[peter2305]

Hi
I am looking to purchase a good quality set of headphones but there's so much choice - where to start?   Here is some basic information. I wish to do silent practice on my Roland digital electronic piano, or on my organ.
 
Music genres:  Classical
Portable: No, only used for the piano or organ.
Price range: around UK £100
Amped: No
Closed/Open: Undecided but probably closed. Need guidance here.
Headphone preference: good quality
 
Comfortable fit is important as I find them quite hot to wear for long.  On my other phones the leatherette covering the ear pads has crumbled away and I can't find those small cotton covers to buy.  Any advice would be most welcome.  Thanks.
 

 

 

[miceblue]

Quote:

ok, TheAesirsFinest 
 
This thing may sound strange, but there are flac files for every song in the world....why?... audiophiles.... now, to fiind it, is harder than anything else, when get started, and easy after you get used..... just open google main page and write something like "ARTIST" "song name/ album/ word 'discography'/ just do not write anything but artist until now" "the world FLAC" and the most important word "torrent".... now you must have utorrent installed....
 
some examples :
linkin park in the end flac torrent
linkin park hybryd theory flac torrent
linkin park flac torrent
linkin park discography flac torrent
muse flac torrent
muse time is running out flac torrent
silverstein flac torrent
silverstein discovering the waterfront flac torrent
silverstein true romance flac torrent
 
or if you listen to rap/hiphop/ let say eminem, to clear a little
 
eminem flac torrent
eminem relapse flac torrent
eminem stan flac torrent....
 
searches will always fiind you a torrent with the album not only one song, no matter if you have written name of the song, or, sometimes the search will fiind the discography, even following only one song.... 
 
now, i hope you know how to use utorrent, if you not, just type utorrent on google, eneter on their site, and there will exist explanations...
 
or you can buy CD with music, and rip them with flac encoder, foobar... and if you want the best of the best experiences, search for .h264 live performances of your favourite bands.....
 
flac files make mp3 look like they are coming out of an trash can,.... never loose hope, flac files exists to almost every song...

While I find that to be true for the most part, don't forget that there are also a lot of torrenters who convert MP3 to FLAC just to make it look like you're getting the real deal...at least that's what I've experienced. I honestly like to buy the CD itself so I have some peace-of-mind.
 
Also, though I don't know how many people use torrents on these forums, but I usually don't encourage the use of torrents; instead, go out and support the music industry and the artist by purchasing their albums.
 
 

 

[Dobrescu George]

miceblue, did you forgot that the artist get very little of your money?... most of money go to shop, united states of america, and of course, to CD and CD case manufracters.... artist get about 1$ from 40-60$ payed on a very rare album.... this is just a rate, there may not exist 60$ albums, but about that is the rate of progit that is an income to the artist.... 
 
and as for torrents, i use some programs to determine which are what and how much.... and also you can tell by how they sound if they are natural flacs or mp3 encoded to flac.... for someone that is new, you should no try to say that cd are the first option, for the base, a person should at least have some examples about the differences between flacs and mp3's before buying anything.... 
 
Yes, and TheAesirsFinest,
this thing put back in my mind, that "bitsnoop" has the most of flac music files, but is much more recomended to use google...

 

[miceblue]

Quote:

miceblue, did you forgot that the artist get very little of your money?... most of money go to shop, united states of america, and of course, to CD and CD case manufracters.... artist get about 1$ from 40-60$ payed on a very rare album.... this is just a rate, there may not exist 60$ albums, but about that is the rate of progit that is an income to the artist.... 
 
and as for torrents, i use some programs to determine which are what and how much.... and also you can tell by how they sound if they are natural flacs or mp3 encoded to flac.... for someone that is new, you should no try to say that cd are the first option, for the base, a person should at least have some examples about the differences between flacs and mp3's before buying anything....

Right right, I can tell the difference between original FLAC files and MP3 converted to FLAC files. I only purchase my music CD's if it's at a good price.
 
 

 

[12345142]

Quote:

Quote:

hello guys!
 
so, i need some advice on what sort of headphones to purchase. the most i would be willing to pay is around $130.
 
i want headphones that provide extremely high sound quality. i'm going to use these in my room, hooked up to either my iphone or laptop, for listening to my music collection. i don't plan on using these on-the-go, so noise-cancellation is not important to me.
 
i listen to metal primarily, which is heavy and fast. i also listen to rock and some electronic (dubstep). (i'm not sure if that would influence my choice.)
 
basically, what are the best headphones for delivering extremely high sound quality in a quiet setting like my room? thanks!

Based on your type of music, you won't go wrong with Grados.

