Audioengine A2 with Audioengine D1 DAC and audioengine desktop speaker angled stands

[cel4145]

Unless you want to spend the money for the looks of the cable, do the research on power cables before buying. This isn't like expensive audio interconnects and speaker wire where there are at least arguments that can be made for how they affect the SQ (although, the debate is over when or how much it's audible and whether or not it's worth it for expensive interconnects and speaker wire). There's NO audio science/engineering reason that supports why power cables should improve sound quality.

See this article: http://www.audioholics.com/education/cables/power-cables

Save your money toward a different audio upgrade or some new media to listen to

 

[chapa6sigma]

Hello,
 
Yeah, the power cords would be aesthetic appeal only. I do need a longer power cord for one speaker, Im using an extension cord to reach the wall outlet. I also need to divy up my plugs which are currently all going to one power protector strip which leads to one wall outlet. I plan to get an additional power protector strip and utilize both wall outlets and not have everything loaded up on one. The interconnects aren't expensive through emotiva compared to some of the so called hifi ones. I would like to believe that the xlr's have a slight advantage. My lengths are 15 ft each. The power cord is hype as you mentioned. But for my computer area, its real nice to have an entire emotiva setup. I'm also going to get the emotiva hdmi cord for my new monitor. That is fairly inexpensive too. I do plan to get these other cords when they have another savings deal. As far as better speakers and/or dac I have a feeling that I will not ever be upgrading these items on my desk area. The next project has to do with home improvement and furniture. After that will be upgrading our main tv and sound in our living room. All in all, I'm very pleased with my equipment. I enjoy listening to music too much when I'm sitting here. I am looking forward one day to hearing great music in our living room while reclining or sitting on our couch. I didn't tell you since you probably thought I'd be crazy but I ended up getting those martin logan speakers and I bought a sonos amp on a great deal when you buy everything together. I really did like the way the ribbon tweeters sounded on the martin logans. My uncle installed them for me and ran cables through the attic and did a beautiful job putting them on our bedroom wall on the sides of our mounted tv. The sonos amp is in our living room next to my modem and other equipment so its not cluttering up our bedroom. My girl loves the thing and the speakers. She controls it from her android phone, I have an app on my phone to control it too now. sonos amp is not the greatest sounding amp nor does it have a great dac but I think the ML's make up for a lot. She has access to any song, any radio station, any music provider and even stuff on my laptop. We can now both lay in bed and listen to music with the press of a button on the phone. The thing is always "on" ready to play music. We can even wake to music as an alarm. I bought it for "us" but she considers it hers now. Main thing is she's very happy with it and its so easy to use. Bass extension  with them against the walls is amazing. I bought some upgraded wall mounts which allow me to toe in the mp's for optimal direction to our bed. They actual came with some mounts but didn't allow for pointing. I bought a lot of high quality speaker wire through amazon. I bought some monter speaker wire post to put on wall and some monster banana plugs. Everything is gold plated. Turned out to be a very clean install. Professional look. No wires showing in our bedroom. Cool thing is that we can always expand later on with a speaker selector device and have the sonos amp connect to that and then maybe get a 4 speaker pair selector. I'd like to put speakers outside in our patio. Then we can control that too with phones and listen to anything outside. Or we can put some more speakers, maybe in wall or in ceiling, in a different section of house. Lots of possbilities. Since its all internet music for most part, there is not too much incentive for great speakers. Any passive decent speakers would work.
 
I just got a new blackberry z10 phone which I've fallen in love with. I bought this program/app called neutron MP (music player) and it plays every file you can think of including flacs. Its a program built by audiophiles for audiophiles. Complete customization of everything you can think of. I got 32 gig sandisk ultra class 10 sd card to supplement the 16 gigs the phone has built in and transferred 28 gigs of music to the card. This phone, paired with my spider realvoice inear phones and that neutron music player equates to beautiful sound all day long.
 
I have a subscription to MOG as well and to slacker radio so I can listen to either on phone or home computer. Just picked up an old johnny cash CD today and a hank williams for my girl. Stuff she used to listen to with her grandparents when she was a child.

 

[chapa6sigma]

CEL45 - how's it going?
 
Can I get your opinion on some headphones. I feel like I'm ready to get rid of my bose AE2's. I'd like to purchase a different full cup design and have started some research on reviews. I went back to innerfidelity's pages and browsed the emotiva xda-2 dac/headphone amp to see what phones they listened with and the wrote some great things about the Audio-Technica ATH-M50S paired up with my dac. When I went to amazon to check out prices I couldn't believe they are available for 100 bucks. There was a another pair which they liked slightmy more - a hifiman variant but I can't recall the model. I did look it up and it was pretty expensive. I've been reading countless reviews on the audio technica, which is a comfortable looking well designed phone IMO and there is a great consistency and quite a bit of comparing them to true hi-end phones. What are your thoughts? Anything else worth checking out in that price range? I had went back to the xda-2 review b/c I wanted a true review of that particular dac with a headphone so that I can have a true representation of what to expect. Seems like pairings of dac's and headphones (or headphone amps) do not always produced the desired expected results and it ends up with having to test and see what you feel sounds better. These phones will only be used with my xda2 dac. I also think I'm giong to upgrade my realvoice in ear eventually. I like them but I got mine without the mic for phone calls cause at time I didn't want or think Id be taking calls. Now I love listening to my phone and prefer to have the option of taking a call if I need to without removing headset. I can stick with spyder realvoice or change to something else. But for now, I do want something different than bose.
 
