[Makiah S]

 

  I never found the bass attack on the Mad Dog to be to bad, but the best part of the mad dog is you can UPGRADE THEM! Mr Speakers has an upgrade program. So when you get to the point that you want something more, send em pack in and for like $200 or so bucks you get a more heaviliy modded and better sounding can! Which btw is a very good deal, most ppl with $300 new cans, sell them for $200 then fork over $350 or so dollars to actually upgrade, where as with a Mad Dog you can either get the Mad Dog Pro or the Alpha Dog, for less money and trouble then it would cost to sell and purchase another can!

 


It's nice to hear more good things about the MD's, I ended up ordering them. Now to find the proper amp/DAC setup...

Honestly, you have too options, you can do a Home Set up or a portable.
 
So are you going to be on the Go more, or at home more 

 

[Talai]

I don't need portable, it'll be for my desk at home. Also I'm not quite sure the Dogs are a very portable headphone

 

[Makiah S]

I don't need portable, it'll be for my desk at home. Also I'm not quite sure the Dogs are a very portable headphone

-.-
 
I used the DT 880 Portably, I used the Denond AHD D2k Portable, and I use my audio Technica W1000x on the go, so long as you got the "strut" you'll be golden with big headphones on your head lol, gatta have the strut to keep em from movein around
 
that said next is budget, how much are you lookin to spend? 

 

[Talai]

-.-
 
I used the DT 880 Portably, I used the Denond AHD D2k Portable, and I use my audio Technica W1000x on the go, so long as you got the "strut" you'll be golden with big headphones on your head lol, gatta have the strut to keep em from movein around
 
that said next is budget, how much are you lookin to spend? 

 


That's kind of awesome that you wear those around, I'll keep that in mind.

I was looking at a budget of ~$250, here are the choices I'm going through so far:

1. Schiit Magni/Vali with Modi - can't really decide between the Vali or Magni, but this would probably be a good combo

2. Aune T1 Mk. 2 - seems interesting, not sure about Aune's support or anything else.

3. O2 + ODAC - people say it sounds the same as the M+M, so I would probably get that instead

However, I'm not sure if it would be worth saving longer and picking up something better. These are going to be my first 'real' pair of headphones, so I want to get something that I'll be really happy with without spending ridiculous amounts of money (if you know what I mean). I'm going to be using them for mostly EDM and electronic music.

 

[money4me247]

 

  -.-
 
I used the DT 880 Portably, I used the Denond AHD D2k Portable, and I use my audio Technica W1000x on the go, so long as you got the "strut" you'll be golden with big headphones on your head lol, gatta have the strut to keep em from movein around
 
that said next is budget, how much are you lookin to spend? 

 
That's kind of awesome that you wear those around, I'll keep that in mind.

I was looking at a budget of ~$250, here are the choices I'm going through so far:

1. Schiit Magni/Vali with Modi - can't really decide between the Vali or Magni, but this would probably be a good combo

2. Aune T1 Mk. 2 - seems interesting, not sure about Aune's support or anything else.

3. O2 + ODAC - people say it sounds the same as the M+M, so I would probably get that instead

However, I'm not sure if it would be worth saving longer and picking up something better. These are going to be my first 'real' pair of headphones, so I want to get something that I'll be really happy with without spending ridiculous amounts of money (if you know what I mean). I'm going to be using them for mostly EDM and electronic music.

lol. MDs are probably too big for real portable usage imo & you might get hit by a car or attacked by ninjas w/ dat noise isolation.
 
I think that those choices are great and your budget makes a lot of sense. I wouldn't spend more than $200 on your amp/dac combo. Aune T1 is a tube-dac w/ solid-state amp btw.

 

[Talai]

So out of those choices, which would you personally pick? I keep coming back to either the Aune or a Schiit stack of some sort...

 

[money4me247]

So out of those choices, which would you personally pick? I keep coming back to either the Aune or a Schiit stack of some sort...

I would personally actually cut out the dac and spend my entire budget on the amp. if you don't have any money or budget limits, then I guess it doesn't matter, but I personally wouldn't exceed 50% of the headphones cost on external equipment. hahah... i personally haven't found a dac to make a very significant difference (tho YMMV), and if you look at the market, there are a ton of new usb dacs with dropping prices (for example the meridian explorer dropped to $150 which is 50% off MSRP). I imagine if you wait a lil bit, you can get great dacs at nice discounts. they seem to me to be able the same general overall quality with just some extremely subtle variations in sound sig.
 
it seems to me that the tech underlying dacs get upgraded and changed out more than amps, so I feel like you can keep the same amp forever and upgrade dacs a lot more often. hence I would wait on getting a new a dac.
 
