[Thommohawk]

Quote:

just get the hd598 again,,, only the first batch of the hd598 is showing cracks, the newer ones don't...

But they're still more expensive and they're still plastic so hence bigger risk. At least with Beyer it's criss-crossed steel (mostly steel construct actually vs mostly plastic sen5x) under the headband. And a bit cheaper - I know who's side I'm on! Also personally I'm convinced that you pay a premium on Sennheiser headphones just for the name especially below the 6x range.

 

[X2Eliah]

Make sure you listen to the beyers before you buy them, though. I've been going through tons of posts over the last week, and summarily, a lot of people like them, but an equally large number of people didn't like them / resold them weeks after getting them.. Also, in the "rank your headphones" thread, you can see the DT990s at the top of lists for those people who only have a very small amount of headphones, or had the beyers for very brief periods - most people with 5+ cans almost always place them at lower-to-bottom ranks.
Couple that with the, well, non-stop reports about their over-powerful trebles, and.. Well, it is a big risk. Especially if you are used to the 598's sound, which is (allegedly) very different from the 990. As for paying a premium... You think that doesn't apply to beyers as well? To be frank, the whole DT990 thing very much sounds like a head-fi fad. At least that's the impression I have, looking back on what people have been writing about them.

 

[mrgoodkat]

I know it is a broken record - but it really is hard to beat the AD700 as a true all-around. They might not have the price and prestige of others mentioned here, but Ive been trying to find something to replace them for upwards of 3 years now, and I just cannot. I now work out of my home and have them on for several hours a day, and watch TV/movies with them on before sleep, with the odd game in between. Ive done some pretty awful things to my AD700's over the past 3 years and they are still kicking. Most recently I did a full-on flop on the couch arse-first (Im pushing 250lb now), right on top of them. I thought they were done. Just some dents to the grills. If they were a pair of Sennheisers they would be long gone.
 
Just got a gently used pair of 598's from a buddy, and while there is noticeably more low end with the Senn's (as always), Ive been grabbing the AD700's again. Not to mention that are so much more comfortable for me. As in - I really don't notice them on. The 598's are giving me headaches, and I already tried the 558's, which just do not sound all that much different from the 598's. So Im probably going to part with the 598.
 
 Amped or unamped, straight from the TV hp jack (which just should not sound good, and doesn't with anything else) - the AD700's just shine. Not just sound acceptable, but shine. Truly are the working class hero. I can totally see this ending with me just grabbing another AD700 and retire the old pair to eBay for $25.
 
 The only thing I haven't tried on my list and with my budget, is the DT880, which is up next. Although, I have a good feeling about those for some reason...

 

[rhodan818]

i game everyday and use the Q701 everyday. Its awesome and runs just fine off my $20 xonar DG. I dont know what the conversion is, but they are ~$250 US 

 

[l00l]

I picked up the 990 pro today, after testing them for like 30 mins with "The Dark Knight". 
 
Well, what can I say? I tested the 990 pro against some other (closed) Beyerdynamic but I liked the open structure better. And the guy from the store also gave me a couple of AKGs but I don´t know the model name on them. They all sounded not very cinema like though. More balanced, yes, but whereas explosions really impressed me on the Beyerdynamic they just sounded weak on the AKG.
 
When I got home I tried Star Wars Epidosde 1 on Blu Ray, Dark Knight on DVD again, Apocolypse Now Redux on DVD, CoD MW3 on Xbox and a lil bit of normal tv programs. I connected the Beyerdynamic to my Panasonic Plasma TV via Stereo and also used an extra stereo cable cause the one that the Beyers came with was not long enough for my taste.
To sum things up: I feel that they really give you sort of a cinema feeling. Explosions and all those actions scenes that are impressive when you sit in a movie theatre are equally as impressive on those headphones. I also listened to some classical music briefly and this sounded very good to my ears as well. I also don´t think that the voices are distant or anything, I guess they are just not as in front of you and as present as with some other headphones. But comparing the AKG and the Beyerdamics in the store I also used some dialogue scenes as a reference and I didn´t feel like they were much worse with the Beyers compared to the AKG.
They only complaint I have so far is that I feel like the Beyers just give you a sort of scratching sound during dialogues. Can anybody confirm this? My guess is that this comes from bad source material on SD channels.

 

[Thommohawk]

Quote:

They only complaint I have so far is that I feel like the Beyers just give you a sort of scratching sound during dialogues. Can anybody confirm this? My guess is that this comes from bad source material on SD channels.

 
Come to think of it I had a similar issue at first when using these without an amp - you'll probably have the volume almost maxed out to compensate, so until you get an amp to take care of this you'll want to try to find a workaround and balance out the sound on your tv - play with your settings that's what I did until the issue went away. Try toning down the master volume on your tv and turning up the headphone volume or booster setting on your tv settings or vice versa. I forgot about that until you just mentioned it.
 
