[Imperatore]

Thanks to this guide I purchase some Fidelio X1 and mix amp pro back in Feb 2014. I am however looking to change for no other reason than I want to see what else is out there. I have got some wireless headphones for convenience (Sony HW700DS) but I still need another decent set for aux connections. I
Only thing I dislike about X1 is that they are open and my PS4 sounds like a jet and ruins the immersion so I'd really like closed back again. No particular budget but if I don't have to spend more than £500 would be a bonus.
Also I've just seen the Creative X7 and I'm keen to try Dolby Headphone as I understand I'm not getting that at the moment with a mix amp.

Oh I ordered a Schiit Audio Magni 2 as well

Edit: mix amp is Dolby headphone. Left for shame.

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

Itchy pads are easy to get used to, and they become less itchy with time. You can't turn sticky, sweltering heat inducing leather pads into non-sticky, non-ear furnace pads.

I live in Florida, which is completely disrespectful of Winter, and where A/C isn't the best.

For me, leather pads are no longer an option. Every time I try and justify a headphone with leather pads, I end up regretting it and selling/returning them.

 

[wadec22]

Hi,

In terms of clarity of footsteps and 3D directional accuracy, would you say that the Sennheiser RS185 is as good as the AD700X? (When paired with a mixamp on consoles)

I can't speak specifically to the 185, but I figured I would chime in since I have some experience with the RS 180 (my current cans).
 
Now I opted for the 180s over the 185 for a couple of reasons - 1. Many claim the 185 is heavier and clamps much tighter than the 180.  I am sensitive to clamp force (I can't handle Beyerdynamic "pro" versions).  2. I did not see a reason to pay for a DAC that I would be bypassing anyway.
 
Now I've owned:
Audio Technica ATH-AD700's
Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro 80ohm
Beyerdynamic DT 150
Beyerdynamic DT880 250ohm
Beyerdynamic DT900 250ohm
Denon D2000
Sennheiser 518
Sennheiser 598
 
I would say the soundstage is equal to that of the 598.  They have a little more bass, making them more "fun" as well.  In a few scenarios with music, I thought the 598 may be slightly superior, but the difference was minimal enough to consider placebo. The old AD700 soundstage still trumps both in my book, but not by a significant margin.
 
On my ps4, I run the 180s with a mixamp and it's really pretty good.  If there are any other questions I can help with, let me know.  Hope that helps!
 
I would love to hear a gamer's review/perspective of the 185.

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

Back on the HE-400 camp.

Bought a pair with both focus and velour pads for a good price.

Had it not been for some bday money, I probably would've not bought anything.

Since the X7 has some EQ, I may just reduce the upper treble a hint). MAYBE.

Not gonna lie, I was eyeing a pre-fazor vegan LCD2 for sale. Had it not been for the HE-400, I may have just done it. But that one was almost 3x what I paid for the HE400, and I'm too broke for that.

 

[mindbomb]

I'm using the pc version of dolby headphone with asus xonars, which is supposedly a little different than the mixamp version, but for me, there was clear superiority with certain akg headphones (k7xx, k712, k702) and audio technica headphones (ad700x, ad900x) over sennheiser models (hd 558, 598, 600) with the dh1 setting. The sennheisers at these price points simply could not create the convincing out of head experience that akg and audio technica could.

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

So I was playing Lightning Returns on PC with my Xonar U3 feeding Dolby Headphone 2 to my X7 (SBX turned off, obviously).

Man, I have to reiterate, that I prefer Dolby Headphone than SBX. It's just (to my ears) much more immersive, and the rear cues come through much better.

It's been awhile since I've used DH, and now I think I'm gonna start using it again for PC.

Wish there was an X7 equivalent with Dolby Headphone that isn't a 300lb receiver, lol.

 

[wadec22]

  I'm using the pc version of dolby headphone with asus xonars, which is supposedly a little different than the mixamp version, but for me, there was clear superiority with certain akg headphones (k7xx, k712, k702) and audio technica headphones (ad700x, ad900x) over sennheiser models (hd 558, 598, 600) with the dh1 setting. The sennheisers at these price points simply could not create the convincing out of head experience that akg and audio technica could.

the mixamp uses dh2, although i still find it inferior to that on the xonar cards (my experience being the essence stx & the dgx)
 
always interesting to hear subjective opinion though - i can't stand dh1 on the xonar cards.

 

[Sound Quality]

I can't speak specifically to the 185, but I figured I would chime in since I have some experience with the RS 180 (my current cans).

Now I opted for the 180s over the 185 for a couple of reasons - 1. Many claim the 185 is heavier and clamps much tighter than the 180.  I am sensitive to clamp force (I can't handle Beyerdynamic "pro" versions).  2. I did not see a reason to pay for a DAC that I would be bypassing anyway.

Now I've owned:

Audio Technica ATH-AD700's
Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro 80ohm
Beyerdynamic DT 150
Beyerdynamic DT880 250ohm
Beyerdynamic DT900 250ohm
Denon D2000
Sennheiser 518
Sennheiser 598

I would say the soundstage is equal to that of the 598.  They have a little more bass, making them more "fun" as well.  In a few scenarios with music, I thought the 598 may be slightly superior, but the difference was minimal enough to consider placebo. The old AD700 soundstage still trumps both in my book, but not by a significant margin.