Actually, at the sub-$300ish price range of headphones, I might even consider dropping the amp & dac completely and moving up to a $500 pair of headphones as headphones have the greatest impact on sound quality. lol sorry... prob not that helpful =P
 
edit: I would avoid the combo T1 unless you think you will never get that upgrade bug. Usually combos are great for starter stuff & if you are the type of person to be satisfied easily then that's great. But i've found that spending time here on head-fi makes you always want to upgrade, so I think it may make sure sense to have a separate dac & separate amp in case you decide to upgrade in the future.

 

[Talai]

Thanks for the input, I appreciate it!

 

[Lorspeaker]

it is dangerous to stay around in headfi...i own just ONE hdfone for like 8yrs.
then i came here a few years ago, sighhhh...big big mistake.
 
That said, i find the DAC one of the major game changer once u settled down to a headfone that u like.
THe amp...it can be a tube amp, and u roll in the flavors that u like ever so often;
It is like owning a few amps without really doing so.

 

[Makiah S]

  it is dangerous to stay around in headfi...i own just ONE hdfone for like 8yrs.
then i came here a few years ago, sighhhh...big big mistake.
 
That said, i find the DAC one of the major game changer once u settled down to a headfone that u like.
THe amp...it can be a tube amp, and u roll in the flavors that u like ever so often;
It is like owning a few amps without really doing so.

If you want to cut your dac budget down, the Beringher UAC 202 is a nice little dac for $30, I used it with my lap top when I had it, and I still own one and enjoy it quiete a bit.  It has RCA out to so it's an easy unit to use with any number of amps 
 
I would stray away from tubes with the Mad Dog, when I had one I listened to it with my
 
Indeed G3 Hybrid with a Clear Top Tube, and it sounded like mud! The Mad Dog is a very warm headphone, so pair it with a super cold amp just to keep everything balanced like the Magni, or maybe  something nicer like a Matrix M Stage [which is still a warm amp :/] But the oDac should be nice with the Mad DOg 

 

[Talai]

At this point I'm thinking that the Magni and Modi will be a good choice for now. That being said, I'm slightly tempted to get an Asgard 2 (it looks freakin sweet) and just make do with that until I can afford to pick up a separate DAC as well. Is that a terrible Idea?

The thing is, if I end up going with the Asgard then it will do a better job down the road if I ever decide to upgrade headphones.

 

[jodgey4]

What's your source right now? Motherboard audio, a soundcard...?

 

[JoeDoe]

You may wanna look into the Denon DH-2000, has a sound signature your looking for, also has a lush sound. Though they seal a lot better than a Open-back, they do not seal as good as the majority of closed back headphones.


Tyl has a review that includes my recommendation.


I'd assume you might be a little "Ehh" about the lack of a proper seal on the DH-2000s. I hear it's good enough that you know there is sound around you but is muffled enough to become ambient. But If your willing to sacrifice some clarity and detail, as Tyl recommended for same reason in the above review, there is the AKG K550.

As said in the review the AKG K550, is similar to the DH-2000. but is like a trade off of clarity for isolation.


I personally would strongly recommend looking at the DH-2000s and try them out. If isolation is not to your liking, you could return them, or sell them here on Head-Fi for a Bit less then buying price, or if you want to offer a bargain, sell them for just enough to get the AKG K550s.


I looked at ~7 other headphones, this is what I believe to be the best for you.

+1

 

[Talai]

What's your source right now? Motherboard audio, a soundcard...?

 


Currently my source is just the onboard audio from my motherboard, or perhaps through my Blue Yeti mic. I'm trying to decide on a good amp/DAC...

 

[Makiah S]

+1

I disagree, I had the D2000, rather I had a $750 dollar modded D2k,wood back cups, dampened drivers, fully balanced cable and Lawton Audio Pads, and I loved it for EDM, but it was too bass heavy for other genres, the mids where a little lacking for Jazz, rock, orchestral or anything of that sort. And the Stock D2000 had even more bass than my modded pair had. I don't think it's going to  work as well as you'd like it to.
 
I had the HP 100 and i liked it, it was super balanced, unlike the D2k which at times was just too bassy for me.
 
While it love it as an EDM headphone, for other genres I don't think it's 100% there and my pair was far from stock, and even with all the mods it was still at times a smidge to bassy.