[daleb]

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Anyone? Am I doing something wrong?

I can't even find the post you are referring to! XD
 
*continues to look*
 
Quote:

 
I know close to nothing about headphones, I came on here to learn a little and primarily ask for advice.  I'm willing to pay up to 200$ for some over-ears.  I listen to a lot of chillhop and triphop, some indie stuff and a little rock.  I also play a ton of videogames, often doing both at the same time.  I've never owned anything besides stuff less than 30$, and recently figured I'd get a nice pair because my friend let me borrow his for a day, and I could hear the difference.  Also a warranty is huge plus!  Thanks guys!

 
What pair did he have? I would assume you would want a bass heavy can, that is closed back to take around?
 
How about the M-Audio Q40s, if this is what you are looking for. It has tons of steel all over, making it very strong, and they are for bass lovers.
 
Another, much better choice would be the HD 25-1 IIs, but they are just slightly over budget for you :c
 
Another great choice would be the Denon AH-D1100s. They happen to be exactly $199 on amazon.
There are tons of options out there, it would be really nice to get some sort of help for what kind of sound signature you want.
This page right here will fix you up for whatever your portable headphone needs are:

http://www.head-fi.org/t/433318/shootout-107-portable-headphones-reviewed-astrotec-as-100hd-as-200hd-added-12-02-12
...
And, if your friend had, say, the beats... We could find you a much cheaper option with even better quality...

 

[GTFO]

Hi, what headphones do you guys recommend with a budget of $400? I enjoy listening to Ballads, R&B, Pop, Hip Hop, and Instrumentals. Currently using Cowon C2 + IE8s and Fiio E17 for my portable rig. Looking for something nice for at home. Thanks!

 

[MayoDomo]

He had the Re-0s.  Not sure what those are exactly but it's what he said.  Looking at the link I was wondering about the ATH-M50s, since they're now going for 101 on Amazon.  Do you think they would suffice?  Also I want something with good bass, but I don't want it to overpower the rest of the sound.  Not sure if you're familiar but stuff like Emancipator, Tor, and Bonobo are some of my favorites.  I think comfort is a pretty big issue for me, as well as durability.  Those are the two biggest factors besides sound obviously.  Thanks again!

 

[daleb]

Quote:

He had the Re-0s.  Not sure what those are exactly but it's what he said.  Looking at the link I was wondering about the ATH-M50s, since they're now going for 101 on Amazon.  Do you think they would suffice?  Also I want something with good bass, but I don't want it to overpower the rest of the sound.  Not sure if you're familiar but stuff like Emancipator, Tor, and Bonobo are some of my favorites.  I think comfort is a pretty big issue for me, as well as durability.  Those are the two biggest factors besides sound obviously.  Thanks again!

so, earbuds/IEMs is what he had?
 
Of what I can find, not that I've had them, but they seem to a relatively neutral sound signature, but leaning towards treble? Hey, that's what I like!
 
That kind of a sound signature is more often found in open headphones, not closed... I wish I could help you, but I can't think of any (closed) right now with that kind of a sound signature.
 
Maybe AKG has something to offer...
 
Hmm... maybe the SRH440? *just going out on a limb there*

 

[KG Jag]

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Quote:

At $75 to $100 there are a number of good cans to consider--with or without an amp.

I'd rather spend a little extra money and get some decent phones than be stuck with crap because I skimped out on the budget.Would you happen to have any recommendations around the $75-100 price range? As of right now I'm not planning to amp them.

A great deal depends on taste, preferred sound signature, open, closed, durability and other factors.
 
Good places to start are the CAL! and SR 80i.

 

[Parker A]

Hi all, I'm just starting my journey towards auditory bliss and am looking for some advice. Currently I'm listening either to my M-Audio AV-40 speakers or my Sennheiser PC 350 headset. Long story short, I'm thinking that some HD-650's plus an M&M stack might be the best fit for me.
 
Not worried about isolation or portability, and want a good balance between 'funness' , good detail and immersion. Main genres are Classical/orchestral, rock (classical, hard, indie, alternative, post; Muse, Porcupine Tree and Pink Floyd being favorites), and movie watching. I'll mainly be listening from my desktop, and know that I'd have my tonal priorities be Mids>Bass>Treble.
 
So I'm wondering if I might be overlooking an option that might better suit me, and most importantly if there is some place where I can audition headphones in that price range (~$700 for headphones + amp/dac). I live in Santa Cruz, CA (southern SF Bay Area) and have checked some logical places like my local Magnolia Best Buy but haven't had any luck finding anything to listen to. Thanks for any advice, suggestions or info of any kind! 

