not headsets. The world is not full of audiophiles. You should not be crying, but celebrating that people are looking for the best headphones for their money instead of blindly following whatever is currently the craze. Buying headphones is something they'll do only when their headphones break. And that's all they'll ever spend. Not everyone needs to do this for a hobby. + Show Spoiler + Your suggesting a $150 sound card to match sub-$200 headphones? Might as well simply buy a $350 pair of headphones. At least then you won't be wasting your money. Spending the money on headphones will always provide a bigger difference than buying an amplifier, except in some specific cases. All modern sound cards are perfectly fine for headphones. It honestly seems like you're trying to justify your own purchases. Some sound cards like the Claros have decent dedicated amplifiers, but will not provide any discernible differences, especially for the novice that doesn't have the complete rig yet. There are many headphones that do not require any amplifier to get over 95% of their sound. The M50s and the HD555s fall into that category, and those are the most popular headphones. And I don't know how you "keep seeing people using quality headsets" like Grado, since Grado doesn't make headsets, and Grado is the least popular audiophile level headphone company. The people who buy Grado more often than not actually know what they're doing. Again, you don't need anything to utilize it. To help you visualize, the sound increase from getting an amplifier will only be about 10% at best unless you're using crap to begin with. And no, modern sound cards wouldn't be considered crap unless you own some $400+ rig already. Not everyone is looking to spend all that money on headphones. | ||
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Twistacles
Canada1327 Posts
On August 20 2011 21:39 CatNzHat wrote: I keep seeing people using quality headsets (Sennheisers, Grado, the likes) with crappy sound cards, and it makes me want to cry. Get a nice soundcard (HT Claro for example), or a more expensive amp/DAC combo, if you're going to be investing in a good headset, then you need a good DAC solution to be able to utilize it. In my experience, the Realtek ALC889 onboard soundcard I have sounds the same as my friend's fancy soundcard, and most forums will confirm this. Dacs are too expensive  | ||
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-y0shi-
Germany994 Posts
Im just wondering if this is placebo or if theyre really that good  | ||
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xHassassin
United States270 Posts
Also I need a sound card in the sub fifty range, last card was an xtrememusic but it died on me. Suggestions? | ||
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Blisse
Canada3710 Posts
On August 21 2011 15:28 xHassassin wrote: Can anyone link me to a foobar setup guide? Also I need a sound card in the sub fifty range, last card was an xtrememusic but it died on me. Suggestions? What do you need to set up? In my experience, Foobar is pretty much plug and play. The only thing you need to do is direct the player to your music directory, maybe change the default layout and colours, and add some playlists. The fancy stuff like custom skins come with all the per-requisites and their own instructions. Layout editing mode lets you customize the default layout, so instead of having those wavy things that move with your music, you can change it to your album art, or a description of the artist, or lyrics, though lyric support is a bit broken. As mentioned above, all sound cards are essentially the same. Just buy something popular that works. Buying something from Creative, Auzentech or HT Omega is the safest. | ||
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czaku
Poland429 Posts
For PC i have PC360 form Sennheiser and if u have good sound card, go for it! | ||
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bRuTaL!!
Finland588 Posts
Sennheiser 650 Asus Xonar STX | ||
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Blisse
Canada3710 Posts
On August 22 2011 02:48 bRuTaL!! wrote: Bought recently: Sennheiser 650 Asus Xonar STX You should've saved up the $200 from the ASUS Xonar and bought a real amplifier instead. The Sennheiser HD 650s really deserve one, and really open up once you've got a quality $250+ amplifier behind them. Still, the HD 650s are a great pair of headphones. They just need a good amplifier to give them that oomph over the competition. | ||
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mayhem123
United States101 Posts
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FruitGG
United States73 Posts
http://www.head-fi.org/t/568381/westone-4-also-trading-for-ultrasone-pro-900-cash#post_7703091 | ||
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Left4Cookies
Denmark803 Posts
Am I doing anything wrong? Have I, with this setup, reached the limit of what kind of audio quality my PC can output? | ||
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Myrmidon
United States9452 Posts
It's probably just some combination of (1) many people exaggerating differences between relatively mid-higher end gear and setting unrealistic expectations, (2) you being used to or preferring the type of sound signature the PC360 has as opposed to the DT880, and (3) the DT880 needing time to burn in (though differences after burning in for many headphones are slight at best). What's the odd thing you're talking about when plugging into the 6.35mm jack? | ||
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57 Corvette
Canada5941 Posts
![[image loading]](http://images.pricecanada.com/images/products/229/l229760.jpg) Hopfully these headphones and my two replacements will last until I can save for some good Sennheisers again. | ||
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Left4Cookies
Denmark803 Posts
On August 24 2011 06:44 Myrmidon wrote: Well the limit of what your computer can do isn't exactly that low unless your sound card really sucks. It's probably just some combination of (1) many people exaggerating differences between relatively mid-higher end gear and setting unrealistic expectations, (2) you being used to or preferring the type of sound signature the PC360 has as opposed to the DT880, and (3) the DT880 needing time to burn in (though differences after burning in for many headphones are slight at best). What's the odd thing you're talking about when plugging into the 6.35mm jack? Well, there's nothing odd going on really. The "odd" thing was that the difference between the DT880's and the Sennheiser's is that it wasn't very big. Do you have any experiences with an external DAC? I'm thinking the DAC in my Creative X-fi card could bottleneck the headphones? Or have I just reached the point where you pay an extreme amount of money for a very small upgrade? | ||
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Piggiez
393 Posts
On August 22 2011 13:46 adioN wrote: Hey, I'm looking to buy a new pair of headphones for gaming (fps/rts) and music. I don't really mind whether its open or closed, but I would like to keep it around $100~ (preferably lower though). I also would not like to get soft cushion ears as they are rather hard to clean. ^_^ I was thinking of getting the Sony MDR-V6. Watcha think? Audio Technica AD700. Has a great sound stage, so (for you - an fps player) it'll help with locating gunshots, footsteps, etc. It's an open model and you can find it on Amazon for $89 free shipping | ||
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Myrmidon
United States9452 Posts
On August 24 2011 15:20 Left4Cookies wrote: Well, there's nothing odd going on really. The "odd" thing was that the difference between the DT880's and the Sennheiser's is that it wasn't very big. Do you have any experiences with an external DAC? I'm thinking the DAC in my Creative X-fi card could bottleneck the headphones? Or have I just reached the point where you pay an extreme amount of money for a very small upgrade? Check and make sure there's no kind of poor automatic upsampling of 44.1 kHz (normal CD audio and all mp3s and so on derived from that) to 48 kHz going on. However, you'd hear any potential issues with that on both headphones. It's more like the point of diminishing returns. Different headphones are a lot different compared to different DACs (that don't have huge problems or aren't otherwise trying to warm up the signal or enhance it like maybe some Audio-GD stuff, tube DACs, and so on. And even in those situations, the difference between different headphones is larger.). Some people would say that dynamic (moving coil) headphones are all meh, and you should try planar magnetics, electrostatics, etc. But regardless of the implementation technology, it's just going to be vibrating and creating sound waves, so it shouldn't be like a completely different class of device. | ||
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tuho12345
4482 Posts
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Buckus
United States14 Posts
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