PS I'm following your advice on the power cords of the emotiva's. I am more than satisfied with my xlr purchase of 15 ft wires. I got all my money back for the RCA's and I used a coupon code for the emotiva xlr's. I really do think there is something different. I got this rocketfish power surge b/c I was worried about power. I got it for a steal. Best buy sells it for 140 or something I found it online clearance through best buy for 59.99 and when I got to store they had a problem with the box...they ended up selling it to me for 39.99 and then 5 bucks off with a reward zone coupon. It works great, looks cool, supposedly takes out poor sound signals from power.....buteither way I got a pretty awesome surge protector which matches size of dac for maybe 80 percent off. I did find a 12 belkin power cord for my one speaker that needed it. Found it on amazon for 8 dollars was shipped for free in 2 days. Works perfect. My wires underneath desk are now very organized and everything sounds and looks better than before.
 
Thanks for your reply,
eric

 

[cel4145]

I have the M50s. There are headphones in the $175 to $225 range that sound better to me, but the M50s are definitely a very good headphone for their current price of $100-$110. That doesn't mean you might not like some other headphones better, but I do think they are a very good price/performance value on the order of your Airmotivs.

I would also think that they would sound fine with your DAC. If you buy from Amazon or fulfilled by Amazon (not 3rd party vendors on Amazon who do their own shipping), RMA is pretty painless if you decide to return them as long as you keep the headphones and retail packaging in perfect shape. I've tried several I didn't keep, and their prepaid label costs (they generate it for you) I think has been under $10. So that's a worthwhile "demo" fee to see if you like them. Just them break in for at 20 hours or so before making your decision.

 

[chapa6sigma]

Hi Cel,
 
Thanks for quick reply.
 
Amazon has been great to me. Thats how i returned the audioengine stuff and many other things. I love amazon...most of the time.
 
What about comfort of the audiotechnicas compared to others in that price range or maybe even slightly higher? I've ready lots of reviews from people that mention something about fit on top of head gives some issues....I know everyones head is different but somepeople write about it, some so the phones will "break in" and feel better....others put tissue.....
 
What are your thoughts? Personally, comfort is very important. That was my most primary reason for the bose ae2 above sq at the time. bose is no ones favorite , which I'm aware of, but at my naive knowledge and limited selection at places I was looking at....at thought they were a good choice for me at the time. Now that I have a 400 dac/headphone amp, it makes sense to get a pair that can take advantage of my equipment. I really think the bose sounds similar to when I first bought them , after buying the dac. Nothing too dynamic, nothing too excited, but still the same comfortable light fit.
 
What can you think of from your experience that have the sq of the audio techinica and also have great comfort characteristics?
 
I try to put caps on my spending for certain items....but I'm always open to spending a little more - as you can tell If 50 bucks more means better sound quality and better comfort , then I can reason with that .

 

[chapa6sigma]

I added some ties around the cables in back of the equipment since this picture. You would not believe how many wires I have....well maybe you would. I have a telephone modem back there too and a laptop docking station underneath my laptop.
 
 
 

 
 

 

[chapa6sigma]

I'm not sure why pictures are adjusted in wrong landscape. Picture quality is degraded uploading too.
 
 

 
 

 

[cel4145]

My setup is not as neat as yours, and plenty of wires hanging out: http://www.head-fi.org/t/529140/show-us-your-head-fi-station-at-its-current-state-no-old-pictures-please/13200#post_9414055

LOL

Sure. You may not find them comfortable, but the ATH-M50s are pretty good.

But you have an expensive DAC/amp setup. Why not save for something nicer?

 

[chapa6sigma]

LOL - I guess my area is not too shabby.
 
My lady thinks mine looks ridiculous. The speakers and equpment under the desk.....and not that I will change my mind on the size/amount of equipment because of her; I do make every best effort to keep a minimalistic approach and keep things as clean as I can, in my work area and the rest of the house .
 
I miss having a bigger monitor and would love two of them like yours,  though , but I do like being able to see over my desk unto the rest of the house. I honestly never liked being in front of a wall. We just purchased our first home last year and I have a problem seeing it in dissarray, inside or outside. I never realized how much work it is until you own your own. I still remember when we picked this house out, the new house smell, and it had no imperfections, and any blemishes we found we made the builder touch up/fix.
 
You have a good point on the price. Whats your contender than for supreme comfort and great sq around 200? Tough thing about headphones is it seems like there are twice as many phones as speakers.....lots of companies making phones only. Lots of them in the 100 - 300 price range too.

