[xiujk71]

Quote:

hey guys im having trouble picking heaphones.. so,
some that i've considered
Beyer 880/770/990 ( im not sure about those 3 diff)
sennheiser 558,600,650HD
Fischer f-003 ( looks very comfortable)'
aiaiai tma-1 ??
denon's??
m50
so basically that's it or u could suggest me more headphones.. so usually the price of those headphones would be 2x the price in my country. I would like 50%bass and 50%clarity for my headphones.. i would not want the bass to overlap with the clarity, or either there is too much clarity but no bass/slight bass.. 
 
i would probably consider getting an amp but a portable one.. but will the portable one make the headphones 'stand out'? or in other words, 'shine in their true colors'? certainly i would not get a Big amp.. anyways i use the headphones/amps mostly at home 80-90% but i still do not want a big amp. And im going to oversea's next month, i would want something portable too  
 
from what i've heard, the sennheiser 600/650HD WOULD NOT sound good right out from the box.. they need an amp! which im afraid if i get a portable amp it wouldnt sound as good as those big amps... ya know what i mean...
 
I hope u guys can recommend me one of the headphones above along with a portable amp( if it can be on par with those big amps/worth it) thanks
 
 

Not sure about those headphones except M50. I think it suits u, with quite good clarity, and bass that comes out only when needed, based on memory that i demoed few weeks ago.
 
For a cheap but 'bang for buck' amp, you might want the Fiio E6, or if u can increase your budget, E11. Forgot how the E11 sounds like, but E6 is slightly bright, which is not really noticeable. I owned the E6 and I'm happy with it, made my cheap earpiece sounds way better. According to Amazon review, the Fiio E6 can drive HD650, if i remembered correctly. For sure, the E11 can drive the HD650.

 

[NatureEnergy]

Quote:

Not sure about those headphones except M50. I think it suits u, with quite good clarity, and bass that comes out only when needed, based on memory that i demoed few weeks ago.
 
For a cheap but 'bang for buck' amp, you might want the Fiio E6, or if u can increase your budget, E11. Forgot how the E11 sounds like, but E6 is slightly bright, which is not really noticeable. I owned the E6 and I'm happy with it, made my cheap earpiece sounds way better. According to Amazon review, the Fiio E6 can drive HD650, if i remembered correctly. For sure, the E11 can drive the HD650.

Hey! thanks for your reply mate!
hmm but know my heart is asking me to go for the M50... i kept on doing researches about sennheisers 600/650 hd/ beyerdynamics 770/880/990 and in the end when i see a AT m50 thread or ATm50 information i would be very excited.. haha im not sure why... hmm but most of the users said that the M50 DOSENT need an amp?? i use the m50 on my ipod nano/iphone 4/ laptop( not good soundcard i assume, should be the default 1)

 

[No Idea]

Quote:

 
 
Save yourself some money and get a Clip+ and rockbox it. Then get a micro SDHC card. The Clip+ sounds great and is way cheaper. 

ah ok thanks  but will i have enough digital storage?
 
 
Quote:

Hello, I'm rather new to the whole audio thing but have spent the last few months happily lurking away on your forum, soaking up what I can and hopping from lusting over one product to the next   But I felt I should probably ask for help before potentially spending an extortionate amount of money on audio equipment!
 
I listen to a variety of music like classical (Bach, Mozart etc), faster orchestral like Two Steps From Hell, Hans Zimmer etc, but I also rather like my metal; whether it be the chilling voice of Amy Lee in Evanescence to the aggressive growls and thrashings of Slipknot! And just about everything in between! Maryin Manson, Breaking Ben-, Skindred, Three Days Grace, EarlyRise, AC/DC, Queen, Led Zeppelin - you get the idea
 
With this in mind I've been steering towards the following:
 
A pair of Beyerdynamic DT 880's (600ohm)
JDS Lab C421 - AD8620 portable amp
Rockboxed iPod
 
