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lelouchleonhart said:

I think I'll try my luck bidding on the U3 then thanks! And I'll be using it in conjunction with the Mixamp or the Mixamp 5.8 at home, presumably this should have a better sound. And since you said I should only have one device doing so, am I able to turn of DD from the U3 (since I only really want this dongle to work as an optical passthrough at home) so I can rely on the DD from the Mixamp, and when I want DD I'll switch it on for when I'm on the go. Sounds about right, right?
[...]
Sorry, I feel like I'm hassling all you guys

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By default, the card starts in normal mode. When you enable game of movie modes, that turns on DH processing. So as long as both of those are turned off, then it'll be outputting DD which the mixamp will then process. Then when you're on the go, toggle on movie or gaming mode and you'll be golden. I will also point out when I'm on the road that the game dictates which mode I use. If I'm playing a single player, I tend to prefer the sound of movie mode. When I'm getting competitive like TF2, I use game mode. Just use whichever sounds best to you. And for the record, I still own both the Micro II and the U3. The U3 stays in my laptop bag and the Micro II stays with the mixamp at home. Had I not already owned the Micro II, I'd have just used the U3 for both.
 
And I can't speak for the others, but it's no hassle. I'm pretty sure we're all here to learn and help where we can.

I forgot you had the wired Mixamp, which doesn't have the bass boost. In any case, no need to get wireless if you're fine with the wired. The wired Mixamp has less noise, so it's slightly better.

Kinda unrelated, but I wanted to share with you guys.
 
So I've just done the "foam mod" and also the "soundstage mod" on my (almost) two-years old HD555 and my mind is totally blown.
Could be the placebo effect or the burn-in...I don't know, but they sound definitely (much, much) better. So glad I didn't sell these babies. I'm actually considering about re-wiring them as well...
 
The bass is difinitely tighter and I don't even need the bass boost from the amp anymore. The placement of instruments is slightly better and so is the overall clarity/transparency. I've been only testing my "new" 555 with music, but I can't wait to try 'em with the PS3 asap.
 
Overall I'd say it's a huge success and I'd definitely recomend these cans to whoever is looking for something cheap. If you can get 'em used with at least 50-100 hours burn-in (yes they need that much time to really shine) from someone, even better, because you can do those easy mods by yourself without worrying too much.

I have read that the Samson Sr850 can fit the akg k240 velour pads on it to make it better, but 1 person also said that the DT770 pads fit on the Samson's also.  Does anyone know if that is true?

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ztrains said:

I have read that the Samson Sr850 can fit the AKG k240 velour pads on it to make it better, but 1 person also said that the DT770 pads fit on the Samson's also.  Does anyone know if that is true?

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I use the AKG K240/241/270 Velour ear pads ($46 USA) on my Samson SR850, it's nice.
I believe they are also referred to as the AKG K271 Velour ear pads.
The Samson SR850 cups are a little bigger then the DT770 cups.
Some use the Creative W.O.W. cushion ear pads on the Sr850.

Quote:

naingolann said:

Kinda unrelated, but I wanted to share with you guys.
 
So I've just done the "foam mod" and also the "soundstage mod" on my (almost) two-years old HD555 and my mind is totally blown.
Could be the placebo effect or the burn-in...I don't know, but they sound definitely (much, much) better. So glad I didn't sell these babies. I'm actually considering about re-wiring them as well...
 
The bass is difinitely tighter and I don't even need the bass boost from the amp anymore. The placement of instruments is slightly better and so is the overall clarity/transparency. I've been only testing my "new" 555 with music, but I can't wait to try 'em with the PS3 asap.
 
Overall I'd say it's a huge success and I'd definitely recomend these cans to whoever is looking for something cheap. If you can get 'em used with at least 50-100 hours burn-in (yes they need that much time to really shine) from someone, even better, because you can do those easy mods by yourself without worrying too much.

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You say the bass is tighter... Does it dig any deeper and come with obvious greater presence, or is there just minute improvement?

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crzycuyler said:

You say the bass is tighter... Does it dig any deeper and come with obvious greater presence, or is there just minute improvement?

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Yes, the bass is there. I had to listen to some of my favorite "bassy" tracks and I definitely could hear something I couldn't with my mint 555.
Mind you, it's a tiny improvement, but it's audible enough.

demonfox said:

Ok, so wow!! I just received a new pair of AKG K-240 MK II and ok, I'm hooked!! Now they lack the sub base of any of my Ultrasone's but the clarity is amazing!! Now I know AKG fan boy is somewhere cussing me out saying I told ya so!! Well fine you were right, these things are amazing!!

