[Saren]

Very keen to order a pair of these, but I'm trying to save my pennies for a HD800

First world problems
 
Quote:

  The way you put it as "earned the right" shows that you are missing my point.
 
The audiophile terminology for what I am talking about is "high end" and "mid-fi".   Someone who just listens to music casually - 99% of people - will actually find that mid-fi gear sounds better to them.
 
However, most people don't even use mid-fi gear.  They use the Apple ear buds with their iPod, or their iPod in those little iPod cradles with two little cheap speakers.   So, if you let them listen to high-end gear, they will find it sounds better.   But they won't think that Alpha Dogs sound better than Sennheiser HD598 or AT M50.

Rubbish. I have had my parents, brother, girlfriend, friends and more notice many differences between a pair of Phillips L1 and a pair of HE500 before ~ in the favor of the HE500. None of whom had listened to anything beyond cheap earbuds, skullcandies and cheap micro systems. I have a buddy who owned a skullcandy hesh note differences with differing models and what they seem to be better for.
 
Even still I'd be amazed if Jeremy didn't hear a noticeable improvement with the AD over the M50.
 
Anyway, I had to have my 2c. Back to the alpha dogs I guess.

 

[JeremyR]

Thanks guys . Sorry we got off on the wrong foot.
 
And aamefford, your the first to apologize to my wallet
 
To be honest I don't really know enough to know what to spend. I know as with anything, as dollars go up you get diminishing returns. I would have no problems whatsoever dropping a grand on something if I even knew what I was buying (how it would sound compared to what I have).
 
I was given the advice early in this thread to just take the AD's when I get them, and go somewhere with some high end equipment, and listen to the options. I think that makes a lot of sense.
 
As for the sound card I have, if you don't know about the specific model, it's kind of cool. It's a headphone only kind of thing (doesn't even do true 7.1 or anything), with a built in headphone amp (when I switch to it, I can hear it click on).
 
 
Here is the info on it

 
 
I think I will listen to it for a while when I get the AD's, and then once I know how it sounds with my sound card, head somewhere with some source material that I know well, and try out some better equipment, so I have a better understanding of what my dollar will buy.

 

[koiloco]

^ i have the sound blaster equivalent to that card.  That's actually a very good sound card.  If you are not experiencing any noise issue, the DAC chip and HP amp on that card are actually really decent.  I had the external box for that series before.  If you do wonder what's out there for your AD and other ortho cans, a great place to start would be a DAC in $200 to $400 (though I am not how much better it will be compared to your sound card's built in DAC).  A dedicated HP amp however would be a very obvious improvements.  I am strong supporters of speaker amps for ortho HPs such as AD, HE500 ... The AD doesn't demand too too much pwr to sound properly like HE500, HE-6 but being an ortho, it doesn't hurt either.  In US, for $250 you can get the Emotiva Mini-X and an speaker tap adapter.  This will rock your world.  There's other cheaper speaker amps such as the Lepai or Topping that seem to get quite good feedback.   These range from $25 to $100 ... Don't get the HP bug or you will be really sorry... for your wallet that is. 

 

 

[JeremyR]

lol, yea, this can get expensive quickly. Thanks for the advice.
 
Being we have moved into amp discussion, I think it's good to move this discussion over to the amp section of the site, and let this thread return to everything Alpha Dog!
 
I will read a bunch over there, and post some questions. Thanks for the help!

 

[Sinocelt]

Wait until you get your AD before you even consider what DAC/Amp to use with it. In six weeks, new models (and reviews) will be out. The Geek, for instance.

 

[sunneebear]

  lol, yea, this can get expensive quickly. Thanks for the advice.
 
Being we have moved into amp discussion, I think it's good to move this discussion over to the amp section of the site, and let this thread return to everything Alpha Dog!
 
I will read a bunch over there, and post some questions. Thanks for the help!

 
Don't know about others but for me this is a non issue because the amp and DAC discussions are all about pairing with the AD's.

 

[sugarshark]

   
Don't know about others but for me this is a non issue because the amp and DAC discussions are all about pairing with the AD's.

 
same. i think good AD pairings at different price points is still a bit of an open question.
 
another option to consider could be the centrance hifi-m8, which has the nice bonus of being portable. A few of us are still waiting on these, i haven't seen many impressions of the combo yet, but hopefully more will appear in the coming weeks.

 

[ninjapirate9901]

Just put down a deposit for the AD's with a local dealer. Hopefully I will get them a couple weeks before Christmas

 

[Phonelaf]

Hi, does anybody compare the AD´s with the Beyerdynamic T90´s.
The T90´s are the only headphones I´m using at the moment, hoping the AD´s come close.

 

[miceblue]

The only thing I remember about the Beyer T90 is that it had a pretty prominent treble presence that was quite tizzy and I didn't like it right off the bat. A local Head-Fier did some measurements with it and there indeed is a pretty large treble spike.

The Alpha Dog may sound dull coming from the T90 in that sense, as well as having a more impactful bass.

 

[VandyMan]

 People who pay more than $300 for headphones are generally disappointed, because the differences are tiny subtleties that require training to hear.

 
Take a friend, who has the patience to really listen, to a store with a lot of headphones. Try not to coach them too much. You will be pleasantly surprised. I have taken friends to J&R and B&H to listen to headphones and have found that they can tell phones apart and have specific preferences across price ranges.

 

[JeremyR]

   
Take a friend, who has the patience to really listen, to a store with a lot of headphones. Try not to coach them too much. You will be pleasantly surprised. I have taken friends to J&R and B&H to listen to headphones and have found that they can tell phones apart and have specific preferences across price ranges.

 
Gah! You get to walk into B&H whenever you like? I hate you.

 

[kstuart]

 

   
Take a friend, who has the patience to really listen, to a store with a lot of headphones. Try not to coach them too much. You will be pleasantly surprised. I have taken friends to J&R and B&H to listen to headphones and have found that they can tell phones apart and have specific preferences across price ranges.

 
Gah! You get to walk into B&H whenever you like? I hate you.

People live in NY just for that - or to have a great pastrami sandwich whenever you like, etc. etc.
 
That costs $$ and then you have crappy NY weather too.  Pluses and Minuses.
 
Back to Dogs - the big question is what music do you listen to ?

 

[JeremyR]

  People live in NY just for that - or to have a great pastrami sandwich whenever you like, etc. etc.
 
That costs $$ and then you have crappy NY weather too.  Pluses and Minuses.
 
Back to Dogs - the big question is what music do you listen to ?

 
I live in rural New Hampshire, so nothing that cool around here. I do own a plane, so I can fly myself down to NYC in just over an hour, take a crew car, and get visit B&H. I have gone down a few times, but it's a lot harder this time of year, with the weather.
 
back to music... Let's see, what have I been listening to this week... Lorde, Macklemore, Imaging Dragons, Dave Mathews, OneRepublic, Andrea Bocelli.
 
Just spent the last few hours listening to the Heritage album from Opeth. I think I will add that to my rotation.
 
So kind of all over the place.

 

[miceblue]

Yeah, honestly I think the Mad Dog would be better suited for those artists. Imagine Dragons for sure would probably sound better with the more forgiving and bassier Mad Dog.
http://www.dr.loudness-war.info/details.php?id=31707

Well, maybe Andrea Bocelli would be better with the Alpha Dog. That epicness!

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nl9WMIPzd6w[/video]