An amp will sort it out permanently and give you further upgraded audio to boot. It's just you're using a headphone that should be used with a headphone amp, unamplified, and you're having to overload the volume to get it to an audibly moderate state to your ear but this volume overload setting is transmitting horribly down the headphone which seems to be what's causing the scratching. Just like when you turn your tv up too loud on your set. But as I say an amp will cure this. Fiio E7/E9 DAC Amp combi unit works wonders. Or either seperately. Hell a really cheap Fiio $5 amp should sort this issue out really....

 

[l00l]

Quote:

 
Come to think of it I had a similar issue at first when using these without an amp - you'll probably have the volume almost maxed out to compensate, so until you get an amp to take care of this you'll want to try to find a workaround and balance out the sound on your tv - play with your settings that's what I did until the issue went away. Try toning down the master volume on your tv and turning up the headphone volume or booster setting on your tv settings or vice versa. I forgot about that until you just mentioned it.
 
An amp will sort it out permanently and give you further upgraded audio to boot. It's just you're using a headphone that should be used with a headphone amp, unamplified, and you're having to overload the volume to get it to an audibly moderate state to your ear but this volume overload setting is transmitting horribly down the headphone which seems to be what's causing the scratching. Just like when you turn your tv up too loud on your set. But as I say an amp will cure this. Fiio E7/E9 DAC Amp combi unit works wonders. Or either seperately. Hell a really cheap Fiio $5 amp should sort this issue out really....

Thanks for the explanation! I already thought that this is more an issue of equipment rather than the headphones. And you are right, I have to turn up the headphone volume on my Panasonic plasma all the way up to like 80 % to get a good sound level.
 
What amp could you recommend? But at reasonable prices plz. I don´t wanna spend that much more money tbh.
And how do I connect that amp to my Blu Ray, Xbox, cable box?
 
thanks a bunch!
 

 

[Thommohawk]

Quote:

Thanks for the explanation! I already thought that this is more an issue of equipment rather than the headphones. And you are right, I have to turn up the headphone volume on my Panasonic plasma all the way up to like 80 % to get a good sound level.
 
What amp could you recommend? But at reasonable prices plz. I don´t wanna spend that much more money tbh.
And how do I connect that amp to my Blu Ray, Xbox, cable box?
 
thanks a bunch!
 

You're welcome!
 
Well personally I used the Fiio E7 at first - really good price/performance ratio - but for me I had it's volume maxed out for moderate output. But the scratching was non-existant! The E7 is also portable too as it not only plugs in via USB but it also has it's own battery. The Fiio E7 is more of a DAC than an amp though, hence why the amp element of it isn't that powerful yet the DAC element is great. 
 
That led me to buying the Fiio E9 later down the road which is a non-portable dedicated headphone amplifier (oodles of power, yet still discreet) and I have it set to 11 am on the volume clock and it's fantastic - the slightest of touches upward from there and it's REALLY freakin loud!! So the volume pot is very sensitive and you'll have more clean volume and separated acoustics at your disposal than you can handle that's for sure. And you'll be hearing your Beyers for the first time operating at their correct zone as they have sufficient power. The cool thing about the E9 is that it's designed for the E7 to slot right in and act as a pure DAC. Thus further improving your audio. This is my setup and it doesn't cost a fortune, but there should be uber cheap options out there though they might be counter productive - I can only vouch for what I have.
 
As for how you connect the amp to your various other electronics, if you opt for the E9 then you'll be using the audio or line in ports on the back of the E9. Personally I have the E7 & E9 and it's a bit finicky as it doesn't support direct line in (in terms of making use of the E7 dac at the same time for proper e7/e9 useage) so you might want to wait for the Fiio E17, sorts all those issues out and more but it's not out yet and all we have are price estimates. That's going to be my next upgrade though, it's ideal for me.
 
Anyhow I hope this info is useful, any further questions feel free.

 

[l00l]

Quote:

You're welcome!
 
Well personally I used the Fiio E7 at first - really good price/performance ratio - but for me I had it's volume maxed out for moderate output. But the scratching was non-existant! The E7 is also portable too as it not only plugs in via USB but it also has it's own battery. The Fiio E7 is more of a DAC than an amp though, hence why the amp element of it isn't that powerful yet the DAC element is great. 
 
That led me to buying the Fiio E9 later down the road which is a non-portable dedicated headphone amplifier (oodles of power, yet still discreet) and I have it set to 11 am on the volume clock and it's fantastic - the slightest of touches upward from there and it's REALLY freakin loud!! So the volume pot is very sensitive and you'll have more clean volume and separated acoustics at your disposal than you can handle that's for sure. And you'll be hearing your Beyers for the first time operating at their correct zone as they have sufficient power. The cool thing about the E9 is that it's designed for the E7 to slot right in and act as a pure DAC. Thus further improving your audio. This is my setup and it doesn't cost a fortune, but there should be uber cheap options out there though they might be counter productive - I can only vouch for what I have.
 