Any thoughts? From numerous reviews I've read they seem to be the best "all rounders" for their price but female vocals do not come out very well which is a shame as I rather like female vocals
JDS came top(ish) on the "sub $200 dollar portable amp shoot-out" and to be completely honest, that's pretty much as far as I've researched it! My main concern (probably due to lack of knowledge about what my concerns actually are!) is whether it will be able to drive the 600ohm Headphones and if so, will it kill the ipod battery?
Something else I read was that the iPod struggles to play FLAC files, is this true? Does having 64mb cache over 32 make a difference and how do I know which version has what? The Rockbox-ing I'm also a little confused about(surprise! lol); Anything after 5.5 generation works... but doesn't. It has a very nice alternative to Apple's GUI... but doesn't..?
 
I apologise for my need to be spoon fed It's not intentional, promise!
 
Thank you so much for reading and for all the help and information in this site! It's amazing!
 
-Tom

 
 
 
and bump

 

[Doc-holliday]

ah ok thanks  but will i have enough digital storage?





and bump

For a rockboxed sansa clip

Buy a 64GB microsdxc card.

Using LINUX, format the 64gb card to FAT32. You give it NO PARTITION. Once this is done and after formatting you will have approx 59,4GB of storage.

I much prefer my clip+ and clip zip over my 4th gen ipod touches and my 6th gen classics using the direct out.

FLAC files on an iPod

I have 2 ipod classic 6th gen. One of them never has a problem playing ALAC. The other one (160gb) likes to hesitate for a second mid song every other song or so. It is annoying and I, like you, looked this up. Even on apple's site they say this can be an issue with large files. So I guess it can be hit and miss. I don't have a 5.5 gen

Amp impedance
The O2 should power your Beyers despite the 600 ohm rating but I personally would get the 250 ohm. Despite what can be done, they are intended for home use by the manufacturer even. I own the 250 ohm and even a 32 ohm pair of Beyers. The other issue with the beyers is the 10 foot cable.

My suggestion

I think the 880 is a great choice for use indoors or at home. If you want portablility I suggest you get 2 sets of headpones. Something like the UE6000 that will work with your rockboxed clip with no amp and then the 880 for home to use amped. (In terms of female vocals when I auditioned the UE 6000 adelle was one of the tracks and I was impressed)

 

[cel4145]

Quote:

lol. no best buy in my country, and i dont want to deal with online shops.
tried the sr60i, and wow! I liked it slightly better then the Shure SRH440. While Shure has better bass and sounds fuller, the SR 60i sounds livier (not sure how to spell), at least with my ears and songs im listening to.
I think I will be going for SR 60i

 
If you want better bass out of the SR60i, you can try to locate some Grado L-cush pads through Ebay or another international vendor. These will make the SR60i sound much more like the upper level phones in the Grado Prestige series. They will improve the bass response and increase detail, although they would become a little brighter. 

 

[cel4145]

Quote:

For a rockboxed sansa clip
Buy a 64GB microsdxc card.
Using LINUX, format the 64gb card to FAT32. You give it NO PARTITION. Once this is done and after formatting you will have approx 59,4GB of storage.
I much prefer my clip+ and clip zip over my 4th gen ipod touches and my 6th gen classics using the direct out.
FLAC files on an iPod

 
I was wondering if you were still enjoying your Clip+ 

 
To the OP: Even with the 32GB card on mine, I'm able to get over 1000 files, with approximately 75-80% of those being FLAC and the other high bitrate MP3s. No need to reformat with Linux, either. I got the SanDisk Ultra Class 10 32GB off Amazon for under $30, and it worked straight out of the box. 

