Introduction

[MidnightAudio]

Just joined after having spent several hours each day for the last month reading the head fi forums and scanning the internet for information about headphones and amps.
 
I have never had particularly expensive audio equipment before but I had been thinking for many years that some day I should get something a little more high end. Finally made the decision today to buy:
 
- Sennheiser HD800S
- Asus Essence One MKII Muses Edition (USB DAC and Amp)
 
I had considered quite a few headphones and amps and the HD800S was on my top list. I also considered LCD-X, LCD-3, HD800, TH900, HE-1000 to name a few. I guess I had pretty much decided on buying a tube amp, but changed my mind in the last minute. To be honest I hadn't even heard of the Asus before today... But I like it.
 
I normally try to find a lot of information when I am about to buy something a bit more expensive, like this gear. However, all the information and the opinions about headphones and audio gear (especially amps) is almost impenetrable. There is so much bias and everyone have differing opinions about everything. Google "Best amp for HD800" and you will probably be able to compile a list of over a hundred different amps, all claimed by someone to be a super good match for the HD800... The more I read the more confused I became... In my frustration I almost started contemplating taking out a mortgage and buying the $55000 HE1060. Maybe then at least I wouldn't go wrong Well, maybe some day...
 
I probably should have spent more time listening to different headphones and amps rather than mostly reading about what other people thought about them, but then there are not that many stores I can go to where I live and the range of equipment they have is pretty limited.
 
I really wasn't planning on buying anything today because I thought I needed to get more information and do more listening tests but happened to enter a store here in Stockholm where they had this combo. I listened to a few different headphones and amps and could not resist any longer. I wanted crystal clear audio and from what I understand the Sennheiser HD800S is about as good as it gets at its price point.
 
I have been a Spotify Premium user for a few years and I have used it with my iPhone and Bose QC15 headphones. I got curious if I would now be able to hear any difference between Spotify Premium (384KHz compressed) and Tidal Hifi (lossless). Now that I have the HD800S. Right now I feel like compiling FLAC files is too much of a hassle. Long story short. I am now a Tidal user too and I will probably cancel my Spotify subscription. At first I couldn't hear any difference. Then it slowly dawned on me. After switching back and forth between Tidal and Spotify comparing the same tracks in parallell for an hour I decided to join Tidal. Actually, after an hour I did not have a choice any longer. In the end I was like... "I have to have this"
 
I think I am too inexperienced with high quality audio to make any kind of review of this setup. All I can say is I love the way it sounds and for the money I spent I am very happy with it.
 
// Johan

 

[MidnightAudio]

This morning I was excited to share my findings from last night about Spotify Premium (384KHz) and Tidal Hifi (loss-less) with my girlfriend so I prepared a little blind test.
 
I matched the volumes between the Spotify and Tidal players on the computer and played the exact same songs on both players, "Earth song" with Michael Jackson and "Many meetings" from Lord of the Rings. No special reason to choose these particular songs except I just guessed the recordings would be of high quality and the difference would be apparent.
 
I was completely convinced myself there was a substantial difference in sound quality again this morning while matching volumes and I thought she would hear the difference immediately and easily prefer Tidal. However, she could not hear any difference at all on the first track and preferred Spotify on the second. I was really surprised and thought maybe I'd mismatched the volumes or she had to "learn" to appreciate the difference. Like I had.
 
So I re-calibrated the volumes even more carefully and then she did the same blind test to me. I knew I could pick out Tidal easily. Did the test and I couldn't hear any difference at all. Or actually, I thought one of the tracks playing on Spotify was the loss-less Tidal version... Embarrasing...
 
This was a quick and somewhat unscientific test but it seems to me this was very much a placebo effect when I was doing the swapping between the players myself yesterday. The difference is smaller than I thought OR Spotify's lossy audio is actually better than Tidals loss-less, which I find hard to believe, for technical reasons.
 
The setup I have should be good enough to hear the difference if there is one. This is not what I expected and I guess I have to accept that the perceived difference from yesterday must simply have been a placebo effect...
 
Anyone else have this experience?

 

[cel4145]

Many people fine high bit rate mp3 often indistinguishable from lossless. Try this test: http://lifehacker.com/5903625/mp3-or-lossless-see-if-you-can-hear-the-difference-with-this-test. Take some lossless files you have and convert them to 320K mp3. See if you can tell the difference.

 

[MidnightAudio]

Thanks. Downloaded foobar2000 and the ABX-comparator Converted the "Earth Song" FLAC file to OggVorbis 320 kbps and tried the ABX-comparator. Turns out I cannot tell the difference.
 
When I was trying out Tidal yesterday I thought I could hear a 10-20% improvement in sound quality over Spotify. That is interesting because now I know for a fact I can't tell which one is which. I would not have believed about myself that I could imagine a 10-20% improvement in sound quality just because I thought it ought to be better.
 
No surprise then that people think they can hear an improvement after buying expensive cables.

 

[cel4145]

Well, if you listened to several different tracks, you might find some that you can tell the difference.

But yeah. It's the same thing with high end DACs and amps. There are low end DACs that all of the distortion measurements are outside the range of human hearing. How can you do better than inaudible measurements? So buying a more expensive DAC would provide better sound? I figure that with ABX testing it, I might just be buying something that sounds the same to me, but I would perceive the more expensive one to be better without doing the testing. Seems like there are better ways to spend my money