[guily6669]

Well there are good and bad headphones no matter if they are closed or open.
 
I'm not in any kind a professional to say which is best (and only had one real closed one, the rest i have are in-hear portable phones).
 
But the closed one I had from sennheiser aviation was the best headphone I ever owned till nowaday, and they actually sounded powerful and natural to me. (I remember the good old days of Nirvana on the Amplifier). However they didn't last long back then on the huge amplifier at high volumes.
 
 
But for example my Turtle beach aren't anything closed, and they sound like you have a can in your hears (very strange bass frequency, and a huge loud strange frequency like way too much 200-500hz, everything sound artificial).
Keep Cool

 

[conquerator2]

  Well there are good and bad headphones no matter if they are closed or open.
 
I'm not in any kind a professional to say which is best (and only had one real closed one, the rest i have are in-hear portable phones).
 
But the closed one I had from sennheiser aviation was the best headphone I ever owned till nowaday, and they actually sounded powerful and natural to me. (I remember the good old days of Nirvana on the Amplifier). However they didn't last long back then on the huge amplifier at high volumes.
 
 
But for example my Turtle beach aren't anything closed, and they sound like you have a can in your hears (very strange bass frequency, and a huge loud strange frequency like way too much 200-500hz, everything sound artificial).
Keep Cool

Yeah, they sound lifeless kinda and have this tin can effect and there is practically no bass... I had the PX5 and boy do I regret buying that... At least the transmitter is decent.
Though if we are talking about audiophile headphones by the likes of Sennheiser, Audio Technica, AKG, ... the sound quality is marginally improved.
Sure, there are merits to each open and closed headphone, but in the end, it is what you like that matters :]

 

[Evshrug]

Hey if you need closed, you need closed. My first Hi-Fi headphones were Etymotic IEMs, the kind that are like earplugs with speakers, and yeah it made a difference to block out all outside sound and only need a little volume to clearly hear EVERYTHING. Closed headphones are kinda in the middle for me, their advantages aren't as strong as either open or IEM headphones, but the benefit of those are you can put them on and take off easily/quickly. I actually find the form-fitting IEMs to be more comfortable than closed headphones in the long run, because I am sensitive to heat and need breaks more often, but still... I have all three types. Four, I guess, if you count the earpods as earbuds, typical earbuds make my ears hurt and start to get sore almost the moment I put them on.

I'll still make the video. Good content to refresh my "if I knew then..." Journal guide.

 

[AxelCloris]

...typical earbuds make my ears hurt and start to get sore almost the moment I put them on.

 
This. I can't stand any ear bud that I've ever tried. Maybe my openings are too small for them to be comfortable. Whenever I put them on my tragus and antitragus start screaming at my brain. Oh well, now that I have a pair of customs I don't think I'll ever go back to universal IEM/earbuds.

 

[Orion1991]

Hmm I cant order until 1 week or so, but I was set on the senn HD588, but now that I think about it I don't want a pair of small speakers, I tend to crank up the volume, but you see the advantage of open headphones come in gaming, they are so much better than closed, thats why I was insisting on open....anyway here is some closed options :
 
-Sennhiser HD449
-Sennhiser HD439
-V-MODA Crossfade LP
-Creative Aurvana Live (Recommended by a lot also good for gaming)
-Shure SRH240A (someone recommended this for me I dont know much about the Shure)

 

[conquerator2]

To be honest, I don't think the difference in gaming [open X closed] is not nearly as drastic as people make it look.
I easily managed with both, as long as they aren't crap...

 

[guily6669]

  Yeah, they sound lifeless kinda and have this tin can effect and there is practically no bass... I had the PX5 and boy do I regret buying that... At least the transmitter is decent.
Though if we are talking about audiophile headphones by the likes of Sennheiser, Audio Technica, AKG, ... the sound quality is marginally improved.
Sure, there are merits to each open and closed headphone, but in the end, it is what you like that matters :]

The X12 I have nothing is decent. I hate is that most of the stupid people were saying they are good quality and blahblahblah. They are actually the worst headphones I ever heard and are far worse than the first headset I ever bought from Chinese people for 5€. (Unless you enjoy the most artificial sound and lot's of distortion).
 
They make nearly no bass, and when using bass boost, they make LOTS of bass (but not in the right frequency, it even make the quality worse, a very strange bass

). I don't even know if quality can go worse than what Turtle Beach does.