The overall sound detail is off the charts and I used them with my 5.8 mix-amp, e11, and MacBook pro I played BF3 while using combo of mix-amp and e11. At 55 omh I figured it wouldn't hurt and my first impression was shoot I forgot to turn the mixamp on.. Little did I know that it was already on and the sound was so clear and detailed I thought it was my surround system!! They are "Semi-open" but come on buddy you aren't fooling anyone they're open, and offer little to no seal so sound is all over the place and the only con so far is that they are very loose and I wish the fit was a little tighter but outside of that I'm good.

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I like my headphone a little loose, seems to make me have to readjust less when I listen for hours at a time. What I'm curious is how much sound do they leak... If you have a friend over to try them on, how much can you hear what they're listening to? Compared to, say, earbuds or whatever else ya got? I've got the marvelous Q701, but I'm tempted to pick up another closed can for portable, and I dunno what that'll be.

demonfox said:

But back to the sound.. So while playing bf3 (best sounding FPS ever created hands down) I was hearing details that I'd never heard before and even though the bass lacked during my first attempt at Dub but it was literally my first attempt (I'll try it again later tonight) but for gaming the bass was exactly what it was supposed to be, tight, quick, and didn't get in the way of the rest of the sound. I was more impressed the moment I put on my HIFI 780's and was disgusted by how muddy everything sounded compared to the 240 mk II. I'll be doing a lot of different test to see how they compare in different music generes and more BF3,but I'll tell you what, my wife and wallet better hope I don't find a better pair of AKG's that have a punchier bottom because I'm very intrigued at what I've heard so far.
If anyone out there knows of such a pair please let me know!
Thanks,
D

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Pretty sure from the Freq graphs that the K240 is the bassiest AKG headphone, with a +9 mid-bass boost. I've read that much beyond that boosted level, notes get the bass texture smoothed out. Give your new purchase some time for you to get used to them, and if you still feel uninspired by the bass strength you still have your old very bassy headphones for those genres you think fit it.
Dubstep has massively over mixed bass anyway, fun sometimes but it's all power but no texture since its a synthetically created note. I have 46 dubstep songs, but I would only consider 6 of them to be musical while the rest sound cliché and blur together. Which songs do you like?

I know these AKG are your first foray into headphones above about $30, but I have the Q701 and I'm just curious about the rest of AKG's headphones. I'm going to get around to a detailed review of my Q701 one of these days (It's already half written), and I've held back on selling the rest of my 'phones cuz I want to add a comparative review first. To inform other people. Wonder if the K142 or K172 models are suitable for portable use?

The bad thing is the price on the velour pads, it's the same price as the headphones themselves :/

Also, for anyone with the Samson sr850, does it seem the left ear clamps down more or is it just my ears/headphones.

New question: If I use the Turtle Beach or Mixamp Pro accompanied with either a Fiio E7 or an A/V receiver, would it help decrease the amount of hiss and increase overall sound quality or would it just make things worse? 

Quote:

jmanofisrael said:

New question: If I use the Turtle Beach or Mixamp Pro accompanied with either a Fiio E7 or an A/V receiver, would it help decrease the amount of hiss and increase overall sound quality or would it just make things worse? 

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You can reduce hiss if you turn up the mixamp/DSS to high volume, and then lower it through the external amp and listen to it.  As for improving overall sound quality, from my experience only desktop amps have a chance of doing that. 
 
If you have hard to drive headphones, they can improve with a second amp, but hard to drive headphones shouldn't pick up the hiss to begin with.

I remember reading somewhere in this thread that someone tried out the new Tritton AX720 7.1 decoder box and said they were disappointed.  I forget why though.  I've been very happy with my Tritton AX720 (5.1) but would like to go 7.1 if possible and it makes a big difference with directional sounds

Quote:

rabinzero said:

I've been very happy with my Tritton AX720 (5.1) but would like to go 7.1 if possible and it makes a big difference with directional sounds

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It doesn't.  Not with Dolby Headphone anyways.  I doubt you could hear any difference.

Any extra channels are interpolated as Dolby Digital (and optical) can only carry 5.1 anyways.

^What he said. The old ass wired Mixamp with 5.1, and the Mixamp 5.8 with 7.1 have the same exact processing. It's just BS marketing.