 

[KG Jag]

Quote:

Quote:

"Everyone" doesn't....

And I didn't say otherwise. I was only speaking for myself.
 
But there are a large number of people on this forum who agree with me, now that you mention it.

By that standard, Beats must be the best.

 

[KG Jag]

Quote:

Hi all, I'm just starting my journey towards auditory bliss and am looking for some advice. Currently I'm listening either to my M-Audio AV-40 speakers or my Sennheiser PC 350 headset. Long story short, I'm thinking that some HD-650's plus an M&M stack might be the best fit for me.
 
Not worried about isolation or portability, and want a good balance between 'funness' , good detail and immersion. Main genres are Classical/orchestral, rock (classical, hard, indie, alternative, post; Muse, Porcupine Tree and Pink Floyd being favorites), and movie watching. I'll mainly be listening from my desktop, and know that I'd have my tonal priorities be Mids>Bass>Treble.
 
So I'm wondering if I might be overlooking an option that might better suit me, and most importantly if there is some place where I can audition headphones in that price range (~$700 for headphones + amp/dac). I live in Santa Cruz, CA (southern SF Bay Area) and have checked some logical places like my local Magnolia Best Buy but haven't had any luck finding anything to listen to. Thanks for any advice, suggestions or info of any kind! 

The combo you suggest is a good one.  However, in time you might want to pair the HD 650 with a tube or hybrid amp.  My HiFiMan EF 5 makes them sing.
 
Also take a look at the DT 880.
 
Read about both cans here:
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/634201/battle-of-the-flagships-57-headphones-compared-update-ultimate-ears-uerm-added-4-14-13

 

[derbigpr]

Quote:

Since when? I've seen people who say they can't hear a 1 db difference (and I certainly can), but 3 db? 3 db is absolutely huge.

 
Go to foobar, play a track at a reasonable volume level, then  reduce the volume slider for -3 db. That is not an absolutely huge difference.

 

[derbigpr]

Quote:

 

Actually*, a 3 dB boost would almost be a doubling of the power (99.5%); a 10 dB boost increases the power 10x. So you're very right in the regard that these changes are detectable by any attentive ear. Even a 1 dB boost increases the power by 25.9%, definitely an audible change.
 
*Just trying to emphasize your point with some numbers while adding some more mathematical accuracy - not trying to be pedantic!

 
 
Your physics and math have very little to do with what we're talking about here.
 
Firstly, you seem ignore the difference between the power needed to achieve a certain volume, and the level of subjective loudness we hear, which is a completely different thing.
It is a fact that when it comes to subjective loudness levels, human ear can barely detect differences in 3 db, and almost nobody can detect 2 and 1 db difference when not knowing about the changes. I'm a med school student, and I've had some practical experience in the audiology field, not much, but trust me, almost nobody can detect a difference in loudness smaller than 3 db when they're sitting in a isolated room with headphones on their head and you change the volume of the sound they hear up or down for 3 db or less, unless you tell them you will change the volume, and not only the frequencies, then they try hard to hear a difference in volume. In some cases some people will report hearing slight differences in 3 db increment changes, but almost nobody detects 1 or 2 db. No exception there. You can easily try it yourself, reduce or increase the volume for 3 db when listening to music, and tell me whether that is a 99,5% change as you've said.
 
We're talking about human hearing here, not power that a headphone amplifier needs to achieve the difference in volume, but anyway:
 
Very very simplified, there is a difference between two values that people often mix, or in some cases aren't even aware of.  Don't kill me if I don't translate correctly to english, but there's something called "a relative sound pressure level", we can use letter L to mark it, basically, we're talking about decibels here.  And then there's something called "sound intensity", which we can mark with a letter I. 
 
The simple formula is:   L = 10*log( I / I0  )    
 
I0 is the weakest, or if you will, the most silent level which human ear can detect at a frequency of 1000 hz. It is exactly  10 to the power of -12  Watts per square meter.
 
Now, if you use that formula, you can easily calculate a real difference in subjective sound intensity that your human ear hears. Take a value of L1 to be 90 db, and take a value of L2 to be 93 db for example.   Then calculate out the value of "I" in each case, and you will see how small the differences in actual perceived intensity of the sound is if you change the source of sound for +- 3 db. I'm sure I gave wrong names to some of these things, but I just translated to english.
 
If you wanted to double the intensity of the perceived sound, you'd have to turn up the db scale quite a lot.  Calculate I for 90 db, then take that I, double it, put it back into the formula and calculate out the new value of L.  You'll be talking about a much larger increase than 3 db, it will be more in a range of 10 db or more. And with each increase in 10 db, the subjective loudness will double, so you can see that the loudness will actually exponentially increase with each 10 db increment.
 
