[Sound Quest]

What headphones would you recommend for dance, trance, hardcore, synthpop....etc. If money wasn't an issue at all?
 
I often hear the term that the headphone is "too slow" for dance music. So what high end "fast headphones" would you recommend?

 

[NA Blur]

LCD-3 with a good amplifier like the O2 or BUDA.

 

[cucera]

Hifiman HE-6 on a good speaker amp- its mind blowing.

 

[MalVeauX]

Quote:

What headphones would you recommend for dance, trance, hardcore, synthpop....etc. If money wasn't an issue at all?
 
I often hear the term that the headphone is "too slow" for dance music. So what high end "fast headphones" would you recommend?

 
Heya,
 
Money is an issue. You can get $3~4k setup recommendations all day.
 
But that doesn't mean it's worth it. Spending tons of money for equipment for anything in audio better reflect the quality of your music. If your music collection is a bunch of variable bitrate MP3, or youtube rips, or something other than high quality lossless or near-lossless or straight-from-source, then going to summit-fi level equipment is simply not going to net you anything other than a receipt and less money and a little internet bragging right since no one in real life will have a clue what any of it is, or what any of it represents.
 
Feeding a nice headphone setup a bunch of compressed tracks is garbage in, garbage out. A good setup will not make something sound better. The original source, the music, has to be flawless. Even a lossless recording is not just enough--the recording itself has to have been done very well too. There's a lot of albums out there that are simply mastered poorly, full of noise, hiss, grain, where they used cheap microphones, or had a really junk studio to work in, or who knows what. But not all albums are equal just because you have them in lossless format or the original. Electronic in general is produced without microphones and other common sources of noise/low quality. So you may be ok there. But when it comes to electronic, I know tons of people are getting their electro off-line from streamed content websites, youtube rips, iTunes purchases, etc. You really have to go after the highest quality you can here. I just can't stress it enough. Even a mid-level headphone setup is going to sound way better with absolutely high quality music. Focus on this rather than getting the "best" equipment and you'll have a way better experience.
 
I would instead recommend a sensible path for you to begin with, until you are confident that your music library's quality is worth a $3k setup or not.
 
Hifiman HE-400 with Velour Pads
Schiit Modi & Schiit Magni (DAC & AMP)
 
Very best,

 

[Greed]

Fostex TH-900 with ZDSE
LCD-3 with Cavalli Liquid Glass / Headamp GS-X II

 

[Howlgram]

Quote:

 
Heya,
 
Money is an issue. You can get $3~4k setup recommendations all day.
 
But that doesn't mean it's worth it. Spending tons of money for equipment for anything in audio better reflect the quality of your music. If your music collection is a bunch of variable bitrate MP3, or youtube rips, or something other than high quality lossless or near-lossless or straight-from-source, then going to summit-fi level equipment is simply not going to net you anything other than a receipt and less money and a little internet bragging right since no one in real life will have a clue what any of it is, or what any of it represents.
 
Feeding a nice headphone setup a bunch of compressed tracks is garbage in, garbage out. A good setup will not make something sound better. The original source, the music, has to be flawless. Even a lossless recording is not just enough--the recording itself has to have been done very well too. There's a lot of albums out there that are simply mastered poorly, full of noise, hiss, grain, where they used cheap microphones, or had a really junk studio to work in, or who knows what. But not all albums are equal just because you have them in lossless format or the original. Electronic in general is produced without microphones and other common sources of noise/low quality. So you may be ok there. But when it comes to electronic, I know tons of people are getting their electro off-line from streamed content websites, youtube rips, iTunes purchases, etc. You really have to go after the highest quality you can here. I just can't stress it enough. Even a mid-level headphone setup is going to sound way better with absolutely high quality music. Focus on this rather than getting the "best" equipment and you'll have a way better experience.
 
I would instead recommend a sensible path for you to begin with, until you are confident that your music library's quality is worth a $3k setup or not.
 
Hifiman HE-400 with Velour Pads
Schiit Modi & Schiit Magni (DAC & AMP)
 
Very best,

Hello, could you tell me where do you get the highest quality for music? I mean, I thought purchasing the music anywhere would give you a full quality music file but you're saying even itunes purchases are not good enough.
The thing is i listen to a lot of electro music (DnB, dnb liquid, dubstep, house, etc) but currently im basically streaming all my music from youtube, I know it's, kinda disgusting, but that's where i find the new released tracks and such, besides im cheap and i havent really bought music but i might for the quality. I have Denon's AH-D2000.
So if iTunes doesn't give good quality versions of the songs, where do you get them from?

 

[subseasniper]

CD's. People seem scared to buy these things nowadays but come one, they are cheap and they are damn good when it comes to quality. If storage is an issue rip them to FLAC, these make the best of CD's.

 

[Parall3l]

Quote:

Hello, could you tell me where do you get the highest quality for music? I mean, I thought purchasing the music anywhere would give you a full quality music file but you're saying even itunes purchases are not good enough.
The thing is i listen to a lot of electro music (DnB, dnb liquid, dubstep, house, etc) but currently im basically streaming all my music from youtube, I know it's, kinda disgusting, but that's where i find the new released tracks and such, besides im cheap and i havent really bought music but i might for the quality. I have Denon's AH-D2000.
So if iTunes doesn't give good quality versions of the songs, where do you get them from?

 
iTunes is 128kbps and 256kbps AAC. 128kbps is very easily distinguished between 320kbps when your ears get used to higher quality recordings. It doesn't require "Ultra Unobtainium Ears™" to hear.
 