 

[AcesZ]

Hello fellow Head-Fi'ers, I need a recommendation for new HP's. 
Budget is around 100-120$, maybe even up to 150$ if there is something worthwhile fitting my requirements.
I'll be using them with my iAudio/Cowon J3 loaded with MP3's (not planning on using FLAC on this device if that matters), currently without any amp/DAC*, mostly on the bus to and from work so closed phones only for me. I rather avoid the annoying bus engine noise as much as possible ^^
My last.fm profile so you can get an idea of what I'm listening to: http://www.last.fm/user/n00bzZy/library
Or if you're too lazy for that- it's mostly Heavy/Thrash/Progressive/Symphonic/Power Metal, less of other sub-genres and some Hard Rock
I also live in quite a warm and very humid area, so preferably not anything similar to the M50's as far as ear-pads go.
As for the sound signature I'm looking for, that's pretty much the only thing I'm unsure of. Basically I like a balanced sound, with a slight emphasis on the bass (I'm also a beginning bassist so I like to hear bass lines as clear as possible without it pounding my brain). 
There are a couple of problems though- I live in Israel so the selection is relatively limited (wouldn't mind ordering from abroad if shipping costs aren't high). The second problem is there aren't really any shops here with listening stations to test phones, so I'll be making my buying decision based on reviews and recommendations here.
 
*I'm also considering an amp or DAC (or a combo) to complement the J3 along with the chosen phones, if there's any point in getting one with this combo and the fact I'll be listening to MP3's only on it. I guess I could spend another 50-100$ on one.
 
As always, I'm pretty sure I forgot something so if any extra info is needed to help me make a good decision I'll gladly provide it.
 
Thanks in advance
 
P.S.
I'm not very good with head-fi terminology, so bear with me

 

[Ren19]

.

 

[HamilcarBarca]

I am wondering if i need to get a DAC/Amp or just an AMP for AD900. I will want to plug my headphones into my HDTV through a weird looking cable, at the end of the cable is the normal female composite cable (Audio Red/Audio White/other video thing). If i plug an adapator cable (red/white to 3.5mm) and then i plug it into a normal amp, will i get an analogue signal or do i need a DAC feature on the amplifier to get the best results.

 
That red/white/yellow/whatever cable delivers an analog signal. Try attaching your headphones to the audio connectors and see how it sounds. On my Blu-Ray player, it works fine except for very quiet passages on some DVD's and BD's.
 
If you attach an amp to it, you'll get an amplified analog signal out of it. Your TV has a built-in DAC, and an external DAC is useless if you connect like that.
 

I also have a Optical input on the TV, if this is a way that will give me more quality, how do i go from Optical to an Amp or Amp/DAC if nessessary.

 
If you use the optical input into your TV, it will still process the audio internally and will (should!) give you exactly the same output as an HDMI-input would.
 

EDIT: I saw somewhere in a video, the guy said you can plug amps into USB port instead of 3.5mm on PC. Will that work if i plug an amp on the USB port on my HDTV? Will i get Analogue signal?

 
If that USB port on your HDTV is an input, your audio is still processed by the DAC in your TV. You're only adding an additional audio source. (However, on my TV the USB port is only useful for firmware updates.)
 
If that USB port is an output, then to use it you connect a USB DAC to the port and then, possibly, connect the DAC to an amplifier. I say possibly because some equipment marketed as "DAC's" actually contain an amplifier too.

 

[evomunk]

Originally

Posted by hipster2010

What did you like about the M50 and what makes you want to upgrade?
What will they be used for (gaming, movies, music, portable)?
What genres of music do you listen to primarily?
Are you ok with open cans or do you only want closed?
Any preferred sound signature (Emphasis on any particular part of the sound spectrum)?

1. The M50s is a good balanced headphone. Good for entry level users to hear what good sound is like. The M50s got me hooked into the audio world now and I want to experience more with different pairs. The M50s made me never want to look back at the quality of sound that I've been experiencing for all these years. For me, the M50s set the new standard line of sound quality.
2. I will use them primarily for music.
3. I listen to pretty much everything besides metal and country. Though I mainly listen to rock, hip hop, and electro.
4. It doesn't matterr
5. A little more bass would be nice.

Originally, I was going to get a pair of ATH-A700s as my first audiophile headphones but I went with the M50s because it seemed that it was a little better overall than the 700s. At the same time as I was doing my research, I saw that AT was releasing a revised version of the ATH-700s and 900s. That's also the reason why I had went with the M50s first.
Since now I have a general idea of what to expect, I want to go for a pair of ATH-900x. Mainly due to a larger soundstage.

Thoughts?

