[SuperTheMando]

 
Hi all.

 

I'm new to Head-Fi, and I'm an absolute noob with these sort of things, so any help and advice will be greatly appreciated!

I've recently started paying attention to music quality, and now that I have a job I've stopped pirating music and am buying CDs, and ripping as FLACs and loving the quality jump! Then I tried on some really expensive headphones and wow. I want more of this. As I'm only listening through my phone, I'm pretty sure that's the bottleneck in my quality, but my current headphones are also very very poor, so I want to replace both.

 

I've done a bit of research, and some listening in store (but only from my phone) and I like these the best: Sennheiser HD 25-1 II and the Beyerdynamic DT 1350. I couldn't hear much of a difference between the two, so the lower price tag is quite attractive. But I was listening from my phone... I'm looking for something that can be portable, and the design of these two was really nice.

 

I've also taken a look at some portable players. I'm not a fan of Apple's products. From what I can see, Cowon do really, really good stuff, and (I think, I'm not sure though) the Cowon J3 is their newest/top-of-the-line product, and very, very good.

 

Is this a good combination to get the best sound I can out of my FLACs? Is this overkill? Is there something missing? Is there something better I can get in a similar price range? I can't afford them both at once - should I buy the headphones first, enjoy the great sound from my phone, and the player later? Or should I buy the player first and then try the two headphones again and see which I really do want?

 

I want this to be portable, for out walking, on trains etc., but I also want it to sound great when I'm at home quiet and enjoying my music. I really like the style of these two headphones. Sturdy, yet small. I don't want to be out on a train with massive cans on my face.

 

Any words of advice would be super helpful. Thanks

 

[Music fan 8888]

Hey I'm new to Headfi too and am in a similar situation as you.  I was thinking of purchasing the Sennheiser HD 25-1 ii as well based on brilliant reviews for it.  How was the sound when you tried it?  Was the soundstage wide and clear?  And the Bass??
 
I also have the Cowon J3 and it is a really amazing player!  The sound quality is really clear and its internal amp means you dont have to pump up the volume too loud as you do with an ipod.  It can drive headphones really easily including my Beyerdyanmic headphones that have a really high impedance.  Its the best mp3 player I have tried and throughly recommend it.  The latest editions from Cowon are the D3 and C2 but am unsure about how these sound.....most probably the same! Plus the J3 supports FLAC and music just sounds so amazing from it.  When I plug my J3 into my HiFi and compare it with an ipod, there is a big difference. Sound separation, bass and clarity are all there.
 

 

[SuperTheMando]

Not only am I new to Head-Fi, I'm new to appreciating quality sound. No idea what soundstage is, or what impedance is.
 
This is probably going to be really unsatisfactory, but I'll give my best at explaining it.
It was good. Just really, really good. I was listening to a few tracks, one of them was a really beats-y hand-clappy piece with lots of vocals, other headphones I had tried either drowned out the beats with the treble, or drowned out the singing with heavy beats, but the HD 25s were perfect. The bass drum went boom. The claps were sharp, and the vocals were crisp and clear. It was beautiful.That was Limbo by Kimbra.
I also tried listening to Out Here In The Cold by Gotye, which has an orchestral introduction, and there was this rolling bass that I hadn't heard before. It was like rolling thunder, hidden underneath all the strings. I nearly came.

 

[Music fan 8888]

ok thanks for that!  I decided to go and order these headphones already and will try them out with my player to see how it sounds.  Hopefully this should be an adequte replacement for my ultimate ears headphones. 
 
The soundstage simply just reflects the overall staging effect of the sound i.e. whether it is far from you (have the feel music is all around you) or close in ( this can be narrow and the instrumental separation is closer with vocals more 'in your face').  The impedance is just the resistance of the headphone so the higher the impedance, the more power is needed to drive the headphones.  Some impedances are very high and headphone amps are needed to add that extra power an mp3 player cannot provide in order to drive them and to provide the full effect of the headphones.
 
I hope this helps - I really dont know that much myself and have just recently trying to investigate headphone specs rather than simply buying headphones and not knowing much about them (like I did before).

 

[1M1]

Interesting discussion as it touches on many of the recommendations I give co-workers.
 
As to headphones, I like the Senn HD-25 and Alessandro MS-1 for portable and work use. I rarely feel I'm being cheated in any area of the listening experience with these. HD-25 for rock and such, the MS-1 with yellow "quartered" pads for more classical intrumentals.
 
As to source, I like the iAudio/Cowon products. I grew up with EQ and such adjustability and appreciatte the feature in a portable music source. I am still using old iAudio 7 and 9 players, BTW, and they sound grand with the mostly flac coded music I listen to. Adjustability lets one adjust for headphone characteristics and such.
 
I would be remiss if I failed to point out that an amp is a noticeable addition. Of what I use regularly, the Practical Devices XM-4 still appears to be in production. I have come to really like the added impact a decent amp gives to the listening experience. I prefer amps that use readily available batteries as I have had a couple of lithium packet batteries fail (with the result of the amp being disposed of as fixing cost more than the amp was worth).
 
 

 

[SuperTheMando]

I'm not really a fan of open headphones. I only want one pair, and I don't want to disturb people when I'm on a tram or something.
 
Still can't decide which player to get. I'm going to get cans after I have the player.
 
Haven't found a good reason to chose either a sansa or a cowon.

 

[Music fan 8888]

Quote:

I'm not really a fan of open headphones. I only want one pair, and I don't want to disturb people when I'm on a tram or something.
 
Still can't decide which player to get. I'm going to get cans after I have the player.
 
Haven't found a good reason to chose either a sansa or a cowon

Ipod touch?  They seem to do everything and creative products are okay because are good value for money.  I love Cowon though, nothing really beats their EQ settings

 

[SuperTheMando]

Ew. Apple.
 
*washes hands*
 
Really, my choice is down to Cowon or Sansa, I'm just looking for a reason to go either way.

 

[Music fan 8888]

Why dont you like apple?  I've never had an ipod before but my friends have them and they always rave about them.... cos they are more than just an mp3 player.  SQ however is not as good as Cowon but can always be improved with a good amp and headphones.  I've never tried Sansa before so am pretty biased towards Cowon, not even sure Sansa can play FLAC.  Also how much you willing to spend?  Choosing an mp3 player, I always take into account price, capacity, sound quality and features.  SQ is always top though and have tried sony walkmans, creative and ipod but Cowon products seem to sound so much better; they are good for analytical listening and BBE is just amazing.  

 

[SuperTheMando]

Quote:

SQ however is not as good as Cowon but can always be improved with a good amp and headphones.

I'm a pretty big noob, but I'm fairly certain an amp and headphones can't *improve* SQ, just get more out of it, and SQ is my main factor. Price isn't an issue (but I don't want to spend the $700 for the HiFiMan, that is too much).
 
Also I'm an Android fanboy. I just don't like apple.
 

 

[Music fan 8888]

okay from listening to many mp3 players, I know the source is really important in delivering quality music to your headphones.  The amp and the headphones you use can make a big difference though and can add that extra 'oomph' in the music especially when listening to an ipod.  A cheap headphone amp is Fiio and is supposed to be quite good (round £13 at amazon).  One of the reasons I like Cowon is that their mp3 players are very powerful ...more so that Sony and Apple when the right region settings are used and as a result, I dont even need an amp to drive the headphones I use.  Plus they just sound wonderful and the audio is very very clear
 
Btw I use android too .....You should check out the Cowon D3, that has an android operating system