[woopecushen]

Hello

I recently got my first "real" audio setup, upgrading from $20 walmart headphones. When I tried comparing the audio from youtube, spotify, and CD though they all sounded the same. No matter what combination of headphones, dac, computer/mobile, or source I tried they all sounded about the same. I'm pretty sure its not me though because another friend showed me the difference between youtube and spotify compression on their system and the difference was very noticeable.

My setup:
FIIO BTR5 (openbox from ebay, but still had the plastic seal around the box when it arrived)
Sennheiser HD 630VB (the bass slider is imperceptible unless I'm listening to a bass sweep. I got it "used" from here: https://www.head-fi.org/classifieds/sennheiser-hd630vb-like-new-w-case.52582/ but as far as I can tell its in great condition)

My friend's setup:
Scarlett Solo 3rd Gen Audio Interface
E-Mu Black Walnut Headphones

Songs used for testing (with both setups):
September - Earth, Wind, Fire
Walpurgis Night - Xomu

 

[msing539]

My setup:
FIIO BTR5

Assuming you're running it connected to your computer, did you install the USB driver and disable Bluetooth on the BTR5?

 

[woopecushen]

Assuming you're running it connected to your computer, did you install the USB driver and disable Bluetooth on the BTR5?

I installed the driver on my windows laptop. There didn't seem to be a driver for my linux desktop. Neither worked thought

 

[WILLJS]

it could just be that all sources are using the same file type, and therefore there would be so little difference between the source you wouldn't be able to hear it.

 

[woopecushen]

it could just be that all sources are using the same file type, and therefore there would be so little difference between the source you wouldn't be able to hear it.

What would be a good way to get/know that I'm getting a good file type. I had been under the impression that CDs were supposed to be higher quality than most streaming services.

 

[dougms3]

What would be a good way to get/know that I'm getting a good file type. I had been under the impression that CDs were supposed to be higher quality than most streaming services.

Depends on where you're playing the CD, if its from a transport, yes. If from your PC, no.

If you can find it, try a flac file of those songs. Use a quality music player like foobar, audirvana, hq player, jriver...

 

[woopecushen]

Depends on where you're playing the CD, if its from a transport, yes. If from your PC, no.

If you can find it, try a flac file of those songs. Use a quality music player like foobar, audirvana, hq player, jriver...

I'll see if I can find a flac file and use one of those music players. Thank you!

 

[spittis]

Just to be clear - you are trying to hear a difference in sound quality between say Youtube and Spotify, and you are using your new Sennheiser headphones, and have tried them with the FIIO and straight into the computer?

You said you heard a difference between YT and Spotify on your friends setup. Some YT videos have pretty bad sound quality, while Spotify in high quality streaming mode is indiscernible from lossless for most people (when disregarding placebo effects). It's also possible you didn't hear them at the same volume, slightly higher volume is often perceived as better quality when comparing things.

But if you are comparing say a YT video with good sound quality to Spotify or a lossless file, I think it's expected that you can't hear a difference between the two when they are level matched, meaning you have exactly the same volume on both. Same goes for comparing sound straight out of a computer compared to the FIIO, if the computer output can provide enough power, there's a good chance you can't hear a difference between the two sources with these headphones.

Differences between file formats and sources are often greatly exaggerated in hifi-forum discussions. There can be differences at times, but don't expect it to be some night and day thing, and some headphones are also much more picky about amplification and/or revealing than others. I suspect your Sennheisers are not very picky, which is a good thing. In my opinion, don't go chasing for something that might not be there, but rather enjoy music from your new gear.

 

[Roseval]

Neither worked thought

Weird as both operating systems support UAC2 (USB AUdio Class 2).
Try setting it to driverless mode.

 

[woopecushen]

Just to be clear - you are trying to hear a difference in sound quality between say Youtube and Spotify, and you are using your new Sennheiser headphones, and have tried them with the FIIO and straight into the computer?

You said you heard a difference between YT and Spotify on your friends setup. Some YT videos have pretty bad sound quality, while Spotify in high quality streaming mode is indiscernible from lossless for most people (when disregarding placebo effects). It's also possible you didn't hear them at the same volume, slightly higher volume is often perceived as better quality when comparing things.

But if you are comparing say a YT video with good sound quality to Spotify or a lossless file, I think it's expected that you can't hear a difference between the two when they are level matched, meaning you have exactly the same volume on both. Same goes for comparing sound straight out of a computer compared to the FIIO, if the computer output can provide enough power, there's a good chance you can't hear a difference between the two sources with these headphones.

Differences between file formats and sources are often greatly exaggerated in hifi-forum discussions. There can be differences at times, but don't expect it to be some night and day thing, and some headphones are also much more picky about amplification and/or revealing than others. I suspect your Sennheisers are not very picky, which is a good thing. In my opinion, don't go chasing for something that might not be there, but rather enjoy music from your new gear.

