[sounddude140300]

Hello all, this is my first post ever so pardon any mistakes. anyway i have been dying for answers i just have to know. a couple weeks back i bought sennheisser ie60 IEM's for around $200. I thought they sounded pretty amazing and the bass was the best out of my collection of 10 different headphones.

I went on a 13 hour long coach journey to somewhere else and clumsily left them at home, so i just went to the store at the place and bought some $20 unnamed headphones to listen to. And i was shocked, Baring in mind i am passionate about bass and sound quality these sounded just as good as the ie60's . The sound quality granted was a little muddied compared but there was so much more bass i thought i must of been dreaming.

Btw i use an app called poweramp on my player (phone) because my phone's jack gives out barely any power because it's a budget smartphone, this may be the cause i don't know. I was just wondering if the sennheissers won't perform well because of the low power or do i need an external amp as my phone does not give much to the headphones?

Any suggestions wound be much appreciated, thanks in advance

 

[chickennuggets]

I'm sure they're of lower quality and I'm not a genius by any means, but I suppose that the budget pair is just easier to drive. They need less power.

 

[toshi00]

It could just be that you simply prefer the unbalanced signature of the cheaper pair?  taste is subjective, even where it concerns things like clarity and balance.

 

[sounddude140300]

i'm 14 and i want to be a sound technician and i sank a lot of saved money into the sennheissers. i'll try a headphone amp see if that increases the lows and mainly clarity. not too much not to little but commonly with some headphones you can't hear the really deep frequencies of the track. Also the sennheissers distort easier which seems to suggest the possibility of not enough power, would getting a headphone amp help?

 

[MindsMirror]

An app is not able to make your phones headphone jack produce more power. It may change some EQ settings and perform dynamic compression which could make it appear louder on average, but the peak power will not be increased. Maybe the more expensive, more difficult to drive headphones need to rely more heavily compression to get enough loudness, which could cause them to sound worse. I may be wrong, I haven't used that app but if you say you are using it to get more power then I assume it must use a compressor to sound louder.

 

[sounddude140300]

I presume the app just allows you to makes certain frequencies louder, mines is set in a shallow non perfect u-shape situated in the upper section of the 10 band equalizer and the bass nob is turned to 75% and treble 100% and pre-amp 45%. back to my question, would an external headphone amp help?

 

[Head Injury]

Are you using Poweramp's EQ to raise the volume? If so, don't. You shouldn't use digital volume control to raise volume, as if the music peaks near the 0 dB limit you can clip the peaks of the signal. Always EQ down, not up, unless you're reducing the volume first to compensate (like with ReplayGain or your phone's volume control.)
 
Don't get an amp unless you can't get enough volume out of your phone. A lot of the time audiophiles will tell you even easily driven headphones need an amp to "unlock their full potential" but that's simply not true. Amps increase volume and they create noise and distortion; that's pretty much it. The only sound quality gains to be had are from increased volume, reduced output impedance for low impedance headphones, and less noise/distortion than your previous amp (in this case your phone, which is probably quite competent in this regard.) There's always exceptions, but it's usually better to spend money on better headphones than a better amp 

 
There's hundreds of reasons why you may have liked the budget headphones more:

• You're confusing lots of bass quantity for bass quality. Objectively the bass may be much less accurate and detailed, but it's just louder so it sounds better on first listen. With more time, you may notice the lack of quality.
• You're listening louder, and more volume = better perceived sound quality almost all of the time (very possible if they're easier to drive)
• Aural memory is awful. Really awful. We forget the exact details of how something sounds within seconds of hearing it. Not only that, but what we hear is influenced greatly by biases. It makes impartial comparisons of headphones really hard. If you convince yourself the budget headphone sounds better, it's going to keep sounding better. Listen to it exclusively for a while, then listen exclusively to the IE60 for a while, and switch back. For me, the strengths and flaws of a headphone have always been much more noticeable after I've spent a week with another one.
• You just like them more. This is the best ending. Not everyone needs or wants expensive headphones. Be thankful, and run while you can.

 
and many more.
 
In any case, hype the hell out of these while you can. Lots of gullible people looking for the next giant killer will buy them up. This is a golden opportunity to create the next Flavor of the Month!

 

[MindsMirror]

I presume the app just allows you to makes certain frequencies louder, mines is set in a shallow non perfect u-shape situated in the upper section of the 10 band equalizer and the bass nob is turned to 75% and treble 100% and pre-amp 45%. back to my question, would an external headphone amp help?

Yes, I'd say an amp would most likely help. The right way to EQ is to reduce some frequencies instead of boosting the others. Again, I haven't used the app so I don't know if your settings will boost any frequencies, or if you're already doing it properly and 100% treble corresponds to a neutral setting.
 
If your phone's jack is not loud enough with neutral EQ settings, then you need an external headphone amp.

 

[sounddude140300]

Thanks very much for this answer. very very very informative. the other replies were good aswell. i am mainly looking for loud powerful and very deep,controled and responsive bass without reducing sound quality, which falls into bass quantity. so best not get an amp i guess

 

[MindsMirror]

Thanks very much for this answer. very very very informative. the other replies were good aswell. i am mainly looking for loud powerful and very deep,controled and responsive bass without reducing sound quality, which falls into bass quantity. so best not get an amp i guess

I don't believe that is the right conclusion. Head Injury was saying that you don't need an amp if your phone is already loud enough. But didn't you say you phone is not loud enough without the Poweramp app, which uses EQ to digitally increase the volume? If so, the EQ settings are reducing the sound quality, and the only way to get enough volume or bass quantity without reducing sound quality is to get an amp.

 

[sounddude140300]

sorry for the confusion, my phone does go loud enough, in fact really loud but without the app the sound quality is shockingly bad and sounds like i'm using $2 headphones compared to when i use both headphones on my brothers ipod 4th gen and on my laptop.

(the senny's sounds emmence+no distortion at like 95% volume and much better than the $20 headphones when on my laptop, i presume it's cas of the extra power, hence why i asked about the amp).

with the app i sounds so much better and the quality is amazing on my phone but distorts when you go above 60% volume but i want to go louder than 60% without the sennheissers distorting. what i'm trying to ask is do my sennheissers need an amp as i heard that IEM'S in this price region need an amp to perform at it's greatest. so basically do the sennheissers sound not as good because there harder to drive/run and need an amp to release it's full potential?:confused_face_2:

 

[zunehdrocks]

Is this your first relatively balanced iem?
Are you sure you're getting a good seal? (Try different tips)

 

[sounddude140300]

yes i'm certainly getting a good fit, as i said before "the senny's sounds emmence+no distortion at like 95% volume and much better than the $20 headphones when on my laptop, i presume it's cas of the extra power" the highs are crisp and the lows are deep bold and powerful, i was just wondering if the amp could replicate the noise produced from my laptop?

 

[bobby12]

Looks like you just need to sell the ie60 and get something really bassy.

 

[sounddude140300]

what would you recommend? i have 596 dollars(summer jobs and allowance) saved up in my headphone fund.