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On January 01 2013 09:44 Infernal_dream wrote:+ Show Spoiler +On December 31 2012 09:35 Blisse wrote:Show nested quote +On December 30 2012 14:45 Infernal_dream wrote:
Looking for a headset between 150 - 200 dollars. Have three roomates so noise cancellation/isolation would be good. Need something that fits good on the ears without too much pressure (I wear glasses 24/7). Mic not really required, I can always just buy a clip on or something. Mostly play sc2, CS:GO, PS2 and stuff like that. Listen to a lot of different kinds of music from rock to electronic so good sound at all levels would be nice as well. I wouldn't call myself an audiophile but I can definitely hear a lot of things in sound systems that others cant. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Crossing IEMs out of your list because they're pretty bad for CSGO. For active noise cancellation, you have + good to great noise cancellation + comfort depending on brand (Bose QuietComfort++) - sound quality - you may hear a humming from the noise cancellation In terms of headphones, you have the Bose QuietComforts if you can find any pair at $200 (unlikely). Otherwise, you have the Audio-Technica ATH-ANC7 at about $150. The ANC7 has better sound quality than Bose, but the Bose has better comfort and noise cancellation. All noise cancelling headphones have subpar sound quality compared to regular ones at the same price point. For passive isolation, you're really looking at any closed full-sized headphones. + comfort + okay isolation + sound quality per dollar - not the greatest ever isolation - not that good for first person shooters (still better than IEM) If you can get a pair of Denon D2000 which hovers at about $180 street, it'll be pretty much as good as you can get. They're semi-open/closed, so the isolation is pretty bad, but it crushes everything at the price point in terms of sound. If you want more isolation, you can go fully closed. So that means Audio-Technica ATH-M50 ($150), Audio-Technica ATH-A700/900 (if you can find them in your budget), Beyerdynamic DT-770 PRO ($180), or AKG K 271 MK II ($140). For headsets, the only thing I'd recommend is the Sennheiser PC350. I'm not that experienced in that area. You haven't listed any other preferences, such as where/when/how you're using the headphones, what your headphone background is, and your music preferences are very wide, so this advice is pretty generic. All of them should be fine for your needs though. You will want headphones will less bass for CSGO, but all closed headphones have a higher amount of bass than usually. The best would definitely still be the Denon D2000, but the isolation might not be up to par. Show nested quote +On December 31 2012 04:31 9-BiT wrote:
I remember getting a recommendation earlier about a pair of sony (i think) headphones. The whole cup is pretty much cushion IIRC. Does anyone know what headphones I'm thinking of? I have been searching a bit and I can't seem to find which I'm thinking of :/ You're probably thinking about the Sony XB-500, or any of the other full-sized XB series. Thanks a lot for the help. Isolation/cancellation isn't too important as my roomates tend to be secluded in their rooms as well. No real background with headphones but I have played with quite a few high end systems. Gonna be my first mid range headphones. It seems as though the Denon D2000's are quite difficult to find. As for when I'll be listening to them and such it'll only be connected to my computer. All my music is FLAC formatted. No sound card as of yet but will probably be upgrading to get one. Heavier bass is probably preferred to clearer highs as well if I had to give one up for the other.
Yup, the Denon D2000 have been discontinued for about 1 or 2 years. $200 is the reference street and used price I've last seen them at. If you could find them in stock at that price, they're very good. I mention them over the others because being semi-open and higher end than the others, they don't have excessively boom-y bass, so they work very well for shooters compared to the others I listed.
It all depends on what you're willing to spend. Of the ones I listed, the DT770 are the best overall. If you want to spend a bit less, then the ATH-M50 are your other option. Spending more treads onto the D2000, which I can't find anywhere online unfortunately. The A700 and K241 are a bit better with positional audio, but everything closed in this price bracket is basically the same, and they're not as good with bass as the other three, so go with those.
Go for the DT770 Pro 80 Ohm. They aren't too harsh on badly encoded music, but they don't gloss over many details on well encoded music either, so you don't have to worry about FLAC as much.
Now I have to find a suitable replacement in this tier since the D2000 are out of stock everywhere.
On January 02 2013 07:14 Infernal_dream wrote:
Which would you say has the most equalized sound? Looking probably between the M50 and DT770
The DT770 is truer to the source than the M50. If you're talking about equalized sound as per most level frequency response graph, then both have exaggerated bass and swap places with each other along the curve.
http://graphs.headphone.com/graphCompare.php?graphType=0&graphID[]=2941&graphID[]=713
However, in spite of the graphs, the DT770 should be subjectively better.
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Myrmidon's talk about treble spikes got me thinking: why are they there, even on high-end headphones, and why do the headphone makers not eliminate them?
Also, I have the Sony MH1C on order, what should I expect out of them? Are they peaky as well? How correct is the FR graph from this thread?