Grados are a terrible choice for dubstep and rather unsuitable with metal due to their light bass and sharp treble. Try the audio-technica M50s or A700s.
 

 

[macrocheesium]

 
Quote:

ok, TheAesirsFinest 
 
This thing may sound strange, but there are flac files for every song in the world....why?... audiophiles.... now, to fiind it, is harder than anything else, when get started, and easy after you get used..... just open google main page and write something like "ARTIST" "song name/ album/ word 'discography'/ just do not write anything but artist until now" "the world FLAC" and the most important word "torrent".... now you must have utorrent installed....
 
some examples :
linkin park in the end flac torrent
linkin park hybryd theory flac torrent
linkin park flac torrent
linkin park discography flac torrent
muse flac torrent
muse time is running out flac torrent
silverstein flac torrent
silverstein discovering the waterfront flac torrent
silverstein true romance flac torrent
 
or if you listen to rap/hiphop/ let say eminem, to clear a little
 
eminem flac torrent
eminem relapse flac torrent
eminem stan flac torrent....
 
searches will always fiind you a torrent with the album not only one song, no matter if you have written name of the song, or, sometimes the search will fiind the discography, even following only one song.... 
 
now, i hope you know how to use utorrent, if you not, just type utorrent on google, eneter on their site, and there will exist explanations...
 
or you can buy CD with music, and rip them with flac encoder, foobar... and if you want the best of the best experiences, search for .h264 live performances of your favourite bands.....
 
flac files make mp3 look like they are coming out of an trash can,.... never loose hope, flac files exists to almost every song...

I disagree with a bit of this. First of all, there is not an FLAC version for every song in existence, at least not one available to the public. Only if the album was released on CD/vinyl; if if was just a single the artist released through iTunes, there is a very small chance of a lossless version being available.
 
In my experience, you don't need to include the word "torrent" in your searches. As long as "FLAC" is in there, you should get everything. One trick I've found very helpful is to search the filename, in quotes (for exact searching). Example: muse "undisclosed desires.flac"
 
The last part of what you wrote, about the trash can. I think this is completely untrue. You mean to say you've never heard a good 320kbps mp3 file? Even when I do notice a difference between the lossless and 320 (which isn't even all of time), it's not huge. A noticeable difference, but the 320 still sounds great. Especially with hard rock music, you just want to rock out and not revel in every little nuance of the sound. You want it to sound good, but when I listen to rock 'n roll I just enjoy the songs and really don't even notice details if they are preset.

 

[Dobrescu George]

macrocheesium, in my experience, breaking benjamin, muse, sonata arctica, sirenia, offsrping, rasmus, dope, drowning pool, sum 41, amon amarth, papa roach, seether, one republic, and rob zombie, are different like day and night if you listen flac or mp3 320.... there are instruments, effects, things that i love to hear, and mp3 just doesn;t seem to let me.....
 
throught, i fiind that in some cases you are right: eminem, linkin park(not live), holywood undead, maximum the hormone, brokencyde, manau, maroon 5, infected mushroom, do not have so much differences, i mean i hardly can tell the difference (i am listening to guitars, just searching for any guitar throught all song).... for these ones, what you say is right, it was a loos of time to struggle to fiind flacs, i never heard a major difference....
 
depends, i would recomend to TheAesirsFinest, 
to fiind 320kbs mp3, if flacs are not possible,... yes, 320 mp3 are great, but there are so many fakes of 320 mp3 that makes 128 look like 320.... this is why i am going with flac.... in fact, i verify in about 90% if they are true.... at 320 mp3 i found a percentage of 45% fakes.... at flacs i found about 2% fakes.... so by now i am keeping some of my recomandations....just because they are safer, better clearer, and do make the difference....

 

[tyoung8]

 
Music:  Female vocals.

Price range: under UK £100

Amped: No

Closed/Open: Prefer Open.

 

Looking to buy a headphone to compliment my Ultrasone DJ1.  Looking at Shure 440 and Superlux 668b.  Any particular cans really suited for female vocals?  Price range is flexible.

 

[reivaj]

whats the dt990 600ohm sound like compared to the ms1?

