Before you buy headphones: A hopefully helpful guide for newbies - Page 6

Wow i wish i would have read this before i posted my first thread a few days ago. I myself am new to all of this and i was all hooked up on finding a good headphone amp and a pair of expensive IEM's. I will be sure to look through these forums to answer my questions

Great thread. Big thanks.

thanks, this post has been the most helpful in the purchase of equipment than anything else. Back when I joined in 2006 I truly believed equipment such as amps sounded SO MUCH different from each other than they actually do. This was Meier Move that I landed on.

Wish this was around earlier, and I truly agree it should be a post upon entering the forums.

Just discovered this thread. This is fantastic.

You put alot of work into this,good job!@

Just one more veera and you can place your order. You should change things up, and try saying something next time tho.

My advice to newbies is to spend time with whatever you get first, and not judge it right away. That way, if you upgrade, you'll have more eperience with which to base your evaluation.

This has been ver helpful and I am a beginner.

I have a couple bits of advice:

1. If you're new to this, your first setup isn't that critical to get right. Don't buy junk, but it seems like 99% of people move onto other gear a few months later. Agonizing over reviews and posting multiple threads trying to nail down the perfect setup ultimately results in little benefit. Just get something affordable, preferably used, and enjoy it. When you get a frame of reference for what's out there, then you can zero in on a dream rig.

2. There should be a caution about soundcards. Some people are making them out to be the be-all-end-all to amplification. Not so. Most of them amplify no more than a portable amp. And the highly modded ones can cost as much as, if not more, than a solid desktop amp.

^ point 1 is very true, words can not make clear how a headphone sounds without some reference, and even then you will get surprises.
And that first setup is much better than where most come from anyway so you probably will enjoy it.

this thread really makes a good starting point for the newbies.

this was a fantastically helpful post! there's so much information on this site that being a newbie like me can be a little bit overwhelming, but thanks to this thread i'm not freaking out quite as much as i was.

thanks so much.

Hello, this is my first post and I've been reading these forums for a few days and I'm in the market to buy new headphones and soundcard and whatever I need to make them sound nice. I have HD-555s and I listen to my PC as my source and onboard. I've been looking into the AKG k701s and possibly a Zero or Compass amp, my budget is 700-1000 dollars, I know I'm new but I think I'm ready for a better setup for my music. Question I do have though is what is a good decent soundcard? 100-200 bucks? I looked at ASUS Xonar D1 looks decent, but I'm no expert with soundcards.

Might be better off making a new thread, but in any case,

Most people use DACs, which is basically an external sound card. With the exception of one or two good cards, most sound cards will have not very good SQ compared to a DAC. (Or more, I've only seen two, maybe three, good internal sound cards, compared to hundreds of good DACs)

I think I remember reading a thread about someone who found an amp/dac that sounds very nice with the K701s, I'd post it but I can't seem to find it right now.

In any case, good luck finding it. Oh, and nice name.

ei newbie here..

this is my first post here in head-fi...

this thread is really helpful. wish i saw this few months back...

got HD 428 for my headphone and ibasso P2 for my portable amp ... use it only for my iphone while going to work...

Great thread but I think one part of the first post needs some correction.

A quick check of the respective websites will reveal that both headphones are low impedance but both have a pretty high sensitivity at 105 and 106 respectively. I think the writer may have gotten the 701's and Grado's (98) backwards.

As for enjoying music better through a higher end set of 'phones, if you've never heard any 701's (or others) then your Creative ear buds will likely sound just fine. It's like the kid who is born deaf, they have no idea that the rest of us can hear until they are enlightened.