+ Show Spoiler +![[image loading]](http://cdn.head-fi.org/1/19/900x900px-LL-190d4f48_mh1cFR.jpeg) Looks as ideal as it gets
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On January 02 2013 08:11 Roadog wrote:Myrmidon's talk about treble spikes got me thinking: why are they there, even on high-end headphones, and why do the headphone makers not eliminate them? Also, I have the Sony MH1C on order, what should I expect out of them? Are they peaky as well? How correct is the FR graph from this thread?+ Show Spoiler +Looks as ideal as it gets
We're dealing with FOTM like the M50, so no one is going to ever be correct until we get more mature reviews.
http://rinchoi.blogspot.ca/2012/11/sony-ericsson-mh1c-is-bad-excuse-better.html looks interesting.
At $30, they kill, but you get what you pay for, and I haven't found any comparisons to nicer stuff, so they look like fine budget headphones with poor fit, lots of bass and linear treble. Enjoy.
They don't eliminate them for the same reason people like the exaggerated bass on a lot of headphones, or they same reason that people like Grado. It makes it sound good, and some people may like the sound.
If not that, then it's because they don't have the technology and research to make it perfectly flat. And what's flat is really subjective.
I'm not in audio engineering so you'll have to wait for Myrm if you want something more technical.
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Is this a good place to ask for running headphone advice? Ipod headphones fall out of my ears just by walking, and I had a cheap pair of wrap arounds that also fell out as soon as I started sweating. Basically, I want something that won't fall off my ears even after a nuclear shock wave. I'm not too worried about amazing sound quality, as long as the headphones can get loud without sounding crappy. Any advice is appreciated. : )
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On January 02 2013 10:38 Blisse wrote:
They don't eliminate them for the same reason people like the exaggerated bass on a lot of headphones, or they same reason that people like Grado. It makes it sound good, and some people may like the sound.
If not that, then it's because they don't have the technology and research to make it perfectly flat. And what's flat is really subjective.
I'm not in audio engineering so you'll have to wait for Myrm if you want something more technical.
Well I know next to nothing about acoustics too.
But spikes usually have to do with resonances.
+ Show Spoiler [more discussion] +This is all dependent on headphone / IEM positioning (insertion depth, seal), the way it's acoustically coupling to your anatomy, etc. That means that what happens on the dummy head may not exactly happen with you. ~9 kHz spike has to do with some kind of boost based on the ear canal length. Even for top-end fullsize headphones you can see that small changes in positioning influence sound a lot, especially in the treble. Some people claim that everybody's doing it wrong in terms of headphones measurements—mostly regarding the treble. On a related note, others claim that the human auditory system learns to filter out some of these oddities or averages them out. Keep in mind that 4 kHz+ is way above the fundamental frequencies of pretty much any musical instrument, above general piccolo range. Most sites publish compensated (i.e. a correction curve is applied) frequency response data, but the compensation curves used are not consistent between sites, nor are the test setups. They do averaging across test runs, sometimes across positions, and usually they smooth the results across frequency as well. Tyll's comment in the article at IF: First, the reader should know thatl the peaks and valleys in the high frequency region arrise from resonances: between the driver and ear; within the concha ridge of the ear; and in the ear canal itself. While the driver might be putting out a completely flat frequency response in the treble, all the resonances will make it appear that it's not. Basically, the ear's not hearing the driver as much as it's hearing all the resonances the driver is exciting in the coupler (the combined headphone/ear acoustic system).
Because these resonant cavities are very small, very small positional changes of the headphones on the head significantly shift the resonant frequencies of the acoustic coupling between the headphone and ear. So the changes in amplitude that are being measured for this study are primarily occurring from the shifting in frequency of the resonant peaks and nulls. For the record, yes, these kinds of changes seem to be audible: http://www.aes.org/e-lib/browse.cfm?elib=15443A particularly peaky headphone that may be derided, may have more unwanted resonances between driver and ear. I think. A lot of times, the issue is exacerbated by an overall higher treble response. If the treble is next to inaudible to begin with, then a peak here and there may not be so apparent.
So don't take data too seriously in the high treble range. But if a headphone has the entire treble elevated or lowered, then that's probably legitimate.
On January 02 2013 10:43 Gentso wrote:
Is this a good place to ask for running headphone advice? Ipod headphones fall out of my ears just by walking, and I had a cheap pair of wrap arounds that also fell out as soon as I started sweating. Basically, I want something that won't fall off my ears even after a nuclear shock wave. I'm not too worried about amazing sound quality, as long as the headphones can get loud without sounding crappy. Any advice is appreciated. : )
This should depend a lot on the person, both in terms of the ears and the sweat. A kind that fits around the ear probably works better. A kind that seals into the ear canal should be harder to fall out. The kinds with a very deep seal should stay in even better.
