[audiophizile]

Yeah, probably shouldve done that today while theyre at home breaking in. If they dont loosen up a little from normal wear I'll have to try it out. how long should you leave em like that?

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

Not exactly, it's a Yamaha RX-V371 with "Silent Cinema." From their website: Quote:

SILENT CINEMA makes it possible to hear large-scale surround sound through ordinary headphones! This is a variation of CINEMA DSP technology that Yamaha developed to let you listen in private to movies and other multi-channel sources for hours without listening fatigue.

I don't remember clearly how well it works, but before I moved and packed my Yamaha away I tried it with Dead Space and Alan Wake, and I clearly remember that I was freaked out. Intense. Which is a pretty good indicator that I was definitely getting the full experience. I may see a quality increase from putting an amp between the receiver and headphone though.
Chicolom, I was meaning to ask you: I saw that you're enjoying your current amp in your sig with the AKG Q701, I was wondering what was your upgrade path before choosing that amp? I'm new to Q701 goodness ^__^

I believe Yamaha once said the RX-V371 can power headphones up to 450-Ohm, so it might do a decent job at driving the Q701.
From what I understand when headphones are plugged into a receiver, the amplifier(s) inside stops powering the speaker and switch over to powering the headphones, so the Q701 should get enough "juice".
I'm a happy Yamaha RX-V671 user.

 

[audiophizile]

I do want to clarify that in COD games I never had a problem placing people with the pc350 that was only bf3 because there is a lot more going on in bf3(chaos) and it was hard for me to seperate the sounds well. With the hm5 its not only no longer a problem, its extremely easy. My hopes are high for COD

 

[Evshrug]

I believe Yamaha once said the RX-V371 can power headphones up to 450-Ohm, so it might do a decent job at driving the Q701.
From what I understand when headphones are plugged into a receiver, the amplifier(s) inside stops powering the speaker and switch over to powering the headphones, so the Q701 should get enough "juice".
I'm a happy Yamaha RX-V671 user.

Ooh! More impetuous to leave my moms house, as if I didn't have enough reason already LOL. I wonder where they hide the headphone jack specs? I don't know for sure if the speaker amps also amp the headphone jack, but I DO know there is no amp-age going to the speakers once you plug into the headphone jack. Embarrassingly, I spend half an hour or more scratching my head about why my speakers weren't working, only to realize I couldn't leave my 1/4" to 1/8" adapter in the headphone jack. That was the only time I cranked the amp up to MAX (scary), and there was nary a whisper coming from the speakers. Thankfully I turned it down before unplugging the adapter.

AudioPhizle,
If you're anything like me, going back to MW3 will feel stale and boring by comparison, lol! I just wish EA wasn't... EA. BF3 is a great game, but I think the whole online pass and server rental instead of dedicated servers is bull, and when my harddrive crashed with neither Xbox Live or EA remembering I had the preorder maps, the game was ruined for me.

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

The Pro 900s are waiting for me at home. About 5 more hours...

I hope they don't fail me.

 

[Evshrug]

Lol hard time concentrating on work?

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

Haha, nah. My work can be done by a 5 year old. Boredom is the killer.

 

[0sync0]

Like the OP I have difficulty finding comfortable headphones (haven't found any yet). I went through the first post and looked for cans with a comfort score of 8 or higher and a competitive score of 8 or higher.
 
First was the AKG K701/K702/Q701. The comment is that these are comfort-wise, quite polarizing.
 
Next and last is the Denon D7000, which is out of my price range.
 
I know comfort is a very subjective thing, but this doesn't look encouraging. I live in a rural area and am not in a position to try out cans in a store.

 

[chicolom]

Quote:

Not exactly, it's a Yamaha RX-V371 with "Silent Cinema."

Chicolom, I was meaning to ask you: I saw that you're enjoying your current amp in your sig with the AKG Q701, I was wondering what was your upgrade path before choosing that amp? I'm new to Q701 goodness ^__^

 
I've only briefly tried silent cinema, but it didn't impress me as much as dolby headphone.  Supposedly you can tweak it though.  The reciever I tried it on was very entry level as well.
 
 
I started with the E10, then got the got the E9.  Later I sold the E9 and got the M-stage.  I wasn't concerned that the E9 wasn't enough power or anything.  I new I was going to get an HRT Music Streamer II DAC, and I read on Head-fi that the HRT MS II output voltage was higher than the E9s input voltage and would cause clipping.  So I wanted to offload the E9 before I got the HRT MS II and I chose to get the M-stage to replace it.