As for how you connect the amp to your various other electronics, if you opt for the E9 then you'll be using the audio or line in ports on the back of the E9. Personally I have the E7 & E9 and it's a bit finicky as it doesn't support direct line in (in terms of making use of the E7 dac at the same time for proper e7/e9 useage) so you might want to wait for the Fiio E17, sorts all those issues out and more but it's not out yet and all we have are price estimates. That's going to be my next upgrade though, it's ideal for me.
 
Anyhow I hope this info is useful, any further questions feel free.

Well, for starters, what´s a DAC? Sorry, but I really am a noob here. 
 
And what exactly do e7/e9 do? Do they just up the volume that comes out of my tv so that the headphone does´t have to do it itself?
 
I see that there is a wide range off Fiio products, so I guess I will pick something from there as well. If this really helps and makes a difference!
 
thanks
 

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

So you're only hooking up to the TV? What Tv and model? Does it have an optical out? Regular audio out? Do you plan on using it with anything other than the TV?

If the TV has an optical out, you can save money, get the Fiio D3 DAC which converts digital to analog, and hook it up to an amp like the E9.

This is a simple and effective solution, as all audio being fed to the TV and from the TV's optical out all audio will go to the Fiio stuff, with very little clutter.

If the TV has a regular audio out (NOT a headphone jack, but the same kind of jack in the back), you can just get an amp, no DAC, as the TV has already converted the audio to analog.

These are not the very best methods, but are good enough, cheap, and enjoyable.

 

[Thommohawk]

 
Quote:

Well, for starters, what´s a DAC? Sorry, but I really am a noob here. 
 
And what exactly do e7/e9 do? Do they just up the volume that comes out of my tv so that the headphone does´t have to do it itself?
 
I see that there is a wide range off Fiio products, so I guess I will pick something from there as well. If this really helps and makes a difference!
 
thanks
 

 
Okay a DAC, in English, is a piece of electronic hardware that your headphones and/or headphone amplifier plugs into. And what it does is it takes the inaudible digital information of the audio and converts it into an analogue signal that your headphone amplifier will pick up on (headphone amp makes this signal audible!) but here's the thing - everything that you hear sound from be it TV or whatever will already have a DAC and amp inside it simply for you to be hearing anything at all.....but standalone specialist equipment is worlds apart from anything you get in a TV so the DAC you buy will improve the audio that is going to your amlifier by an order of magnitude.
 
So then the Fiio E7/E9 are seperate pieces of equipment (sold seperately) but they're both designed to work together. The E9 is a dedicated headphone amp. The E7 while it does have an amp and is portable is more of a dedicated DAC. When plugged in together what it does is the E7 works as a pure DAC improving the audio sent to the E9 - the E9 then takes this audio signal and is able to amplify it to the users discretion, but what it's really doing is powering your headphones properly so you not only get clean volume but you also get a much improved headphone as it's being given something like the power that it's crying out for in order to operate to it's better capacity.
 
You probably won't understand what I mean until you buy a decent amp yourself, but you don't just get volume....you get a much more assured headphone, oodles of detail and proper instrument separation too. Plus more clean volume at your disposal than any human can handle. 

 

[l00l]

Quote:

 
 
Okay a DAC, in English, is a piece of electronic hardware that your headphones and/or headphone amplifier plugs into. And what it does is it takes the inaudible digital information of the audio and converts it into an analogue signal that your headphone amplifier will pick up on (headphone amp makes this signal audible!) but here's the thing - everything that you hear sound from be it TV or whatever will already have a DAC and amp inside it simply for you to be hearing anything at all.....but standalone specialist equipment is worlds apart from anything you get in a TV so the DAC you buy will improve the audio that is going to your amlifier by an order of magnitude.
 
So then the Fiio E7/E9 are seperate pieces of equipment (sold seperately) but they're both designed to work together. The E9 is a dedicated headphone amp. The E7 while it does have an amp and is portable is more of a dedicated DAC. When plugged in together what it does is the E7 works as a pure DAC improving the audio sent to the E9 - the E9 then takes this audio signal and is able to amplify it to the users discretion, but what it's really doing is powering your headphones properly so you not only get clean volume but you also get a much improved headphone as it's being given something like the power that it's crying out for in order to operate to it's better capacity.
 
You probably won't understand what I mean until you buy a decent amp yourself, but you don't just get volume....you get a much more assured headphone, oodles of detail and proper instrument separation too. Plus more clean volume at your disposal than any human can handle. 