On my ps4, I run the 180s with a mixamp and it's really pretty good.  If there are any other questions I can help with, let me know.  Hope that helps!

I would love to hear a gamer's review/perspective of the 185.

This is an excellent response. Thank you very much for taking the time to respond wadec22. Your post is very helpful =)

For comfort, I definitely agree with you. Going by reviews and posts on this forum, Sennheiser seem to have made the new RS models clamp too tightly, so that they don't fall off. This might be a slight concern for me.

If the soundstage for the RS180 is near or equal to the 598's, then that's a huge plus, considering it's a wireless headphone with compressed sound.

Since the RS185 uses uncompressed sound, maybe it will sound a bit better than the 598's, in terms of clarity and detail.

If I do end up getting the RS185, I will certainly share my thoughts on it for gaming.

 

[MattKelly]

So because of this whole G5 incident I've been forced to go back to double amping the MixAmp. Since I sold off my old MixAmp Pro, I'm left having to buy new gear. I settled on the MixAmp TR (primarily for custom EQ) and either the O2 or Magni 2 to go with it. But at that price point (around $250) I'm just short of the X7 on Amazon at $299 (new). Heck, I could probably find it even cheaper used. So what now... just spring for the X7? I had never even seriously considered it until adding up the price of double amping my MixAmp. My other gear will stay the same (K7XX + ModMic). Hmm...

 

[kellte2]

So because of this whole G5 incident I've been forced to go back to double amping the MixAmp. Since I sold off my old MixAmp Pro, I'm left having to buy new gear. I settled on the MixAmp TR (primarily for custom EQ) and either the O2 or Magni 2 to go with it. But at that price point (around $250) I'm just short of the X7 on Amazon at $299 (new). Heck, I could probably find it even cheaper used. So what now... just spring for the X7? I had never even seriously considered it until adding up the price of double amping my MixAmp. My other gear will stay the same (K7XX + ModMic). Hmm...

I went from double amping with a matrix m-stage, mixamp 2013, K702 Annie and modmic to the x7. It is a huge jump in sound quality over the mixamp.

 

[jthom320]

I went from double amping with a matrix m-stage, mixamp 2013, K702 Annie and modmic to the x7. It is a huge jump in sound quality over the mixamp.

I'm kind of in the same boat as him.
 
I understand in terms of sound quality there's a bump.  How does it stack up in terms of positional audio on console?
 
If I understand correctly it uses Sound Blasters solution rather then Dolby Headphone?

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

This is an excellent response. Thank you very much for taking the time to respond wadec22. Your post is very helpful =)

For comfort, I definitely agree with you. Going by reviews and posts on this forum, Sennheiser seem to have made the new RS models clamp too tightly, so that they don't fall off. This might be a slight concern for me.

If the soundstage for the RS180 is near or equal to the 598's, then that's a huge plus, considering it's a wireless headphone with compressed sound.

Since the RS185 uses uncompressed sound, maybe it will sound a bit better than the 598's, in terms of clarity and detail.

If I do end up getting the RS185, I will certainly share my thoughts on it for gaming.

Uncompressed sound. The 598 will also be uncompressed... if you're feeding lossless to it.

There is no way that technicallyu speaking, a wireless headphone will sound better than a wired one, unless you feed it bad audio.

As for you possibly preferring the 185's sound, perhaps.

 

[bonami2]

How should i use sbx ?
 
Do i just enable it and max the slider and start any game and play?

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

I'm kind of in the same boat as him.

I understand in terms of sound quality there's a bump.  How does it stack up in terms of positional audio on console?

If I understand correctly it uses Sound Blasters solution rather then Dolby Headphone?

X7 uses SBX, Mixamp uses Dolby Headphone.

Personal opinion:

As I mentioned a post or so ago, I prefer Dolby Headphone for it's immersive qualities (it impresses me how it sounds like my room has a full set of speakers on, which to me not even SBX does as well), and ESPECIALLY because it does positional cues better than SBX.

It is no contest that the quality of the sound is better on the X7. The Mixamp has distortion and noise that the X7 utterly beats. But to be honest, if I found a Mixamp 5.8 again with perhaps a decent dac/amp unit, I may be tempted on being ok with the trade offs.

It's hard though, because the X7 really is an excellent all in one package.

 

[jthom320]

X7 uses SBX, Mixamp uses Dolby Headphone.

Personal opinion:

As I mentioned a post or so ago, I prefer Dolby Headphone for it's immersive qualities (it impresses me how it sounds like my room has a full set of speakers on, which to me not even SBX does as well), and ESPECIALLY because it does positional cues better than SBX.

It is no contest that the quality of the sound is better on the X7. The Mixamp has distortion and noise that the X7 utterly beats. But to be honest, if I found a Mixamp 5.8 again with perhaps a decent dac/amp unit, I may be tempted on being ok with the trade offs.

It's hard though, because the X7 really is an excellent all in one package.

Interesting.
 
Do you have any experience with the Mixamp TR?  I'm using it currently (with HD598s) and it sounds pretty good.  But I'm definitely upgrading my headphones at some point soon and I'm worried higher quality headphones will potentially bring out the flaws inherent to this set up.  Also planning on double amping like our friend up above.
 
Or perhaps switching entirely to an X7.  I'm still deciding on what headphones to get though so unfortunately I can't be specific on exactly what I'll be using.