[kman1211]

I definitely feel the same way about my desktop tube amp vs the E12, but then the tube amp needs to be plugged in and cost 2x as much.

I see a music streamer II+ like yours for ~$310, but for that price I'd want USB and Optical Inputs. Though I now tread on the verge of going OT, the AudioEngine D1 looks much more like it would fit my needs/budget. Have you heard any reason to avoid that/look at something else? Wait another month for a Bifrost?

I might want to find someone willing to trade my K712 for their Annies... purely because I'd rather have the blue

I do like the E12 but with my ipod, I don't like either of my AKGs with the E12 & Ipod Combo as they sound a bit thin and hollow in the mids so that crosses them out from being portable at all for me. The Senn HD 545 on the other hand sounds perfectly fine on that combo, so I guess the HD 545 is going to be my semi-portable headphone. AKGs from my experience are very sensitive to what they are hooked up to. They seem to shine on tube amps but what is really important with AKGs is the DAC, a good DAC completely changes them.
 
I got mine for $200 new, I got lucky there. That is true, would be nice if it had optical. I don't know much about DACs, the HRT Music Streamer for me was a spur of the moment thing, I bought it without really doing any research, but it turns out to be a great sounding DAC and I'm happy with it. I would personally wait another month for the Bifrost. DAC upgrades have very large impacts on the sound of headphones, people often focus on headphones and amps and don't realize how important the DAC is, sometimes it's the biggest determiner of sound quality in the system.
 
The Annie and K712 sound a bit different from my personal experience. The blue is nice though. Some reason I like the coppery-orange of the K712 more.

 

[Evshrug]

The Annie and K712 sound a bit different from my personal experience. The blue is nice though. Some reason I like the coppery-orange of the K712 more.

That's because you're a bad-guy from TRON.

I got mine for $200 new, I got lucky there. [...] I would personally wait another month for the Bifrost. DAC upgrades have very large impacts on the sound of headphones, people often focus on headphones and amps and don't realize how important the DAC is, sometimes it's the biggest determiner of sound quality in the system.

Wow, amazing price.
I've heard people say DACs make the least change in sound, that as long as you don't have a BAD DAC and do have a decent DAC, you've already hit the point of diminishing returns. People do point to DACs as benefitting imaging, soundstage, and countering brittleness – sonic improvements which I've found to be elusive to improve, but even a small change in those areas can make a BIG change in pleasure and enjoyment.

Btw, the Q701 sounded good, but I had to take them off about an hour ago because my ears got tired... sometimes I can get away with plugging my headphones directly into my gaming processors because I'm focusing on the game, but I was just reminded that an underfed Q701 just isn't the same experience :/

 

[kman1211]

That's because you're a bad-guy from TRON.
Wow, amazing price.
I've heard people say DACs make the least change in sound, that as long as you don't have a BAD DAC and do have a decent DAC, you've already hit the point of diminishing returns. People do point to DACs as benefitting imaging, soundstage, and countering brittleness – sonic improvements which I've found to be elusive to improve, but even a small change in those areas can make a BIG change in pleasure and enjoyment.

Btw, the Q701 sounded good, but I had to take them off about an hour ago because my ears got tired... sometimes I can get away with plugging my headphones directly into my gaming processors because I'm focusing on the game, but I was just reminded that an underfed Q701 just isn't the same experience :/

True, lol.
 
It's why I went for it, that and I wanted a better dac and to break away from being chained to my sound-card on my desktop PC. I haven't found that the case from auditioning my friends gear which is Summit-fi. I personally found the DAC can be just as important as the headphone and amplifier. I found that seemingly small things can translate into a massive upgrade sonically. There are also many people who say the DAC makes the biggest improvement to their system. What really matters is balancing out the gear right, trying not to focus too much on any particular part, but rather having a solid audio chain from the ground up.
 
This is how my friend explains it, not really the best or most accurate description but it works in a sense. The DAC is the roots of the system. The Amplifier is the stem. The headphone is the flower. The cables are how well the nutrients are transported from one part to the next. And the audio files is the quality of food and nutrients.
 
Reminds me of trying my K612 underfed, you get fatigued after some use. It sounds brittle and broken when underfed, not really that pleasant.