Thanks for the detailed explanation! I guess I kind of get it: The DAC converts the audio signal (to whatever) and the amp sort of handles the signal, or allows me to handle it to my liking. Is that right?
And in short, the signal my TV throughs out is not good enough for the headphones to work on a proper level. Therefore the need for extra equipment.
 
What I have is a Panasonic 42PX80E plasma tv, a Blu Ray player from Phillips (with coaxial out), an Xbox 360 (with optical out) and a digital Cable box with optical out.
My tv only got Audio out (L+R) and Audio in (L+R), and component. That´s it I guess, so no digital audio output there.
 
So what would be a good setup for me? And I would assume there will be a noticeable difference in Audio quality then, right? thanks

 

[Caphel]

Quote:

You're welcome!
 
Well personally I used the Fiio E7 at first - really good price/performance ratio - but for me I had it's volume maxed out for moderate output. But the scratching was non-existant! The E7 is also portable too as it not only plugs in via USB but it also has it's own battery. The Fiio E7 is more of a DAC than an amp though, hence why the amp element of it isn't that powerful yet the DAC element is great. 
 
That led me to buying the Fiio E9 later down the road which is a non-portable dedicated headphone amplifier (oodles of power, yet still discreet) and I have it set to 11 am on the volume clock and it's fantastic - the slightest of touches upward from there and it's REALLY freakin loud!! So the volume pot is very sensitive and you'll have more clean volume and separated acoustics at your disposal than you can handle that's for sure. And you'll be hearing your Beyers for the first time operating at their correct zone as they have sufficient power. The cool thing about the E9 is that it's designed for the E7 to slot right in and act as a pure DAC. Thus further improving your audio. This is my setup and it doesn't cost a fortune, but there should be uber cheap options out there though they might be counter productive - I can only vouch for what I have.
 
As for how you connect the amp to your various other electronics, if you opt for the E9 then you'll be using the audio or line in ports on the back of the E9. Personally I have the E7 & E9 and it's a bit finicky as it doesn't support direct line in (in terms of making use of the E7 dac at the same time for proper e7/e9 useage) so you might want to wait for the Fiio E17, sorts all those issues out and more but it's not out yet and all we have are price estimates. That's going to be my next upgrade though, it's ideal for me.
 
Anyhow I hope this info is useful, any further questions feel free.

I was looking to do something like this.  I am using an E9 with my Xonar D2X and it works very well.  They only issue is that when I am gaming I have dolby headphone on which also affects the Skype call that I am on.  What I would like to do is use an E7 docked with the E9 and set skype to use the E7 as the sound source, but from your comments you cannot use the Line in and E7 DAC at the same time?
 
Will the E17 change this?
 

 

[Thommohawk]

Quote:

I was looking to do something like this.  I am using an E9 with my Xonar D2X and it works very well.  They only issue is that when I am gaming I have dolby headphone on which also affects the Skype call that I am on.  What I would like to do is use an E7 docked with the E9 and set skype to use the E7 as the sound source, but from your comments you cannot use the Line in and E7 DAC at the same time?
 
Will the E17 change this?
 

I don't think it will because you only have 1 audio source on your PC, as far as I know Windows can't differentiate audio streams between seperate programs and route them to specific places. Think of it as a highway, it has different lanes with different amounts of traffic on it, but only the 1 road still for that highway. It's the same with PC audio - you can differentiate volume between running programs and have a seperate audio stream via having it record the line in port but it's all centralized in one place or another.

 

[Thommohawk]

Quote:

Thanks for the detailed explanation! I guess I kind of get it: The DAC converts the audio signal (to whatever) and the amp sort of handles the signal, or allows me to handle it to my liking. Is that right?
And in short, the signal my TV throughs out is not good enough for the headphones to work on a proper level. Therefore the need for extra equipment.
 
What I have is a Panasonic 42PX80E plasma tv, a Blu Ray player from Phillips (with coaxial out), an Xbox 360 (with optical out) and a digital Cable box with optical out.
My tv only got Audio out (L+R) and Audio in (L+R), and component. That´s it I guess, so no digital audio output there.
 
So what would be a good setup for me? And I would assume there will be a noticeable difference in Audio quality then, right? thanks

Yeah you got it.
 
What I would do then in your case is to plug everything into your TV (blu ray, 360, cable box etc) as you would normally - then buy a Male 3.5mm audio LR double ended cable or whatever you need to plug into your TV's audio out or headphone port and then into the back of your DAC/Amp. There's got to be less 'around the block' options for things like this but I can't think of any off the top of my head. That's the only thing I can think of to handle so many different audio's - make use of your TV audio in's as you would normally and make full use of any of the TV's audio out's and buy the relevant cable to connect to your DAC/Amp unit when you buy one. 
 
I would definitely recommend the Fiio E7/E9. I wouldn't recommend waiting for the more expensive Fiio E17 unless you want that instead and are willing to pay a lot more for extra features.