Sorry for being a little slow to respond. I'm prepping for a trip I have to go on next week. Thank you so much for the help.

The issue is that the Sennheisers sound the same as my old headphones, which I don't think they're supposed to? : https://www.walmart.com/ip/JLab-Aud...=577015197&athposb=0&athena=true&athbdg=L1600

I thought this was an issue of there being a "bottleneck" somewhere between the source and the headphones. I was comparing Youtube to Spotify because I had been told that Youtube had really bad audio compression compared to Spotify and I had heard a difference at my friend's house, so I thought I could use the difference as a benchmark that my headphones were setup properly. People were saying that its possible all the sources were same. So I ripped flac file of September from the CD I was using with EAC and played it through the trial version of Jrivers. It also sounded the same minus some buffering.

Am I just misunderstanding the difference between high end and low end headphones? Even the variable bass in a quiet room is imperceptible to me unless I'm spinning it during a bass sweep. And some of the reviews that I read about it said that it was supposed to help with listening while walking through different environmental noise levels. Which doesn't make any sense to me with how minute it is.

 

[woopecushen]

Weird as both operating systems support UAC2 (USB AUdio Class 2).
Try setting it to driverless mode.

Thank you for the help.

Yeah. I tried USB 1.0, and 2.0 settings on the fiio as well as Hi/Low Gain and fast falloff/hybrid-fast falloff filter. The only setting I left off was the equalizer because it was just a bunch of presets and I figured I should hear a difference between anything without it and I could use it to fine tune afterwards.

 

[spittis]

Sorry for being a little slow to respond. I'm prepping for a trip I have to go on next week. Thank you so much for the help.

The issue is that the Sennheisers sound the same as my old headphones, which I don't think they're supposed to? : https://www.walmart.com/ip/JLab-Aud...=577015197&athposb=0&athena=true&athbdg=L1600

I thought this was an issue of there being a "bottleneck" somewhere between the source and the headphones. I was comparing Youtube to Spotify because I had been told that Youtube had really bad audio compression compared to Spotify and I had heard a difference at my friend's house, so I thought I could use the difference as a benchmark that my headphones were setup properly. People were saying that its possible all the sources were same. So I ripped flac file of September from the CD I was using with EAC and played it through the trial version of Jrivers. It also sounded the same minus some buffering.

Am I just misunderstanding the difference between high end and low end headphones? Even the variable bass in a quiet room is imperceptible to me unless I'm spinning it during a bass sweep. And some of the reviews that I read about it said that it was supposed to help with listening while walking through different environmental noise levels. Which doesn't make any sense to me with how minute it is.

Ok, to me it sounds a bit strange that those two headphones would sound exactly the same, but I haven't heard either of them and I have no idea how good that Sennheiser model really is, I had honestly never heard of it before. But generally one would expect a very noticeable increase in sound quality when doing a jump like that, your source shouldn't matter too much here. Maybe you could bring both headphones over to your friends house and test them with his equipment, to rule out your own end?

 

[WILLJS]

What would be a good way to get/know that I'm getting a good file type. I had been under the impression that CDs were supposed to be higher quality than most streaming services.

they are, but you're source might resample everything to a different codec, then again this shouldn't really improve sound at all.

it could be that your headphones can only produce a certain amount of detail, and therefore you don't notice a difference in sound, because even with a higher quality source, your headphones are still outputing a similar signal.

 

[woopecushen]

I'm going to see my friend at New Years tomorrow. I'll bring my gear over and see if we can figure anything out. Thank you everyone for all the help!

 

[earmonger]

Low-bitrate files, like the ones you sometimes find on YouTube, have a few clear giveaways--but you have to be listening for detail.

Focus on the sounds of cymbals in a well-recorded rock song. Cymbals are almost like white noise, spanning the full spectrum, and compression has to cut out some of that spectrum. Low-bitrate files will make cymbals sound tinny and unnatural. Better ones should sound richer and splashier.

Bad YouTube files also sound less spacious than higher-quality files. I've heard some YouTube videos that sound almost mono. But there's little info about how much any YouTube uploader compressed things, so 192kbps (kilobytes per second, information/time) YouTube files won't sound that bad, even though mp3 can go up to 320 kbps.

Meanwhile, CD quality should be the same as FLAC files, if not better. There's nothing magic about FLAC--full lossless audio compression--over playing directly from a CD. It depends on the digital (numbers) to analog (signal/vibrations) converter, DAC, in your computer or whatever is playing back the files. If you are using the BTR as a wireless transmitter, Bluetooth also compresses the files, which will make them lower-quality than CD or FLAC files through a good (software or hardware) player.