 

[Tapar]

I have started research my first set of headphones and have slid down the rabbit hole a bit.  I could definitely use some suggestions or pointers about what direction might fit best for my needs.
 
The appropriate budget is something I am having trouble with as well.  I do not listen to much music, I am primarily looking for headphones to use with my computer (win7) for playing games, watching movies, and watching tv shows.  I was initially thinking in the $100 range but a little more research made me open that up to the 300-400 range, though I am not married to that.
 
I downgraded from a home theater system playing all my audio to the tiny speakers in my TV playing all my audio when I moved into an apartment.  I miss the surround sound when gaming and wouldn't mind improved audio for moives either.  I have been playing games late at night to sync up my scheduled with a friend in NZ.  That caused me to route my sound through my single ear platronics DSP-100 headset which is fairly horrible.
 
That experience lead me to thinking that perhaps I should upgrade my headset and use that for all my computing (aka games, movies, and TV).  The problem with that is we are talking about extended usage in the 6-8hr range regularly and sometimes jumping to the 12hr range...this puts a very high premium on comfort.
 
I started my research looking at higher end gaming headsets and eventually got the feeling that you could get better headphones for the same money and then add a mic.  I have been looking at the modmic as a potentially great solution.  I am not concerned with the mic end of things at this point.  My focus is on essentially PC gaming headphones that will also be used for movies.   I miss having the surround sound so I want to make sure I get something good for that.   
 
I started watching video reviews and reading posts about various headsets and a common theme started coming to my attention.  The whole headphone amp thing.    I had never heard of that before and had to do some research to scratch the surface on that topic.   I still feel fairly uninformed about what I would actually need for an amp.
 
My computers built in audio support will probably not cut it amplification wise, and I am also pretty sure it will not generate virtual surround sound.   I will have to upgrade my sound card to make this work, which is unfortunate as I had not budgeted for that initially.   Sound cards seem to range from $30 to $300+ and I really have no experience to draw on for determining which ones have good enough headphone circuits to drive a decent set of headphones.  I am under the impression that different headphones have different driving/amplification needs so selecting headphones and sound card that will work well together seems like something I should aim for.  I also might need an amplifier AND a new sound card, but I am a bit lost and still trying to figure all that out.
 
I have a large head and am pretty sure I would prefer open headphones.  I don't care about leakage and anything that helps cut down on hot ears is a plus in my book.  I destroyed countless pairs of cheap headphones in my youth no matter how hard I tried to take care of them.  The fragile cables would invariably die and at least one ear would go silent or even more annoying 'flakey'.  That left an indelible memory that still haunts me to this day.  I value build quality as a big perk and am powerfully drawn to headsets with cables that detach at the can.  I am trying not to let that exert undue influence but I definitely consider it a huge plus.  If anyone has any advice I would really appreciate it.

 

[Ren19]

Should i get the L9 or L3 (Ipod to 3.5mm). The L3 seems gold plated and the L9 not... There is no mention of that on the website.
 
If they are the same would get the L9.

 

[Doc-holliday]

Should i get the L9 or L3 (Ipod to 3.5mm). The L3 seems gold plated and the L9 not... There is no mention of that on the website.

If they are the same would get the L9.

The L9 is gold plated.

They are the same except for the 90 degree. L3 I think is a tad longer.

 

[fjeena]

Should i get the L9 or L3 (Ipod to 3.5mm). The L3 seems gold plated and the L9 not... There is no mention of that on the website.

If they are the same would get the L9.

I prefer the L9 because of the 90 degree angle. it makes things much easier when its in your pocket

 

[Ren19]

I was about to buy the ATH-AD900 when i saw (after requesting shipping) that they dont ship to canada... I'm looking at the Q701 and i could get them for 270$ (20$ more bucks than the price i could get AD900 shippable canada.)
 
Would this be a good headphone upgrade? If yes, tell me why please.
 
By the way, i listen mostly to classical and rock, and i will be watching movies with the headphones. I ordered the Fiio E11, would that be enough to drive the AKG Q701?
 
Thank you.