 

[chapa6sigma]

I think maybe after listening to my airmotiv's so often and then switching to the bose's occasionally is what really opening my eyes (ears) to a negative difference and is the reason why I'm adament now about getting rid of them. I really don't think they are worth keeping at all now. Ever changing standards.
 
I'm still extremely happy with the martin logans, even with a subpar source of the sonos amp compared to my computer and dac. Perhaps its the room accoustics making a difference. I'm under the impression even with some lower quality hardware parts....that there is something positive about using a true powered receiver and having passive speakers.....I think you may have mentioned this somewhere along your posts too.

 

[chapa6sigma]

Whats the deal with these : ATH-A900X
or these : ATH-ESW9A
 
audiotechnica
 
 
the wooden ones cost more because of the wood? the non wood has greater range and larger driver...and yet is cheaper? wood ones are beatiful....seems like tech specs make it confusing.
 
and personal experience? best buy also allows me to return anything which is nice but dam there is a huge markup. I can easily buy them at best buy to try out and return free. when I make final decision i can buy from amazon or online and then when they come in return the best buy ones. then no rma fee

 

[cel4145]

Since these are for home use and you have a great DAC/amp, I'd go for open headphones. The soundstage is so much better than closed. Much better.

Then look at the most highly regarded in that $200 to $250 price that have had a good following for awhile: HD598, DT880, Q701, and SR225i. I've heard the DT880, Q701, and SR225i, and the advocates are all right on in how good they are. They are great. Just the SR225i is more the sound signature for me. But the only way I could know that was to try them.

And with that in mind, I'd ignore most of the individual negative critics of any of those phones say, because it's most likely personal aesthetic preference. I wouldn't have thought that I would like the SR225i based on what people were saying, and I would have thought that I'd like the DT880s more than the SR225i based on what I read. The trick is to find the phones that you love the sound signature, and reading the testinmonials will only get you about 80% of the way there.

The SR225i are probably the most bass light of three I have heard, but even then, they perform about as well as my passive bookshelf speakers. So if you are happy with the Airmotiv's bass, I'd ignore the bass light criticism of those open headphones. It's coming from people that want heavily emphasized bass or more sub bass (the DT880s do have more down very deep below 50hz, but not so important for most music listening).

So I'd pick two and try them. Or three, but spread out the ordering with B&H Photo and Crutchfield so you don't run risk of pissing off Amazon

 

[cel4145]

I have the A900X, but am going to sell them. Soundstage is not as good as the open headphones, and the wings are annoying to me. The headphones are comfortable, but they also shift in position occasionally. I thought the Beyers and the AKGs I mentioned were far more comfortable. But I stopped listening to the A900Xs after I got the Grados not because of comfort, but because the Grados were more engaging.

 

[cel4145]

LOL - I guess my area is not too shabby.

My lady thinks mine looks ridiculous. The speakers and equpment under the desk.....and not that I will change my mind on the size/amount of equipment because of her; I do make every best effort to keep a minimalistic approach and keep things as clean as I can, in my work area and the rest of the house .

I miss having a bigger monitor and would love two of them like yours,  though , but I do like being able to see over my desk unto the rest of the house. I honestly never liked being in front of a wall. We just purchased our first home last year and I have a problem seeing it in dissarray, inside or outside. I never realized how much work it is until you own your own. I still remember when we picked this house out, the new house smell, and it had no imperfections, and any blemishes we found we made the builder touch up/fix.

You have a good point on the price. Whats your contender than for supreme comfort and great sq around 200? Tough thing about headphones is it seems like there are twice as many phones as speakers.....lots of companies making phones only. Lots of them in the 100 - 300 price range too.

I work at home at least 40 hours a week. So I've got an old workstation table that is just the right height for ergonomics, and I do a lot of computer work where the dual monitors are much more efficient.

 

[chapa6sigma]

I checked out the grados....I'm finding lots of comfort issue complaints with them...no complaints regarding sq. The sennheisers look beautiful and have great marks. They look extremely comfortable. They match my walls and wood too. Beyer's are interesting, found one for 250 and others for 350,,,,what is the deal with 250 ohm, 250 ohm plus, 32 ohm, and 600 ohm options?
 
. As far as the Hifi man he400's that innerfidelity reviewed with the xda-2 , how much better can the planar phones be at 400 bucks? He did mentioned some sennheiser 580's ( i don't think they are still in production) . not sure if they are closed or open. I found one used one for some crazy price. I probably need to check out sennheisers main page and do comparison of what the numbers mean/specs but I do like the price and look of the hd598's you mentioned. Don't like the two cords from each ear. Beyer only has one I believe. hifi man has 2. I may have to go to a local store and see if I can try on these things. They all are getting great sq remarks. Only the grado's are being put down a bit for comfort/fit. build of components. I definately want a comfortable around the ear setup...not over the ear tight fitting.
 
Do you think I'd be able to tell a difference between 250 sennheisers and 400 dollar hi fi mans? or the different beyer with their options? What the big deal with planar? Is that what the minimagans use? Do you think the bass on the hd598's would be deeper than the hifimans or beyers?
 
I did read up on open air. Should be way better than closed at almost any comparison of any good quality phones and yes , only will be using at home.