You can then also easily calculate the power in Watts or Joules / second, basically, energy per second of a speaker of a certain diameter playing at a certain level.
P = I * S (size of the speaker in square meters which is 4*Pi*radius of a speaker driver). You will find that a small increase in L results in a big increase in the energy output of a speaker, but it results in a very small difference of perceived sound intensity.

 

[CrystalT]

Looking for something in the $100 range for the following traits: removable cable, slightly elevated bass and mids, rolled off highs at around 18khz, closed back, fully circumaural (think full sized audio technicas for an example of fully circumaural.

Anything? I'm gonna pick up the skullcandy slyr and give it a test run.

Sent from my Event using Tapatalk 2

 

[cel4145]

Your physics and math have very little to do with what we're talking about here.

Firstly, you seem ignore the difference between the power needed to achieve a certain volume, and the level of subjective loudness we hear, which is a completely different thing.
It is a fact that when it comes to subjective loudness levels, human ear can barely detect differences in 3 db, and almost nobody can detect 2 and 1 db difference when not knowing about the changes. I'm a med school student, and I've had some practical experience in the audiology field, not much, but trust me, almost nobody can detect a difference in loudness smaller than 3 db when they're sitting in a isolated room with headphones on their head and you change the volume of the sound they hear up or down for 3 db or less, unless you tell them you will change the volume, and not only the frequencies, then they try hard to hear a difference in volume. In some cases some people will report hearing slight differences in 3 db increment changes, but almost nobody detects 1 or 2 db. No exception there. You can easily try it yourself, reduce or increase the volume for 3 db when listening to music, and tell me whether that is a 99,5% change as you've said.

We're talking about human hearing here, not power that a headphone amplifier needs to achieve the difference in volume, but anyway:

Very very simplified, there is a difference between two values that people often mix, or in some cases aren't even aware of.  Don't kill me if I don't translate correctly to english, but there's something called "a relative sound pressure level", we can use letter L to mark it, basically, we're talking about decibels here.  And then there's something called "sound intensity", which we can mark with a letter I. 

The simple formula is:   L = 10*log( I / I0  )    

I0 is the weakest, or if you will, the most silent level which human ear can detect at a frequency of 1000 hz. It is exactly  10 to the power of -12  Watts per square meter.

Now, if you use that formula, you can easily calculate a real difference in subjective sound intensity that your human ear hears. Take a value of L1 to be 90 db, and take a value of L2 to be 93 db for example.   Then calculate out the value of "I" in each case, and you will see how small the differences in actual perceived intensity of the sound is if you change the source of sound for +- 3 db. I'm sure I gave wrong names to some of these things, but I just translated to english.

If you wanted to double the intensity of the perceived sound, you'd have to turn up the db scale quite a lot.  Calculate I for 90 db, then take that I, double it, put it back into the formula and calculate out the new value of L.  You'll be talking about a much larger increase than 3 db, it will be more in a range of 10 db or more. And with each increase in 10 db, the subjective loudness will double, so you can see that the loudness will actually exponentially increase with each 10 db increment.

You can then also easily calculate the power in Watts or Joules / second, basically, energy per second of a speaker of a certain diameter playing at a certain level.
P = I * S (size of the speaker in square meters which is 4*Pi*radius of a speaker driver). You will find that a small increase in L results in a big increase in the energy output of a speaker, but it results in a very small difference of perceived sound intensity.

Hey, guys. There's a Head-Fi sound science forum for this kind of discussion. This is the recommendations thread

 

[cel4145]

Hi, what headphones do you guys recommend with a budget of $400? I enjoy listening to Ballads, R&B, Pop, Hip Hop, and Instrumentals. Currently using Cowon C2 + IE8s and Fiio E17 for my portable rig. Looking for something nice for at home. Thanks!

Are you looking for open or closed headphones? And are you looking for bass emphasis? I haven't heard them, but I understand the IE8s have some bass emphasis.

 

[Tortilla]

Looking for a cheap (up to ~70€) upgrade to my Superlux 668Bs, which served me well but have some annoying flaws (slight sibilance and grating highs, somewhat weak bass). Heard the recent 681 EVOs might be good. Any other ideas?

 

[CrystalT]

Pioneer se-a1000. Semi-open, fully circumaural, 50mm drivers give great bass response for open cans. Not sibilant except on the most sibilant of recordings.

Decent sub bass extension. Should be in your price range.

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