 

[macrocheesium]

 
Quote:

macrocheesium, in my experience, breaking benjamin, muse, sonata arctica, sirenia, offsrping, rasmus, dope, drowning pool, sum 41, amon amarth, papa roach, seether, one republic, and rob zombie, are different like day and night if you listen flac or mp3 320.... there are instruments, effects, things that i love to hear, and mp3 just doesn;t seem to let me.....
 
throught, i fiind that in some cases you are right: eminem, linkin park(not live), holywood undead, maximum the hormone, brokencyde, manau, maroon 5, infected mushroom, do not have so much differences, i mean i hardly can tell the difference (i am listening to guitars, just searching for any guitar throught all song).... for these ones, what you say is right, it was a loos of time to struggle to fiind flacs, i never heard a major difference....
 
depends, i would recomend to TheAesirsFinest, 
to fiind 320kbs mp3, if flacs are not possible,... yes, 320 mp3 are great, but there are so many fakes of 320 mp3 that makes 128 look like 320.... this is why i am going with flac.... in fact, i verify in about 90% if they are true.... at 320 mp3 i found a percentage of 45% fakes.... at flacs i found about 2% fakes.... so by now i am keeping some of my recomandations....just because they are safer, better clearer, and do make the difference....

That's interesting; the only artists of those you mentioned that I've compared are Infected Mushroom and Breaking Benjamin. With BB, I couldn't tell a difference at all. With Infected, I did notice a difference.


Quote:

 
Music:  Female vocals.

Price range: under UK £100

Amped: No

Closed/Open: Prefer Open.

 

Looking to buy a headphone to compliment my Ultrasone DJ1.  Looking at Shure 440 and Superlux 668b.  Any particular cans really suited for female vocals?  Price range is flexible.

Not sure about female in particular, but Grados' forward sound is really great for vocals. The SR125 would be a good choice; it's open too.

 

[Dabears2240]

It's that time where I want to upgrade again...
 
-Open Headphones
-Under $200, preferably around 130 or so
-I want these to sound great unamped
-I'm going to be listening to alternative rock on these, and maybe a little bit of rap.  Radiohead, Arcade Fire, Kanye West, Flaming Lips, etc.
-Portability is not an issue
-Looks only matter if they are horrendously ugly
 
 
Go!

 

[thelamppost]

I made a new thread, but I didn't see this page.
 
Can someone tell me the differences between the Able Planet NC1000CHA and Able Planet NC1100B?????  I couldn't see any differences.

 

[Takahashi]

Please don't condone pirating on these forums.

FLAC files are indeed very rare; even more so for Indie labels and bands that publish through iTunes or Amazon. A majority of FLAC albums that you'll find online are indeed illegitimate files for download. Buy the CD, and rip it yourself. It's the best way as you can control the quality (even more so then vinyl, who knows what turntable they used to make the file, let alone the quality of the record). Used CD's now are dirt cheap and you can find them in fantastic condition.

I too agree with some of the statements about .mp3 files and entry level headphones. In most cases, you're not going to hear the flaws in a .mp3 over 256kbs (even 192kbs depending on the type of music). So don't really worry about it. iTunes uses the Apple .m4a files which have a 256kbs bit rate, and it works just fine on entry level cans. Aside, it really does depend on the quality of the studio and mixing that the tracks were mastered on.

Now throw a 128kbs .mp3 file on a set of AKG K701 amped up with a good DAC and every flaw will jump out in your face.

 

[tyoung8]

Quote:

Not sure about female in particular, but Grados' forward sound is really great for vocals. The SR125 would be a good choice; it's open too.

Cheers.  That reminds me.  Have to check out the SR60 and MS1.

 

[deathzero34]

I have been looking far and wide for comparison about headphone before I buy anything because I want something that will work for what I need. Strolling head-fi forum for a while now (3 days) and I've learn in those 3 days more about headphone that I tough would be possible. Seeing has you people are extremely knowledgeable and helpful I tough I might submit my little problem to this forum.
 
I have been playing games forever with my .audio 510 from Panasonics. They were good and did their time (7 years). When they died, I though to myself lets get something better, more comfortable, more awesome, etc. So I bought the Megalodon From Razer thinking they would fit my need. I was somewhat surprise by them because the microphone feedback with the headset. (not cool). So I'm back on my quest to find a better headset. I've look at Astro, Tritton, Razer. All the ''gamer'' headset but most of the time they seem little for the cost and prone to easy damage.
 
So I'm asking for your neverending knowledge O great inhabitants of this forum.
 
So here what I'm looking for:

1. Microphone on a boom (not one of those detachable one that are prone to easy failure)
2. Overall good Sound Quality
3. Good microphone quality that doesnt feedback (noise canceling)
4. Ear Coupling : Circumaural (because I find it more comfortable(who doesnt))
5. A headphone that have a microphone (not the Get the AD700 and get the omnidirectional Zalman)
6. No Price range because I want to see all possible option.

 
I have been eying The PC360 from Sennheiser with a good sound card from Asus (Stx) but a lot of people have been bashing them.
 I am open to all suggestion and await opinion eagerly.
 
Dz