To get electronic type music in 320kbps and lossless, try Beatport.

 

[Tsujigiri]

Yeah, iTunes is a bad option for music. In addition to the low quality music, their copy protection policy means that you will eventually have to either relinquish music that you've paid for or steal it after you've gone through enough computers. Might as well torrent it from the beginning. Plus, the artist gets a much lower cut through iTunes than they do through CD's. CD's are better quality, give you a physical copy, and usually don't have that ridiculous copy protection. Used ones tend to be cheaper than iTunes downloads, even.

 

[FeedMe]

I read somewhere that  256kbps AAC (iTunes quality) is the same as 320kbps mp3 because of the way it's compressed. Is this true?

 

[MalVeauX]

Quote:

Hello, could you tell me where do you get the highest quality for music? I mean, I thought purchasing the music anywhere would give you a full quality music file but you're saying even itunes purchases are not good enough.
The thing is i listen to a lot of electro music (DnB, dnb liquid, dubstep, house, etc) but currently im basically streaming all my music from youtube, I know it's, kinda disgusting, but that's where i find the new released tracks and such, besides im cheap and i havent really bought music but i might for the quality. I have Denon's AH-D2000.
So if iTunes doesn't give good quality versions of the songs, where do you get them from?

 
Heya,
 
Stick with your Denons. Spending more than what these cost for what you're doing frankly isn't worth it.
 
Buy CD's (used from Amazon & Half.com for example). I know the latest isn't going to be on CD. But that's the trade off if you care about quality.
 
Very best,

 

[Currawong]

480p Youtube is quite decent FYI. 

 

[Sound Quest]

Quote:

 
Heya,
 
Money is an issue. You can get $3~4k setup recommendations all day.
 
But that doesn't mean it's worth it. Spending tons of money for equipment for anything in audio better reflect the quality of your music. If your music collection is a bunch of variable bitrate MP3, or youtube rips, or something other than high quality lossless or near-lossless or straight-from-source, then going to summit-fi level equipment is simply not going to net you anything other than a receipt and less money and a little internet bragging right since no one in real life will have a clue what any of it is, or what any of it represents.
 
Feeding a nice headphone setup a bunch of compressed tracks is garbage in, garbage out. A good setup will not make something sound better. The original source, the music, has to be flawless. Even a lossless recording is not just enough--the recording itself has to have been done very well too. There's a lot of albums out there that are simply mastered poorly, full of noise, hiss, grain, where they used cheap microphones, or had a really junk studio to work in, or who knows what. But not all albums are equal just because you have them in lossless format or the original. Electronic in general is produced without microphones and other common sources of noise/low quality. So you may be ok there. But when it comes to electronic, I know tons of people are getting their electro off-line from streamed content websites, youtube rips, iTunes purchases, etc. You really have to go after the highest quality you can here. I just can't stress it enough. Even a mid-level headphone setup is going to sound way better with absolutely high quality music. Focus on this rather than getting the "best" equipment and you'll have a way better experience.
 
I would instead recommend a sensible path for you to begin with, until you are confident that your music library's quality is worth a $3k setup or not.
 
Hifiman HE-400 with Velour Pads
Schiit Modi & Schiit Magni (DAC & AMP)
 
Very best,

Thanks for the info on lossy encoding, but i'm well aware of its effects and degradation on quality and frequency range.

 
Thanks for the headphone recommendations, shall take a good look into them.
 
Quote:

I read somewhere that  256kbps AAC (iTunes quality) is the same as 320kbps mp3 because of the way it's compressed. Is this true?

There was once a time when 96kbps CBR WMA was being touted as "CD quality"!

 
No lossy format is equivalent to any other lossy format at any bitrate. Each lossy format uses its own set of algorithms to achieve its targeted compression ratio. So bascially they all come with their own pros and cons.
 
Although to be honest, most lossy formats these days MP3, AAC, WMA... etc at 256CBR or V0 are very difficult to ABX against their lossless counterparts, particularly on standard audio equipment.

 

[Sound Quest]

Quote:

480p Youtube is quite decent FYI. 

 
If you have a pair of beats, you can listen to the audio at 240p and it will sound like the original 24bit studio master.

  (Allegedly) 

 

[Trance88]

Quote:

Yeah, iTunes is a bad option for music. In addition to the low quality music, their copy protection policy means that you will eventually have to either relinquish music that you've paid for or steal it after you've gone through enough computers. Might as well torrent it from the beginning. Plus, the artist gets a much lower cut through iTunes than they do through CD's. CD's are better quality, give you a physical copy, and usually don't have that ridiculous copy protection. Used ones tend to be cheaper than iTunes downloads, even.

It's unfortunate that we are in the beginning of the demise of the CD. I can't find hardly anything I like new on CD locally anymore. I would have to buy the CD from Amazon or overseas somewhere and pay an arm and a leg for shipping. Electronic artists especially are really going "digital download only". For example, Alex M.O.R.P.H.'s latest album "Prime Mover (2012)" is only available in the US as 320 kbps MP3 files.