The more it sticks in, the more isolation you get, and that could be a bad idea if you're running anywhere potentially dangerous, like around traffic.
Try an IEM that comes with multiple tips and hope that one of them fits you well (e.g. one of the cheap Meelectronics models). There are aftermarket tips you can try as well.
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On January 02 2013 11:30 Myrmidon wrote:Show nested quote +On January 02 2013 10:43 Gentso wrote:
Is this a good place to ask for running headphone advice? Ipod headphones fall out of my ears just by walking, and I had a cheap pair of wrap arounds that also fell out as soon as I started sweating. Basically, I want something that won't fall off my ears even after a nuclear shock wave. I'm not too worried about amazing sound quality, as long as the headphones can get loud without sounding crappy. Any advice is appreciated. : ) This should depend a lot on the person, both in terms of the ears and the sweat. A kind that fits around the ear probably works better. A kind that seals into the ear canal should be harder to fall out. The kinds with a very deep seal should stay in even better. The more it sticks in, the more isolation you get, and that could be a bad idea if you're running anywhere potentially dangerous, like around traffic. Try an IEM that comes with multiple tips and hope that one of them fits you well (e.g. one of the cheap Meelectronics models). There are aftermarket tips you can try as well.
To add to this, make sure it has a clip on it (for your shirt, or skin if you're shirtless and don't mind the sting, like me), and they won't fall out if they have a remotely decent seal.
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I'm looking for headphones between 50-70 €... I've set my eyes on the Sony MDR-V6, since i heard a lot about how good they are supposed to be. Are they any good, or are there better headphones in this pricerange? I mainly want to listen to music, gaming is secondary.
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Out of sheer curiosity: Are these Marshall Major Black good?
Reason for asking is that I got them as a christmas present from my job. I like them a lot and they seem rather durable. I Only use them for music on the go and sometime at home when wacthing stuff the girlfriend don't want to hear...
Thanks =)
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5930 Posts
On January 05 2013 00:31 AxiR wrote:
I'm looking for headphones between 50-70 €... I've set my eyes on the Sony MDR-V6, since i heard a lot about how good they are supposed to be. Are they any good, or are there better headphones in this pricerange? I mainly want to listen to music, gaming is secondary.
Well depends on the music you listen too. I'm a big fan of the Sony ZX700s. Sound kind of like the B&W P5 only without the price tag.
The V6 is probably never going to die though because its designed well and sounds pretty good. The only problem with it is that it has a pretty nasty treble hump, which bothers a few people because treble can sound a bit sharp.
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Hiya, I'm looking for a decent, but cheap pair of earphones-- at most I'd be willing to shell out about 25 or 30 bucks- I don't need spectacular quality or anything, just some comfort and utility. I'm in the US, and previously I had these: Sony Clip Style earbuds and liked them quite a bit, but they won't fit under a headset (which I already have). Any advice appreciated, and thanks in advance!
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I got some Grado SR80's for Christmas-- at 80$, they're a steal. Quite good sound quality.
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United Kingdom3482 Posts
I figure this is probably the best place to ask even though it isn't headphone related. I'm looking for some reasonably decent speakers for my computer so I can listen to music and watch films without trailing a headphone cable across my room. I only have £40ish to spend on them so I'm not expecting anything amazing. Any suggestions?
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On January 05 2013 03:29 Womwomwom wrote:Show nested quote +On January 05 2013 00:31 AxiR wrote:
I'm looking for headphones between 50-70 €... I've set my eyes on the Sony MDR-V6, since i heard a lot about how good they are supposed to be. Are they any good, or are there better headphones in this pricerange? I mainly want to listen to music, gaming is secondary. Well depends on the music you listen too. I'm a big fan of the Sony ZX700s. Sound kind of like the B&W P5 only without the price tag. The V6 is probably never going to die though because its designed well and sounds pretty good. The only problem with it is that it has a pretty nasty treble hump, which bothers a few people because treble can sound a bit sharp.
I mostly listen to rock music, so the treble thing might be an issue...
Right now I'm deciding between the Sennheiser HD439 and the Sony MDR-ZX700 (thanks for the suggestion), does anyone have experience with the Sennheiser? I read alot about the HD5xx models, but those are really above my budget...
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Anyone who is interested in the AKG K167, I would not recommend them. Bass gets too harsh after a while and will negatively affect your hearing sensitivity, you lose on the midrange, the fit is pretty bad for larger heads, and the build quality is very poor. I got banned from the thread on Head-Fi so I can't write there, but yeah. Beware.
On January 05 2013 04:40 DG.Zeya wrote:Hiya, I'm looking for a decent, but cheap pair of earphones-- at most I'd be willing to shell out about 25 or 30 bucks- I don't need spectacular quality or anything, just some comfort and utility. I'm in the US, and previously I had these: Sony Clip Style earbuds and liked them quite a bit, but they won't fit under a headset (which I already have). Any advice appreciated, and thanks in advance!