 

[Change is Good]

 
The Annie and K712 sound a bit different from my personal experience. The blue is nice though. Some reason I like the coppery-orange of the K712 more.

 
 

That's because you're a bad-guy from TRON.

 
Or he could be a Giants fan...
 

 

[kman1211]

   
 
 
Or he could be a Giants fan...
 

Actually my universities colors are orange and black.

 

[SaLX]

Evshrug - good to see you on Twitch / CoD: Ghosts the other night - high body count plus funny quips.

 

[Evshrug]

Evshrug - good to see you on Twitch / CoD: Ghosts the other night - high body count plus funny quips.

I overflow with quips, glad it was to your taste and it was really fun to have you there!
Tomorrow I'm recording my video illustrating the signal path from game system to headphones with multiple options for surround processors, and then I'll probably be streaming some gameplay
I still have to beat some old games story mode (every time I play Oblivion I start out saying LET'S RUSH THE STORY! But I end up carefully watching my level up stats, writing notes, and getting into completionist mode), but CoD is so damn addictive.

 

[Zombie_X]

It's too bad there's no way for viewers to hear me, Evshrug, and Change talk in a party on the PS4. We all talk smack to each other, well mostly me and Change. I had one of my friends rolling the other night, he literally ran out of breath. Fun times on tha PS4.
 
But MLE, you should just try BF4. You ahven't tried it so you don't even know if you'd hate it. It's not as fast and frantic as COD, but still plenty fast. It doesn't hurt to try the game at all. It seems like you have this blind hate for the BF series, but I haven't seen as to why you hate it. As much as I like Ghosts, and I do, it just doesn't hold a candle to BF4.

 

[AxelCloris]

Axel,
The K701 and Q701 have the same impedance (62 Ohm) and sensitivity (105 dB SPL/V), so they take the same amount of "push" to amp. It's just that the sound signature is different, the Q701 is less picky about what character the amp lends to the sound because it's warmer at the bottom end. And they sound quite good without an extra external amp (I'm listening to some chill-out music right now with my Q701 plugged into my iPad Mini retina, having a good time), but an amp opens the door on soundstage and gives more defined body to the sound.

 
Interesting. When I was able to hear a K701 at a meet I found it didn't sound quite as loud as the Q701 I owned when not using an amp. Maybe that's due to the low background noise of the meet, but the room wasn't loud by any means. The K701 seemed to scale batter with the same amps. So it seems I stand corrected.

 

[Napalmhardcore]

As a couple of you guys have been talking about tube amps, I'm curious. Could you give me the names of a couple of decent entry level ones to go and research.

 

[AxelCloris]

  As a couple of you guys have been talking about tube amps, I'm curious. Could you give me the names of a couple of decent entry level ones to go and research.

 
What price rage are you considering entry level?

 

[SaLX]

Tomorrow I'm recording my video illustrating the signal path from game system to headphones with multiple options for surround processors, and then I'll probably be streaming some gameplay

 
Oh sweet Evs - that'll be well worth watching I'm sure. Looking forward to it. Mixamp+Recon then?


 

 

[Napalmhardcore]

   
What price rage are you considering entry level?

I'm not setting aside a budget at the moment. This is purely research (the long list of things I want already outweigh my budget by astronomical proportions lol).

 

[AxelCloris]

  I'm not setting aside a budget at the moment. This is purely research (the long list of things I want already outweigh my budget by astronomical proportions lol).

 
Well, you can start pretty simply by looking at tube amps of varying price that many consider to be entry level. Schiit Vali, Schiit Valhalla, Bottlehead Crack, Little Dot amps, Project Starlight, Project Sunrise, the ever budget friendly Bravo amps, and many more.

 

[bombadilio]

If you give a mouse a cookie...
Randy, we're not professionals... If we were, we'd actually be getting paid to make this worth our while!

Most of your questions are answered in the FAQ spoiler section of the guide. I'll just add a little info about the only one question that isn't answered in the guide, since the guide is based on console gaming: you would want to set CS:GO to 5.1, so that your soundcard (if it has Dolby Headphone) can use that to create a virtual headphone mix.

Thanks so basically in games I set it to 5.1 and in Omni I set it to Headphones.