Quote: Originally Posted by meat01 Yes. Not that I can think of. $50 is not much for an amp or even a receiver. Good to know. I'm considering the Craigslist option as well, as there seem to be some decent options in my price range. Thanks guys, Ari

I just bought some B&W DM550's off of Craigslist for $90. As I'm entirely set up for headphones other than these, I need an amp. My main reason to buy these was for sleep-time listening--HD580's are just a wee bit too big for comfortable listening in bed. The source will be 320kbps VBR...

Got it. Thanks. Ari

For first-person shooters and the like where sound positioning is key, would you turn on crossfeed (an older AirHead model feeding HD580's) or not? On the one hand crossfeed would muddy the signal; on the other, it would likely increase the realism of the way your ears perceive the signal. Or am...

Quote: Originally Posted by Magnum22 cool man. what's your amp? sweet deal gettin that kinda sound for $200. An older-generation Airhead. $45 shipped. I was hesitant at the time, but in retrospect it's worth that just for the crossfeed (although foobar can do it also, but then...

Quote: Originally Posted by F107plus5 I hope it's not too late already!! This is so sad. ROTFL. I'm already thinking about a different amp :-P But fortunately I'm too broke to even stretch my budget (since it's already been stretched to the breaking point by the headphones!)...

My 580's arrived today. At first I plugged them into my amp and they didn't sound that different from my Sony earbuds, and I was thinking, man, what? And then I listened for an hour, just sat and listening. It's amazing. I realized that one of my favorite recordings was a live recording when I...

Quote: Originally Posted by mr56k Also then a follow up.. For $99-150 what would be a good choice. Depends on what kind of music. General recommendations around here: for rock, Grado (-60 or -80?). For classical, Sennheiser (HD580 or for a more "forward" sound, HD555 or 595). As...

After reading this post I went and pulled out the buds that came with my nano. To my untrained ears, they're surprisingly decent sounding with an amp. Yet they don't fit in my ears. Maybe I have midget ears or something, but they just don't fit. Also, it seemed to me like the midrange was way...

Thanks. Makes much more sense now. Ari Quote: Originally Posted by hciman77 The term pre-amp has a number of different meanings depending on the context. In the old days amplifiers mostly consisted of two parts - a pre-amplifier (or control amplifier) and a power amp. The...

Was playing around with the tube amp simulator in foobar and the pre-amp setting reminded me that I don't know what the heck pre-amping is. I assume it's a smaller amp that bumps up the signal before going into a larger amp in a speaker setup. I've never heard anything about pre-amping a...

Quote: Originally Posted by fewtch IMO that's always a sign you've found the right headphone, if you're really lusting after 'em. I've never been disappointed myself, following intuition this way. Yeah. Just spent some time listening to a bunch of classical on my current Sonys...

Quote: Originally Posted by jim580 Sonic bliss.........don't settle for less. From the tone of your posts, you won't be satisfied with less anyway. Is it really that obvious? I find myself yearning for them. Oy. Ari

Hm. Had some more time to mull it over. Read some reviews of the UE3 and the ER-6i's. The isolation on the ER-6 seems like it would be incredible for traveling but less so for everyday use. The SQ on both seems like it's very good but still not at the level of the 580. I still find myself...

Hm, so a lot of advice to just get the PX100 or PortaPros. The isolation would be nice, but it's tempting. OTOH, I don't listen to my nano much except for at home, strangely enough. OTOOH (other, other hand), my lifestyle is going to change dramatically after I graduate so.... Alright...

Hi everyone, For years I've been ripping my CD collection (mostly classical and pop, some jazz particularly trumpet) into 320Kbps MP3s using LAME in anticipation of having a high quality rig some day. Current set up is an iPod nano with the Sony $30 IEMs. The Sonys were a big step up from buds...

So as I understand those two wonderfully detailed posts (thank you by the way!), there are sort of two effects going on: 1. For high-impedance headphones, the amp is acting as an impedance matcher. From the little I know of impedance matching, I assume this reduces the "reflections" that occur...

Apologies for the n00b question, but am I way off base here? Ari

Everyone says that amped headphones are much better, even for decent but not amazing cans. Is it just a volume thing? I don't like listening to music loud. At a given volume level, would the amped cans be noticably better? If so, why? Is it just that good cans are harder to drive (impedance...

Quote: Originally Posted by senny-ftw I'd have a think about amping before making a purchase decision for that kind of music. 580/600 will do much better but they need amping. Amps can be had cheaply, though, and you'd be better off spending money on an amp down the line than on...

Quote: Originally Posted by Spetsnaz Op I took my sub 20 buck HD-201's on a trip....powered only by the jack in an old Discman The 201's are probably the best value ever. I bought a pair as a gift for the s.o., and sometimes sneak in late at night to steal them. But I'm looking...

Quote: Originally Posted by incognitoedleon It really depends on your musical tastes and personal preferences. The Music: Classical, some Jazz and Pop. I really like dark sound--in particular, I detest noise during what should be silence, but perhaps something else is meant by...

Quote: Originally Posted by jvbb2005 most head-fiers will answer you 595 Hm. I know I mentioned the 595's in the original post, but most of the used prices I've seen for them are ~$160. I've got a long time horizon on this, though, so perhaps I'll wait. Would the 580's with an...

I know there was a thread on this recently, but that was on the 5x5's. My question is how's the HD 580 for unamped listening? Some background The Source: 320Kbps VBR well-ripped MP3's, either via iPod nano or by built-in sound from an IBM X22 The Music: Classical, some Jazz and Pop. The...