You can try the MEElectronics M9, which is good in value at $20.
Look here, http://www.amazon.com/MEElectronics-M9-SL-Sound-Isolating-In-Ear-Headphones/dp/B0038W0K1Q. I'm not familiar enough with American brick and mortar retailers.
On January 05 2013 23:35 AxiR wrote:Show nested quote +On January 05 2013 03:29 Womwomwom wrote:On January 05 2013 00:31 AxiR wrote:
I'm looking for headphones between 50-70 €... I've set my eyes on the Sony MDR-V6, since i heard a lot about how good they are supposed to be. Are they any good, or are there better headphones in this pricerange? I mainly want to listen to music, gaming is secondary. Well depends on the music you listen too. I'm a big fan of the Sony ZX700s. Sound kind of like the B&W P5 only without the price tag. The V6 is probably never going to die though because its designed well and sounds pretty good. The only problem with it is that it has a pretty nasty treble hump, which bothers a few people because treble can sound a bit sharp. I mostly listen to rock music, so the treble thing might be an issue... Right now I'm deciding between the Sennheiser HD439 and the Sony MDR-ZX700 (thanks for the suggestion), does anyone have experience with the Sennheiser? I read alot about the HD5xx models, but those are really above my budget...
In terms of sound, the ZX700 is better than the HD439 in a lot of fronts. I wouldn't really put them in comparison, because the HD439 are a good buy at maybe 60-75. However, there are some issues around the ZX700, notably the treble and for some bassheads, the lack of bass, and the shallow cups, which might be discouraging if you have big ears. This shouldn't be too much of a concern for a only rock music listener though. I'm not exactly sure, but lots of treble (coughGradocough) seems to be better for Rock, but I can't 100% confirm that for you.
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Hey guys, I need a new headset, I've looked through some threads but no one seems to have specifically my unique problem...
I had to stop using my siberia v2 headset because it gave me headaches because the width was not large enough and it wasn't really flexible.
To keep it short and sweet:
I have a large head, but small ears, and need help finding a headset that can compensate for that.
Microphone would be nice but doesn't matter. Preferably one that is good for music and gaming both. I like the look of older headsets compared to newer ones but whatever you know of helps.
Use: Audio/Gaming
Budget: $0-$150
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Just picked up an Audio Technica ATH-A700 for $49.99 at microcenter.
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I've lost to my temptation in and ordered HD650, ODAC, and Magni amp. (I will be broke for the rest of the semester lol)
I'm wondering what is the most ideal way to set the volume control. I've read that it's best to keep the system volume at 100% to avoid sound quality lost. But does the quality lost noticeable ? I am not that motivated to change my habbit of adjusting the volume digitally. I guess the best way to figure this out is to test it myself, but I would love to hear you guys' input on this matter.
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Probably not noticeable usually.
+ Show Spoiler [some details] +When reducing the volume digitally (in this context), the digital audio data is divided by some amount. Thus, the range of possible signal values fed into the DAC is reduced and the maximum signal amplitude possible is lower. If the DAC's own noise does not scale with volume (generally it doesn't, at least not perfectly), then what has effectively happened is that the signal-to-noise ratio has been reduced. The signal is lowered but the noise floor has not, or at least not by much or as much.
If the output audio word depth is 16 bits and you are using digital volume control to reduce the words down, then that is decreasing the effective bit depth to 15, 14, 13, etc. bits depending on how much you're lowering the volume. That's a separate issue than the above. This increases the quantization error. With a 24-bit DAC operating in 24-bit mode (even if the source sound like a file is 16 bit), that's not an issue because the DAC inherent noise is well above the quantization error and other factors, even if you're reducing the volume by a lot.
In addition, DAC nonlinearities are higher near the bottom of its operating range, at very quiet levels. If you operate the DAC at lower levels, you're operating closer to conditions where it may be worse. ODAC is has very low linearity error at low volumes though.
In practice, ambient acoustic noise in your room, noise in any recording (even in recording studios with megabucks gear and soundproof rooms pick up noise on instruments / vocals feeds, often greater than from any electronics on your end), and the music itself will mask most small issues. e.g. it's hard to hear that loss of quality down at 10 dB when your room ambient is more like 25 dB and you're paying attention to the music at 80 dB. Unless you're really cranking the volume down in software and boosting it back up with amplifiers and sensitive enough headphones to hear any resulting issues, it really shouldn't be a problem.
Just set the amp's volume control to a position where it's slightly louder than you'd ever use, with software volume at max. Then leave the amp setting and use digital volume control from then on.
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Thanks for such a quick reply, Myrmidon
Your explanation is much clearer than random posts at headphonia and your solution sounds awesome 
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EPT
