I'm not even sure if I should post this in this forum but here goes: I currently own the AKG k-501's and like them alot (sound very natural, and the soundstage is so wide one can almost hear the ehcos) but they need way too strong a source to drive them to nearly 100%(i.e. unlike my soundcard) so I'm looking for something low impedence(unless I'm wrong about low impedence cans being less amp/source dependent on sound) and natural sounding that can go higher and deeper than my 501's. From what I've read I believe my AT A900's are my answer but I want to be sure. So is there anthing low impedence/not too source dependant better under $200 than the A900's?

P.S. cans used mostly for games, guitar based music, electronica, and Sigur Ros

If you like your current headphones, have you considered an amp? I would of course take the first opportunity to push the A900 at you but the phrase "If ain't broke, don't fix it" comes to mind. Perhaps a META42 or CMOY might come within your headphone budget.


That said, I believe that the ATH-A900 is the best general purpose, low impedance headphone under $200.

Yes I have, that's why I posted. What I ment to say is will my k 501's with say, a META42 sound better than the A900's by themselves, as the akg's need a beefy source?

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Did I swear and curse when I set up this CD/MD earlier...

Its completely changed the tone of my 'setup'... I think it'd compliment the A900s rather nicely now... oh well... can't win them all

I can't answer that... Never tried K501's. If you want to go the safe route, it looks like the amp. The 501's are open, so by inference I would venture the opinion that you're going to get a better soundstage from these for gaming than the A900, which is closed.

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Wa ha ha ha ha!
Seeing as my friend is definitely not going to be buying them off me you can always buy them back after I've finished my comparison I'm sure the resurrected A1000's at £100 will pretty much sell themselves

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The AKG K501's are excellent sounding headphones but they do require a good amp to drive them due to their low impedance. I doubt a soundcard will provide them with the juice they require so it's either a case of dumping the soundcard for an amp or going for a more efficient pair of headphones.

If you opt for the headphone route I recommend the cheaply priced Philips HP590's... they are very sensitive and sound great.

Pinkie.

lol... Bangraman, okay, consider me tempted...

On a sideline note, i'd recommend the CD1700s still, if you can find them cheap on the FS forums (they crop up from time to time) whilst not having the airyness of the A900s, they're still pretty damned good for closed 'phones

Senor,

if you have a spare receiver or two laying around the house or the garage, hook it up to the sound card. it may be able to drive the K501 well. I have my sound card connected to my Crown D60 amp, and it drives all of my headphones fine (especially for gaming). Yes, each amp will have it's own signature sound, but for gaming it should suffice. heck, see if you have line inputs on your boom box. connect the sound card outputs to the line in and see how it sounds. these go for about $10 (trading posts / hock shops) to $30 (KMart / WalMart) to $100 (BestBuy, etc.)

It's a cheap way to use your headphones while you decide on whether to spend $100, $200, $500, $1000, $1500 or $2000 on a headphone amp. Of course you could buy a used set of Grados for $75, a $130 to $400 set of headphones, another $200 sound card (which may not support gaming), upgrade, upgrade, upgrade, lose money on the upgrades...

my other sound card is connected to a Technics integrated amp. The Marantz 1066 is an excellent amp to mate to computers and headphones. These go for about $75 to $125. They show up in the used section, here, and on Ebay regularly.

A relatively inexpensive cmoy may be your solution. There have been some posts on head-fi extolling the synergy between the two. BTW a cmoy can be had for around $50.00

...and the CMOY is easy to put together, especially when following Tangent's guide. The parts were about $25 and the sound is great.

I didn't like K-501's with meta42.

I'd suggest a headroom little, or OBH-11 with the AKG's.