Calling on the wisom of headfi.org

[Kamikid]

I recently bought a pair of Sennheiser HD500's. So far I'm not too impressed with them. They dont sound as good as I though they would. Tomorrow I'm buying Doom 3 from future shop and it comes with a free Audigy LS soundcard. Would the Audigy make them sound better? Because right now I'm using a Sound Blaster Live Value. I dont want to open the box to the Audigy because I plan on selling it and making my money back on the game. It's a deal for the first 10 people in the store ($80 value). So can the Audigy save my Senns or should I just return them and use the money for more important things?

 

[pbirkett]

Its generally said that the HD500 are poor headphones. They will still sound poor out of the Audigy, IMHO.

 

[Kamikid]

So you're saying I should return them?

 

[MuZI]

Those headphones are horrible..not worth the price at all..

 

[chiefroastbeef]

(i think they're saying the 500 needs to be returned)

 

[Kamikid]

Ok thx guys, I knew I should have done more research before I bought these. I thought "Hey Sennheisers", and automatically assumed they'd be good. They're going back in the morning however.

 

[Taurui]

Now, tell us your budget and we'll tell you how to spend it best

 

[KenW]

Doom 3 is FINALLY out?? Half-Life can't be far behind. I'd grown tired of waiting and had forgotten about 'em. Guess I need a trip to the big city to upgrade the PC! While I'm at it, I'm thinking a sound card upgrade might also be in order. Thanks for the reminder.

 

[Mr.Radar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamikid Tomorrow I'm buying Doom 3 from future shop and it comes with a free Audigy LS soundcard. Would the Audigy make them sound better? Because right now I'm using a Sound Blaster Live Value.

With an SB-Live any card will be an upgrade in sound quality, though the Audigy LS isn't a very good card either. I'd reccomend getting a Chaintech AV-710 for $24 which should be a major upgrade in sound quality coming from a Live. Though that probably won't help your HD500's much.

 

[go_vtec]

Take a look at HD555 or HD595 (if you have the $$$). Audio Technica A500 or A900 are all-around good performer and so are Sennheiser HD555/HD595.

 

[Kamikid]

Well I took them back and got my $200 CAD dollars back. What should I get now? I was thinking of getting the Sennheiser PC-150's. Good for gaming and has a microphone built in. Not to sure about the sound quality of these.

 

[Eagle_Driver]

I'd reckon that most headphones with a built-in mic - even fairly expensive ones - would barely sound better than freebie Walkman stock headphones for music.

And the HD500's (the bionetic ones) are one of the very worst headphones that Sennheiser had ever introduced, especially at their original price point. In fact, they were designed in 1998 and introduced in 1999 - and those two years were particularly bad years for Sennheiser designers and engineers, since none of the Senns designed during those years performed anywhere near as well as they should have at their original price points.

And speaking of the Audigy LS, it is based on the original Audigy (not the Audigy2) - thus, its DSP is hard-locked at 16 bits and 48kHz (the 24/96 support is a joke, especially if the audio must go through the LS's DSP), and everything gets resampled to 16/48 and then back to the originally chosen rate. And it can't even produce bit-perfect output at that native 16/48 mode with official Creative drivers.

The Audigy2 ZS series cards is an improvement over the Audigy LS, since it supports true 24/96 and 24/192 output. But with Creative's official drivers, it produces bit-perfect output only at 24/96 and 24/192 - if any other sampling rate is used (or if any DSP effects whatsoever are switched on), it gets resampled to 48kHz - and the A2 ZS cannot produce bit-perfect output at 48kHz with Creative's official drivers.

 

[Mr.Radar]

Get some real cans and a cheapo microphone instead of a headset. If you're into gaming the Audio Technica A500's would probably be the best for your pricerange, plus they're good for all-around music as well and don't need an amp.

 

[AnimeEd]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamikid Well I took them back and got my $200 CAD dollars back. What should I get now? I was thinking of getting the Sennheiser PC-150's. Good for gaming and has a microphone built in. Not to sure about the sound quality of these.

you got it at radioshack didn't you?

 

[Kamikid]

Actually it was Futureshop.