Just bought my first pair of decent headphones, looking to learn a bit.
Jul 1, 2015 at 3:47 PM Post #16 of 41
saint satan said:
  Hmmm?  I can plug the amp into a headphone jack?  I have it in USB now.  DAC only works with USB connection right?
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Plug the laptop audio out (headphone or preferably line out) to the E17K line input.
 
Jul 1, 2015 at 3:51 PM Post #18 of 41
saint satan said:
Hmmm?  I can plug the amp into a headphone jack?  I have it in USB now.  DAC only works with USB connection right?
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Right.

Your E17K has line in/line out capability through the same jack. You likely have to choose line in from inside the menus on the E17K. Then hook it up to your headphone jack. Put the windows system volume at or near 100% so that it is giving the E17K a full signal. Adjust volume on the E17K :)
 
Jul 1, 2015 at 3:56 PM Post #20 of 41
Typically that's what most people do.

With the headphone jack on the laptop sending an analog signal to the headphone amp, best to make sure it's giving it enough voltage to get best sound. Usually that's 100%, but could be on some headphone laptop jacks the audio signal is clipping or distorting a little, so it might sound better a little lower.
 
Jul 1, 2015 at 6:17 PM Post #25 of 41
cel4145 said:
All that stuff affects the sound. You just have to decide if you like it
smily_headphones1.gif
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Yeah I understand that I'm just asking what's typical among the hardcore audiophiles.  EQ on or off?
 
Jul 1, 2015 at 7:09 PM Post #26 of 41
saint satan said:
  Yeah I understand that I'm just asking what's typical among the hardcore audiophiles.  EQ on or off?
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Many hardcore do not use EQ, some do. Do what you like. I use EQ carefully to boost the Sub Bass, well below 100 Hz without affecting frequencies above that. I buy neutral headphones without a U or V shaped FR.
 
Jul 1, 2015 at 8:02 PM Post #27 of 41
stand said:
  Many hardcore do not use EQ, some do. Do what you like. I use EQ carefully to boost the Sub Bass, well below 100 Hz without affecting frequencies above that. I buy neutral headphones without a U or V shaped FR.
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Yeah I think I'm gonna leave EQ off.  My amp has bass and treble settings and I just slightly changed them and it sounds pretty damned good now.
 
Thanks for the help everyone.
 
Jul 1, 2015 at 9:00 PM Post #28 of 41
saint satan said:
Yeah I understand that I'm just asking what's typical among the hardcore audiophiles.  EQ on or off?
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Well, it really does depend on the individual. For instance, some head-fiers put in a lot of effort to try to tune their headphones to neutral by ear: http://www.head-fi.org/t/615417/how-to-equalize-your-headphones-advanced-tutorial-in-progress. In the home audio world, some purists refuse to EQ their speaker systems. And yet, one's room has a big influence over how speakers sounds at the listening position (the room interaction changes the frequency response), so it's necessary to EQ, IMO, to get the best sound.

So it really does depend on what sounds best to you.
 
Jul 1, 2015 at 10:49 PM Post #29 of 41
saint satan said:
  The only thing that sucks is I can't use the Dolby settings on my laptop anymore because it's running the sound from the amp.  The Dolby settings made a pretty big difference.  When I turned headphone mode on the sound stage increased a lot.  Still overall sounds better and I have bass/treble settings on the amp (-2 treble and +2 bass currently).  Treble is a bit too piercing in the HD 700's so I was able to change that.
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It's doing that "artificially," by simulating recording techniques that would produce such a sound on playback. Soundcards - internal and external - have these features since they're primarily used for gaming and movies, but they are also used on 2ch speaker simulation.
 
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