[indie_big_wig]

Hi all, this is my first post despite being a member and perusing the forums for over 3 years! During that time I've used the forum's infinite wisdom to purchase initially some E2Cs, which I was delighted with at first but, in line with the forums motto, decided I could afford better and purchased a pair of SE530. The 530s have blown me away, they're my first taste of high end audio equipment and they bought me immense enjoyment and I'm probably getting 3-4 hours of use out of them a day and listening to far more music than I used to, particularly just listening to the music and not doing other stuff, so they seem like a bargain now!

However, much as I love the 530s for portable audio I can't help but feel that you can't call yourself a real audiophile until you've got yourself a full size pair of cans and being the sheep that I am, I decided I want in!

I've been reading a lot about the HD650 but I get the impression I'm going to need an amp, possibly a DAC as I'd be using my puter as a source and in an ideal world get the buggers recabled. This all seems like its going to cost a lot of money, well considerably more than my 530s and I thought they were pretty expensive but I can probably afford to take a plunge.

What I would like the help of the forum with though is understanding what I can expect in terms of the sound from getting a decent full size pair of cans compared to some high quality IEM. I imagine the soundstage is going to be significantly increased and as such it'll be a lot easier to pick out more of the detail but what else is likely to be going on that makes full size cans so special?

I'm not really after recommendations for cans, I mentioned the 650s purely as an example I just want to understand what makes big cans so much better than IEMs before I flash the cash and, although this may seem contradictory to not asking for recommendations, how much people would suggest I need to spend to see real improvement form the 530s, my inital estimate so far is probably double eg. HD650 (£200) and an amp (£200).

Incidentally, the reason I've never posted before is because everybody seems to ask the same questions over again and I've found searching the forums gives you all your answers, but I couldn't find a question like this so I hope this is a pretty interesting question to ask!

Peace

Dom

 

[cakeman]

HD600. Its a very neutral clean sound. very well balanced.
To bad I can't afford x.x

and very comfy!

 

[thread]

What full-size cans bring is exactly what you said -- soundstage. While IEMs feed the waves directly into the ear drum, waves from full-size phones have to bounce around through your outer ear first, which has an effect upon the sound that is something our brains are really accustomed to.

And generally speaking, full-sizers will just perform better than IEMs in terms of extension, detail, and BIGness/authority of the sound.

Welcome back to Head-fi. Sorry about your wallet.

 

[cakeman]

I suggest the 600's before the 650's.
They nearly are the same...
And for your first full size can go for the 600

 

[rockbottom]

I would say that soundstage, and extension will be affected most. Dynamic cans will be able to provide much more bass than most IEMs ever could. Also, comfort will most likely improve, and everything will just sound a lot more natural in general.

I think the OP said he's not really looking for recommendations.

 

[indie_big_wig]

Cheers rockbottom, I'm not looking for recommendations (yet) I'm still trying to decide whether to enter the world of full sized cans or not as it looks pretty pricey and I'm really happy with the se530s. However, I imagine there's something about full sized cans that makes them them the equipment of choice for everyone on head-fi as opposed to IEM and was hoping someone could put it into words as I'm not really able to demo anything.