  To be honest, I don't think the difference in gaming [open X closed] is not nearly as drastic as people make it look.
I easily managed with both, as long as they aren't crap...

Well that depends a lot on the ambient surrounding you and at what volume you play.
 
If you play it at full volume, nothing is much important at all as exterior sounds will not be heard.
 
Now here, It makes me pissed playing games with the fan noise of my modded xbox360 trough the headphones.
 
 
And the other reason are that games are not supposed to be bumping high volume frequencies all the time, so at the lower volume parts you hear everything from the exterior.
 
 
ps: If you live alone without noise around you, it doesn't make much difference, but I hear my brother playing music on the laptop all night, cats, dogs, fans and so on...
Keep Cool

 

[tmaxx123]

http://slickdeals.net/f/6366442-pyle-home-phe7ab-fiio-e7-usb-dac-portable-headphone-amplifier-49-99-fs-or-prime-amazon?src=pdw
 
pretty nice deal here. Anyone have and experience with this or the fiio e7? Supposedly this is a rebadged e7...
May look into something like this to hook up to my mixamp for gaming, and laptop for music. 

 

[AxelCloris]

That dac/amp has been fluctuating around $60 and under for a bit now. I stand corrected, it's not an OEM of the E7 just a copy. Still, $50 isn't bad at all for it.

 

[tmaxx123]

  That dac/amp has been fluctuating around $60 and under for a bit now. It's an OEM of the E7, yes. Still, $50 isn't bad at all for it.

yea, i am a little new to the headphone dac/amp arena, so i am not sure if I would benefit any by hooking this up to my mixamp and "reamp" that signal. Or if my laptop output would benefit from this. Some reviews say its a drastic change, others say no difference....... who is right? lol

 

[AxelCloris]

  yea, i am a little new to the headphone dac/amp arena, so i am not sure if I would benefit any by hooking this up to my mixamp and "reamp" that signal. Or if my laptop output would benefit from this. Some reviews say its a drastic change, others say no difference....... who is right? lol

 
It depends. Most laptops have a cheap $5 or less DAC built in and can really benefit from something like this. Some computers come with decent built in audio and won't show a dramatic change with a device like this. What headphones are you running off the Mixamp currently? Sometimes more power is needed, sometimes not. If it's an efficient headphone, it won't be necessary. But if it is one that could benefit from the amping I'd say go for it.

 

[Evshrug]

http://slickdeals.net/f/6366442-pyle-home-phe7ab-fiio-e7-usb-dac-portable-headphone-amplifier-49-99-fs-or-prime-amazon?src=pdw

pretty nice deal here. Anyone have and experience with this or the fiio e7? Supposedly this is a rebadged e7...
May look into something like this to hook up to my mixamp for gaming, and laptop for music. 

Little bit of info in case someone reading this doesn't know... The DAC could only be used with tmaxx's laptop, the amp part of the E7 is all anyone could use after a Mixamp. If tmaxx has better than a cheap $500 laptop, the DAC part of the E7 would make little improvement. The E7's amp section is basically equal to a FiiO E5, so if you REALLY want a bargain to add an amp to your mixamo, then just get the amp for like $25.

 

[Change is Good]

Little bit of info in case someone reading this doesn't know... The DAC could only be used with tmaxx's laptop, the amp part of the E7 is all anyone could use after a Mixamp. If tmaxx has better than a cheap $500 laptop, the DAC part of the E7 would make little improvement. The E7's amp section is basically equal to a FiiO E5, so if you REALLY want a bargain to add an amp to your mixamo, then just get the amp for like $25.

Did he ever mention what headphones he's using? I missed it if he did...

 

[miceblue]

Yeah the E7 was a great external soundcard for my old 2008 MacBook, but not-so-great for my 2013 MacBook.

 

[Evshrug]

^ didn't see which ones. I know Tmaxx has been in here before, but I forget if he made a choice. Some reason I'm thinking a DT?

Anyway, in this situation "is this a good DAC/amp combo?" Headphone choice doesn't really enter it. That is, even if he has a low impedance headphone, the amp has a really low output impedance. The amp might just be not powerful enough for a hard-to-drive can, but most of those headphones have their users looking at desktop amps.