[N.F.H.]

Hi everyone,
I am an audiophile who listens mostly to 24/48kHz lossless files and I want to buy new headphones. Musical genres are metal, jazz, blues, electronica, underground and so on...so basically I listen to everything except Pop music. The headphones should be closed back, on or over ear, must have response rate covering all 48kHz or/and above and should be maximally balanced. The headphones can be paired with an AMP, but we still need to be under the $550 budget. The source is my PC (Z370-A - Realtek S1220A) and my iPhone. Currently I own XBA-40iP quad armature balanced earphones.

Thanks in advance!

 

[PaganDL]

Hi NFH,

Some headphones to consider in no particular order.

Sony WH 1000 XM2
Meze 99 Classics (Stock pads not recommended if you have glasses, large &/or odd shaped ears, ZMF cowhide for best comfort)
Oppo PM 3 With Balanced Cable (Depending on sound preference, narrow & front facing for stock or wide & rear facing for balanced)

May I also suggest a good quality headphone amp like Oppo HA2 or HA2 SE or Rupert Neve RNHP as good ones to start with.

Always demo with quality sources.

Hope this helps.

 

[buke9]

Hi everyone,
I am an audiophile who listens mostly to 24/48kHz lossless files and I want to buy new headphones. Musical genres are metal, jazz, blues, electronica, underground and so on...so basically I listen to everything except Pop music. The headphones should be closed back, on or over ear, must have response rate covering all 48kHz or/and above and should be maximally balanced. The headphones can be paired with an AMP, but we still need to be under the $550 budget. The source is my PC (Z370-A - Realtek S1220A) and my iPhone. Currently I own XBA-40iP quad armature balanced earphones.

Thanks in advance!

Not real sure what you mean by covering all 48kHz or/and above and should be maximally balanced. The Human ear max can hear about 20 kHz and I’m sure that with our noisy environment is too many so don’t understand the 48kHz ? Maximally balanced not for sure what that means either I understand neutral,bright ,dark,warm and those with a balanced sound signature but Maximally Balanced your going to have to give a little more on what that means. Haven’t heard the XBA-40iP so don’t know how they sound so it might be better if you give your impressions of the sound signature as others may not have heard them either to give a better chance of finding you a new set of headphones.

 

[torifile]

Push that budget a little and pick up a used pair of Aeon flow closed.

 

[herrsmith]

Not real sure what you mean by covering all 48kHz or/and above and should be maximally balanced. The Human ear max can hear about 20 kHz and I’m sure that with our noisy environment is too many so don’t understand the 48kHz ?

To be fair, that's the sample rate, so need that sample rate to just barely produce 24 kHz sounds. Additionally, it's not a hard cutoff at 20 kHz and it varies person to person. That said, I do not think a lot of music is recorded in that format anyways, so you're not really getting any more information by upconverting it from the 44.1 kHz industry standard.

 

[N.F.H.]

Hi NFH,

Some headphones to consider in no particular order.

Sony WH 1000 XM2
Meze 99 Classics (Stock pads not recommended if you have glasses, large &/or odd shaped ears, ZMF cowhide for best comfort)
Oppo PM 3 With Balanced Cable (Depending on sound preference, narrow & front facing for stock or wide & rear facing for balanced)

May I also suggest a good quality headphone amp like Oppo HA2 or HA2 SE or Rupert Neve RNHP as good ones to start with.

Always demo with quality sources.

Hope this helps.

I am actually thinking of getting Audeze SINE, Meze 99, OPPO PM3 or Shure SRH1540. To be more clear I need headphones which will be as precise as possible, I don't want them to have more treble or mids as I am mastering different music, mostly rock music. The issue is that I can't listen to them so my choice is based on reviews only. What would be your recommendation? Is it worth getting OPPO PM3s with additional 100$ balanced cable? or is it better to get one of these headphones?

 

[buke9]

Why get a balanced cable if you don’t have a balanced amp. Don’t like on ears myself all that much but the Sine do sound pretty good. The Meze with stock pads are almost on ears as the drivers do touch my ears a bit but far from uncomfortable and would not call them neutral in the least fairly bass heavy and a bit towards the warmer side on the high end although they take really well to eq( though I don’t use it much for any others) and have a eq slot on my dap just for them . Find the Oppo’s to be kind of lifeless but that could be what you want. Haven’t heard the Shures so can’t say. You might check out Innerfidelity.com as they have frequency responses for a lot of headphones.

 

[PopZeus]

Yeah, I'd definitely look at the new closed-back planar from monoprice, in addition to the Meze and Oppo. I think it's the 1060c. They fixed a few things from the open-back version. Seems like a great deal.

 

[onevstheworld]

If you're looking for a neutral, analytical headphone, also try the ATH M70X. I remember it as having a really flat sound signature (almost boring) when I demoed it. I wouldn't recommend the Meze either... that headphone is tuned to have a more "fun" sound signature.

Like buke9 says, your source isn't balanced, so there isn't any point in buying a balanced cable.

 

[N.F.H.]

If you're looking for a neutral, analytical headphone, also try the ATH M70X. I remember it as having a really flat sound signature (almost boring) when I demoed it. I wouldn't recommend the Meze either... that headphone is tuned to have a more "fun" sound signature.

Like buke9 says, your source isn't balanced, so there isn't any point in buying a balanced cable.

Ok I see. I still dont know what to buy, I really dont understand what does it mean flat sound signature. For example I had MDR-v55 which is more bass and mid boosted and treble is a bit rolled off but they are not audiophile headphones by any means, they are cheap "DJ" headphones, but i find them very addictive. XBA-40ips are very detailed and very precise. Instruments are excellently separated, sound is not very wide but still very good for earphones. Yet again, I dont understand what does that mean "flat sounding". The headphones I am looking for is like i need xbas but for my pc in order to work with audio. They just have to sound natural. by natural I mean they should sound exactly as the recording is. I will be using them also for listening to music like metal, hardrock, jazz, blues, hip-hop, rap.

 

[onevstheworld]

Flat sounding or neutral is referring to it's frequency response curve shape. V-shaped is how most consumer HPs are tuned... boosted bass and highs.

If you're mastering music, I assumed you want something that doesn't boost any particular frequency range.

 

[N.F.H.]

Flat sounding or neutral is referring to it's frequency response curve shape. V-shaped is how most consumer HPs are tuned... boosted bass and highs.

If you're mastering music, I assumed you want something that doesn't boost any particular frequency range.

Thanks for explanation. I think ill go with OPPO PM3s.