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

Pro 900, initial impressions... not sure how I feel at the moment. Not enough testing. I feel like it's veiled compared to the D7000, which isn't what I expected. I expected it to sound bright and overly energetic, but that's not what I'm hearing. Sounds a bit muffled in the vocals. I would definitely say the mids are recessed compared to the D7000. I've been very used to the D7000 sound, and vocals are definitely not as pushed back as this. I'm not gonna penalize the Pro 900 just yet, as they are fresh out of the box.

The bass is definitely the showrunner. Fortunately, it's not a fatiguing bass, and while being very strong, is pretty snappy and well textured. Not exactly as awe-inspiring in quality as the Pro 2900 and DT990's less prominent, but higher quality bass, but definitely a lot more influential to the overall sound. Bassheads would do well with the Pro 900.

Treble is clean, and energetic. No problems here.

I guess I'm getting used to the mids not being so recessed in the D7000 and Q701, that I'm starting to currently miss it with the Pro 900. Time will tell. As it stands, the mids are a definite weak spot, there is a lot of lyrics I feel aren't coming through clearly in music.

The D7000, while being weaker in the mids compared to bass and treble, I certainly wouldn't call them weak in the mids.

I will have to do let music run through them for a few hours, and let myself get acquainted to their sound.

Comfort is good, and I love the amount of clamp they have. They stay in place really well, and I could see myself having very little issue using these laying down. Happy to use something that doesn't slide around at all, unlike the D7000 and Q701 which are loose fitting.

Definitely like them compared to the Pro 2900, but I must say that bass aside (Pro 2900 having significantly less bass), they sound remarkably similar. Guess that is that Ultrasone house sound.

edit: I love the bass on these things. Definitely hits harder in the right places compared to the D7000, which is a tad more reserved, though the Pro 900 definitely doesn't fill out the lower notes as well as the D7000 does (for example, Borgore's Ice Cream, which is a filthy dubstep track... the notes have more authority on the D7000 due to it registering on the lower end of the bass spectrum). I'd say the D7000 is for the audiophilic basshead, and the Pro 900 is for the bassheads between pure basshead to audiophile basshead. But damn, the Pro 900's bass impact is just SEXY.

I wish I had a DT990 Premium to compare it to, as I feel that would be it's closest comparison, soundstage and airyness aside. I feel DT990 fans who wanted a closed headphone, should look into the Pro 900. The Pro 900 is easier on ears due to less invasive treble. The bass on the Pro 900 is definitely the highest quality bass I've heard in a closed headphone other than the D7000. But hot damn, that Pro 900 has some amazing bass texture. Jesus. Lovely. Just don't feel that the Pro 900 is an audiophile level headphone. Just a damn good basshead can.

For those with the Pro 900s who contemplated on upgrading to the D7000, trust me, it IS a clear upgrade. The Pro 900 is nice, but the D7000 is a monster.

I'm pretty sure S-Logic is to blame for the recessed mids, as the Pro 2900 was a very well balanced headphone and it still had some noticeable mid recession. Wanna clarify that it's the 'low to mid' midrange that's recessed. The upper mids are pretty clean and not too recessed..

 

[Jay 23]

Quote:

 
You'll still need a mic. Cheapest way is to use the official Xbox headset and hang it around your neck so the mic stands up; for audio, hit your Guide button and go: Preferences > Voice > Voice Output and select "Speakers". With your setup, this will get chat audio into your headphones.
 

is there another option for a mic? i dont have my xbox headsets anymore 

 
 
Quote:

Well that depends on if your monitor has a headphone jack. Prolly not. What I do is probably going to be close to your setup. Cable to your display, audio out to an amp, amp to headphones.
Cable from Xbox to monitor (in my case a cheap Amazon Basics HDMI to DVI cable), audio out to an amp (some use the Xbox's included audio cables; I bought a cheap Xbox 360 audio dongle with an optical out and RCA out, and I connect the RCA to my FiiO E5 amp using a RCA-to-3.5mm headphone adapter), and finally I plug my headphones in. Then I wear a cheap mic around my neck and play game audio and chat audio through "speakers" in the Xbox preferences. That's probably just $12 in adapters plus the $25 of my FiiO, but it isn't as streamlined as plugging everything into the Mixamp, which is supposed to come with all the cables you need. Plus with the Mixamp you get the surround decoding.
I'm trying to hold off on buying a Mixamp as I graduated in December and I'm in a temporary living situation; once I have my own space, my receiver in storage will fill the role of the Mixamp in every way except for microphone duties. However, the Mixamp would've been perfect during college, and I probably would have held off on my receiver till I could afford something even higher end. Especially since it can double as a computer DAC. Just something to keep in mind.
Edit: that's a VERY nice monitor. Speakers when you just need near-field sound, HDMI and DVI to switch between computer & Xbox, 2ms response time, and audio outputs for Optical and Headphone. So you would just need to hook up your Xbox using HDMI, and plug your headphones into the 3.5mm jack, and you'll be in business. If you get the Mixamp or a receiver later, you can use the Optical out for surround sound and a discrete amp. Good choice in monitor, I'm jealous

 
Thanks for all of that man, and yea i picked up that monitor a year or two ago on black friday for about $130.
 
