Something specific about the K271 sounds amazing to me. It's interesting what Superlux has done and I'd like to grab a model with similar signature to the K271 mk2 for comparisons sake, and disassembly/inspection. From innerfidelity's headphone graphs, the HD681 look almost the same as the K271...

Something specific about the K271 is very synergistic with my ears. It's interesting what Superlux has done and I'd like to grab a model with similar signature to the K271 mk2 for comparisons sake, and disassembly/inspection. From innerfidelity's headphone graphs, the HD681 look almost the same...

The general consensus on using cheap/average receivers as headphone amps is that they suck due to the general practice of creating the headphone output by stepping the speaker out down with large (~200~800 ohm) resistors in series, creating an unfavorably high output impedance. There are...

The general consensus on using cheap/average receivers as headphone amps is that they suck due to the general practice of creating the headphone output by stepping the speaker out down with large (~200~800 ohm) resistors in series, creating an unfavorably high output impedance. There are...

I had the honor of living near a MOOG audio store (Toronto, post to come) which has a decent selection of headphones to try, along with some of the coolest employees ever.   I put on the AKG K271 MKII and was blown away. As others have said, there is nothing like this can for mids (perhaps...

Many low end output components do this, such as onboard audio chips. When pushing even 50hz at high level, but very notably something like 20hz into phones, one can hear a chirp as the signal level changes, as if something is straining to push that hard (or maybe just some kind of artifact)...

I had my canalphones plugged into a portable player and while undressing, got crazy static electricity shocks into both of my ears (not audible). It seems they traveled up the wire and shocked me out of the metal casing of the driver since the prickles are deeper inside my canal than the rubber...

Many recordings have 3hz audio. Not to get into that argument, but phones do push a centimeter of xmax when eq'd to perform here intentionally, and your whole head can rumble with cannon fire aftershock or helicopter blade barometric pressure.   Is this DC, and is it damaging the phones? At...

  Many of us have odd, rare headphones and a guide explaining general techniques for improving issues makes sense.   The phones I'm targeting at the moment are the Sony MDR-XD400. Massive soundstage, 50mm drivers, highly capable. Surprisingly doubled in price since release.   Which of...

I got this older SB card that can use kX drivers. The default and recommended method is to use the rear output jack since it uses the I2C codec instead of AC97 which is apparently the better choice as AC97 adds noise in.   The problem with this is that there is a weak amp on the I2C output...

Besides removing spikes in response, the general shape of the response of headphones is definitely not like real life sound, or a speaker system.   Pink noise, noise corrected with the various equal-loudness curves... when users try to copy their response the sound is way unnatural and they...

A number of users try to give headphones and full range drivers which drop off at the normal ~~40hz range a huge boost here, such that tones all the way down to <20 hz sound the same volume - you must sharply increase gain such that you have literally a 20-30db boost at 20hz. While this works...

When EQing a system, what is the ideal response? Such that every frequency of a sine or pink sweep sounds the same? Or such that every band of ____ curve sounds the same? There are tons of weighting curves. Some users say to make pink noise sound equal loudness. Some post complexly weighted sine...

Working with Electri-Q, there are many modes the equalizer works in. It is consensus that "Linear" is the best for our purposes.   Within Linear mode, new peak types open up. Namely, S-Plane.   From the manual:   The  S-Plane   filters   are  the   most  analog   filter types...

I have this affinity for albums where, while they may be split into individual tracks, the tracks seamlessly progress, sometimes with no cue whatsoever between the songs. The cuts can be every 5 minutes with no relation to events in the music, because the artist intends it to be an hour long...

Are the new reloaded albums sucky, or better? They honestly sound just about the same, but the spectrum seems more full on the Reloaded. Better transfer, gimmicky additions or good additions?

I have asked and written a lengthy post on a few forums about this a while ago, but the audience changes so I will ask again.   The album is Monoliths & Dimensions, artist is Sunn O))). Available on CD or Vinyl.   The first track, Aghartha, has a very interesting and engineered effect...

Before going out to make a discrete SS amp out of transistors, I had these LT1358's and random components so I wanted to replace this noisy circuit I've been using from a pair of desktop computer speakers for a while.   Well, it works, but I've a few questions; perhaps this is all because of...

I need this answer before I go on with some research. Since you're incredibly knowledgeable and have the systems to personally confirm this, please tell your knowledge of current technical research, and/or opinion.   24-bit, 44.1 kHz -- vs -- 16-bit, 44.1 kHz   Taking a studio master...

I recall hearing that equalizers should never be set higher than 0db and should only be lowered because they can remove data well but not synthesize it. I plan to perfect a parametric curve in Electri-q but I find it weird that 0db is in the middle of the screen instead of at the top. Are they...

I'm trying to use both Electri-Q equalizer as well as head-fit crossfeed. Thing is, seemingly the only working VST wrapper (Yohng's) doesn't support more than one at a time. I have tried to add it twice to the list, copy the dll twice (shows two tray icons but only one works) and toy with it all...

So after certain albums that have sustained bass tones throughout, such as ambient albums, played at high volume, I feel warmth on the plastic cups on the outside of the phones (MDR-XD400). Before feeling heat, the sound actually got considerably louder very slowly, until it hit me that it was...

It seems the pot would be the most noisy or least signal-preserving/highest-polluting component in an amp.   For this to make sense in the first place, I have to ask whether the volume control within Windows would change the signal loudness coming out of a S/PDIF port, allowing actual...

Considering the age I'm sure it has been mentioned, and this is exactly why I'm making a new post concerning it. The list on headwize looks interesting and like it covers all the various directions one wants an amp to take. The thing about this amp by Kevin Gilmore that stands out is a seeming...

Seeing that the MS-1 is based off of the 125i's, it looks like all the phones above the SR60 from Grado are suggested to be used with an amp. How well will these fare with output from a laptop's onboard? Or an older SB Live?   Should I stick with SR60 if I plan to run it direct from the...