[chimmycham]

That's exactly how I feel.
I got my Senn HD598s today, and theyre great, but the highs are giving me bad headaches.

 

[chimmycham]

Audirvana Plus vs VLC.
 
What do you guys think?

 

[arnaud]

Quote:

I didn't believe in burn-in until I tried it on the AKG K 701...or maybe it's due to the earpads breaking-in. I may never know the answer. Burn-in is a pretty controversial topic so I'll leave that up to you to find in the Sound Science threads.
When I first tried them out-of-the-box, I almost wanted to cry because the highs were really piercing on the K 701; now they're just fine after 200+ hours of pink noise and playing Assassin's Creed III.
 
I think pink noise should be fine. I would just make a 30-minute pink noise file on Audacity as well as a 5-minute silent track to give your headphones some "rest time" and leave that playlist playing for a day or two. Although it probably doesn't matter too much, I played the pink noise and silent tracks through Audirvana Plus.

 
At least, we've tried very hard to objectively quantify it: http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/measurement-and-audibility-headphone-break
 
The influence of the dumpster truck and other ambiant fluctuations seemed larger than the burn in itself, so rather inconclusive and disappointed after all the effort to krank these results out.

 

[MatsudaMan]

Quote:

Audirvana Plus vs VLC.
 
What do you guys think?

VLC is not even an audiophile player.  

 

[chimmycham]

Should I do anything with the Audio/Sound settings of my Macbook Pro to enhance the SQ of these phones for the time being, until i get an Amp/DAC?

 

[velvetx]

Quote:

Audirvana Plus vs VLC.
 
What do you guys think?

Audirvana Plus is amazing.

 

[littletree76]

No matter which player application you have chosen (note VLC is not much better than crappy iTunes in term of playback sound quality), set the playback volume in the application to maximum and control the volume at very end of audio chain, namely volume control of headphone amplifier (Macbook Pro built-in headphone output in your case). Though it is not necessary to do that if the application implement volume control with dithering (such as Audirvana Plus) rather than zeroing of least significant bits (such as free Audirvana). The free version of Audirvana is not equivalent to paid commercial version of Audirvana Plus. Turn off all unnecessary audio effects in the application. Otherwise there is not much you can do with built-in headphone output.
 
Judged by your previous posts, you are listening through the built-in analog headphone output of Macbook Pro (cheap DAC and amplifier on motherboard of the notebook computer) with various headphones. Having lossless audio source files and a better pair of headphones are not good enough as you have to consider quality of all components along the whole audio chain (Macbook > DAC > amplifier > headphone). Otherwise it will be a waste of money to upgrade just one component (headphone in your case) as you are not going to hear too much difference among your headphones. Since the bottleneck right now is the DAC and amplifier, why not get a reasonably good and affordable portable headphone amplifier with asynchronous USB DAC such as following versatile model (search in this website for other options):
 
http://www.nuforce.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&layout=item&id=4&Itemid=186
 
Note for this DAC/amplifier to drive your headphone properly, input impedance of your headphone must be between 16 to 300 ohm (see your headphone specification).

 

[hubee]

Quote:

On what genre do you hear that?

 
Quote:

'70s rock/pop 96/24 vinyl rip mostly.

Thanks. With some old records i also have heard something.. I'll give a try for Amarra.

 

[chimmycham]

Quote:

No matter which player application you have chosen (note VLC is not much better than crappy iTunes in term of playback sound quality), set the playback volume in the application to maximum and control the volume at very end of audio chain, namely volume control of headphone amplifier (Macbook Pro built-in headphone output in your case). Though it is not necessary to do that if the application implement volume control with dithering (such as Audirvana Plus) rather than zeroing of least significant bits (such as free Audirvana). The free version of Audirvana is not equivalent to paid commercial version of Audirvana Plus. Turn off all unnecessary audio effects in the application. Otherwise there is not much you can do with built-in headphone output.
 
Judged by your previous posts, you are listening through the built-in analog headphone output of Macbook Pro (cheap DAC and amplifier on motherboard of the notebook computer) with various headphones. Having lossless audio source files and a better pair of headphones are not good enough as you have to consider quality of all components along the whole audio chain (Macbook > DAC > amplifier > headphone). Otherwise it will be a waste of money to upgrade just one component (headphone in your case) as you are not going to hear too much difference among your headphones. Since the bottleneck right now is the DAC and amplifier, why not get a reasonably good and affordable portable headphone amplifier with asynchronous USB DAC such as following versatile model (search in this website for other options):
 
http://www.nuforce.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&layout=item&id=4&Itemid=186
 
Note for this DAC/amplifier to drive your headphone properly, input impedance of your headphone must be between 16 to 300 ohm (see your headphone specification).

 
Will That uDac-2 be enough?
I was going to get a Fiio E17.
 
You think the uDac-2 is a better option in my case?
I've been told numerous times to stay away from the NuForce uDAC2

 

[Slowfade]

Quote:

 
Will That uDac-2 be enough?
I was going to get a Fiio E17.
 
You think the uDac-2 is a better option in my case?
I've been told numerous times to stay away from the NuForce uDAC2

 
I'd at least take a look at the Modi/Magni combo from Schitt. Good stuff. http://schiit.com/cart/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=0&products_id=13
 
Main thing is have fun and enjoy the music.

 

[chimmycham]

I know the E17 has an optical input..
What would the benefits be of getting the Magni/Modi combo instead of the E17.
 
I honestly could not care less about portability.
Would the Magni/Modi combo be a significant upgrade from the E17, in terms of sound?
 
I read that the DAC was 99% the same, with the E17 being just a hair brighter.

 

[Currawong]

I've added Swinsian (http://swinsian.com) to the original article if anyone is interested in a fully fledged iTunes alternative player.

 

[Silent One]

Quote:

I've added Swinsian (http://swinsian.com) to the original article if anyone is interested in a fully fledged iTunes alternative player.

 
Have you had a chance to put it through its paces? I'm a little behind inside the listening room - this morning is only my second session since 20 December, due to personal issues. But, I'm slowly working it out. 

 

[paradoxper]

Quote:

I've added Swinsian (http://swinsian.com) to the original article if anyone is interested in a fully fledged iTunes alternative player.

Are you going to share any thoughts on the player Swinsian? Never heard of it 'til now.

 

[miceblue]

Does anyone know if Audirvana Plus works with iTunes' CD player? When I try to play a CD through Audirvana Plus, a single track takes ages to load...on the order of minutes.