I prefer playing halo and cod on a smaller screen. 

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

I prefer playing halo and cod on a smaller screen. 

No kidding. I have a 65" TV that I use for gaming, but CoD just looks too damn big on it, and I have to sit considerably further on my bed than I normally do for everything else. Speaking of, I'm about to0 do my BLOPS test with the Pro 900.

edit: What? That 1st, 15th, 20th track on the CD that came with the Pro 900s sounds like binaural! AWESOME!

 

[Eric_C]

Quote:

is there another option for a mic? i dont have my xbox headsets anymore 

 
It might be possible to connect one direct to your Xbox controller--you'll likely need a 3.5mm-to-2.5mm convertor that is also stereo-to-mono. I'm not sure about specifics though, so don't go buying anything just based on what I'm saying.
Evshrug, how do you connect your mic to the Xbox?

 

[Hailin]

So I got my E09K/E17 combo, it is so weird. It has totally changed the sound of my DT990pros. The bass is completely different. It has gone from incredibly sloppy to super tight at first I thought missing but no it is still there it has just changed so much tonally. They don't even sound like the same headphones. Promised myself I wasn't going to do any more online shopping but it seems I may have to go to monoprice for some rca to3.5mm for my mixamp, unless I just use the E17 with the mixamp. 
Lots of testing to do. 
 
I now believe Beyers need an amp, it is so different.
 
Edit: I switched to lo bypass on the E17 to get rid of the double amping and the bass returned full force. Granted I can't use the E17's function but I can use 192k24bit I am sure that doesn't mean much of anything. But it is still very much different then it was. It goes deeper and still keeps that tightness overall. The whole overall sound is fuller. 

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

Told you! Beyers are no bueno without amping...

So update on the Pro 900s... oh yeah, I could TOTALLY get used to these for gaming. Clean sound, great positioning, comfort for hours (for me anyway), and VELOUR!

Looks like these are keepers.

Preliminary scores: (as in the very short time I have used them). These may and probably WILL change, once I have put them through the ringer.

Music: 8. That mid recession is noticeable, but we'll see. For bassheads, and v shaped fans, these would be an 8.5/9.

Competitive: 7.5 (not enough testing, but so far it's good. The bass is not obstructive in the least, but still not as detail whoring as the Pro 2900 due to the focus on bass. These are good for competitive, and if this is your only can, they will do just fine for all purpose gaming, I believe..

Fun: 9 Definitely top notch for fun. Might go up to a 9.5.

Comfort: 7.5. This is a score I'll give which is identical to the Pro 2900. That being said, PERSONALLY, the comfort is an 8 for both, but going by everyone else, the clamp and top padding may be an issue, so I'm keeping the score realistic.


Like the Pro 2900, I think they make better gaming cans, than music cans. I am going to blame S-logic for making music sound just slightly off. Considering the addition of virtual surround, S-Logic's effect was a non-issue, and may actually aid the cans for gaming in virtual surround.

I would also say, that so far, I think they are overpriced, and belong in the same price range as the popular mid-fi price range of $200-$300. $250 sounds like where I'd put them based on sound quality. Something that competes with the popular Beyers.

IF the DT990 Pro's bass didn't bother me as much as it did, I might be inclined on saying that those are on par with the Pro 900 as well. In fact, I believe the Pro 900 vs DT990 Pro is the BEST possible comparison, with the exception of closed vs open sound difference. Still, the combination of bass, gaming performance, comfort, velours, it being easy to drive, make the Pro 900 more logical for me compared to the others. The Beyers have a so-so comfort due to it's loose fit, and jaw discomfort. Q701 is lacking the bass I want overall and also cause me to reposition them frequently. HE-4 needs more power than I believe I have on hand. I was close to getting the HE400, but I just know that they'll be too warm for me.

Looks like the Pro 900 is my best possible alternative to the D7000, which is why I'm most likely going to stick with them. Wore them for a few hours, and they didn't get hot or needed repositioning. It's a win so far.

Oh yes, they are INCREDIBLY dorky looking when worn. Seriously, lol.