[JaVAvOx]

Hi, new here

 

[stefan2305]

Hey Everyone!
 
Stefan here! Been a fan of Head-Fi for quite some time, but realized I never actually made an account so I did last month
 
Been getting into music and audio much more lately and my collection is slowly but surely growing.

Still getting my bearings on how to set up profile page and stuff. Does anyone know where the supposed "Edit Community Profile" button is? Or how to access the "Items List" once you've added things to the "Own" or "Want" list?

Thanks!

 

[RedzillaR35]

Hi, newish here having been away for a few years (15 or so). Used to be into the DIY amp scene before moving into speaker based systems however a Tidal membership has revived my head-fi hunger and back for some exploring. Cheers!

 

[RCBinTN]

   
It would help people more to answer if you can tell us what you think you want or how you will use the files etc, otherwise you may as well do a search since so many threads here and elsewhere will give you the info. Sorry but your question just covers such a huge range of answers without knowing what you want etc.

 
I agree, it's very confusing what format to use.  After much research, I decided to use FLAC and ALAC that are both lossless formats.  I installed JRiver on my Mac and highly recommend it.  The only reason I use ALAC is it's recognized by Apple products, so could use the music on my iPad and iPod devices.  FWIW.
 
Cheers,
RCB

 

[Ray3rd]

Thanks for the replies. After much, much surfing last night and earlier today, I found no clear winner in what is better. Flac or wav. So from now on, downloaded music I will get in flac files and all cds copied will be wav files. Listening wise, I can hear no clear difference. As of now, I will be listening to music from my Fiio X5II and either my B&W c5 series 2 or my new AKG K7XX. After Christmas, things will be changing. Can anyone say Schiit !

 

[ve3fnd]

new chord mojo owner here

 

[BunnyNamedCraig]

Hi All,

My name is Robert , I have a small budget setup (Fiio Q1 DAC/AMP + Monk+/Tennmak Pro) and looking to step up in the audio game! I have joined head-fi to gain the experience of the members to help myself get more immersed in the audio world..

Well this is the place to do it. And by the way to all the newcomers, and i feel like I speak for most headfi'rs....

SORRY FOR YOUR WALLET!

 

[BunnyNamedCraig]

Howdy Andrés,

I actually got sucked into high-end audio thanks to my gaming PC. I wanted a 3D surround setup for gaming, and I saw a review that said "don't pay a bunch of money for a bunch of cheap drivers (like the Razer Kraken 7.1, which has 5 drivers per ear to approximate a 7.1ch speaker system)... pay a bunch of money for two really amazing drivers, then use virtual surround." Because of that recommendation, I ended up with the Sennheiser GAME ONE headset, which opened my eyes to a whole new world of amazing audio. From there I went on to the HD650's for my music. If I am playing multiplayer games I use the GAME ONE's for their amazing microphone. If I'm playing a single-player game, I plug in the HD650's.

To drive these headphones/headsets, I got the Sound Blaster E5, which doubles as a mobile DAC and headphone amp when I want to use my iPod Touch. With my desktop or laptop, it also provides amazing positional audio in 3D games. I've been accused of "wallhacks" and "esp" cheats (among others) simply because I can actually hear from where other players' footsteps are coming.

I would suggest that you choose headphones based on the music you listen to and your preference between warm or analytical audio. If you cover your music tastes, I think the way your games sound will fall in line. I chose Sennheiser for their neutral sound signature, but the HD650s because they at least lean towards the warm side. When I'm gaming, I use a completely flat EQ, but I will throw a V-shaped EQ in the mix for most of the music I listen to (lots of electronic stuff, industrial, and then an ecclectic Jackson Pollock-esque splattering of every other genre -- except classical or opera).

I can't recommend the Sound Blaster E5/ Sennheiser GAME ONE combination high enough, but if that is too far outside of your price range you can save some money by getting the Sound Blaster Omni Surround 5.1. It might not have as good a DAC, and the headphone amp isn't as high quality as the E5, plus it isn't mobile (it doesn't have a battery, so it always has to be plugged into a computer), but it does give you the same amazing positional 3D virtual surround as the E5. So you get great 3D gaming use out of it, and it can drive headphones with impedences up to 600ohms.

Hope this helps, and welcome to the audiophile fold!

P.S. - I recently discovered the Antlion ModMic 4.0, which lets you add an easily detachable boom microphone to your favorite pair of headphones. I haven't tried it out myself, but it does get good reviews. I may end up getting it for my HD650's and retiring the GAME ONE's if the mic is good enough for voice comms in game.

I totally recommend the modmic.... I have used it for my AKG K712 and now use it on a pair of Phillips shp9500. For any new comers that are big on gaming, I highly recommend taking a minute to look at

MadLustEnvys headphone gaming guide

This was pivotal in my interest in this hobby and also the reason why I went the headphone route for gaming instead of headsets.

 

[chrismini]

FLAC stands for free lossless audio codec. It's equal to ALAC which is Apple Lossloss Audio Codec. These files are partially  compress and when played your CPU un-compressed the file so unlike MP3's no data is lost. MP3's are garbage unless your using an iPod or phone with limited storage. Then there is wav and AIFF files that are not compressed at all. I use ALAC for mediocre recordings and AIFF for high quality recordings. There's is a bit on controversy on whether or not lossless recordings sound just as good as WAV of AIFF.  Keep in mind that WAV and AIFF use a lot of disc space. Lossless recordings are about 40% compressed. I say if you have the disc space, use WAV(Microsoft) or AIFF(Apple). Avoid MP3-LAME Even if you have limited disc space. Most computers some with a 1 terabyte hard drive. You can put 2000 CD's on a 1TB your hard drive. It's a good idea to purchase an external HUD to back everything up. A 1TB goes for about $60  Amazon.
Hope this helps.

 

[N0BOX]

FLAC stands for free lossless audio codec. It's equal to ALAC which is Apple Lossloss Audio Codec. These files are partially  compress and when played your CPU un-compressed the file so unlike MP3's no data is lost. MP3's are garbage unless your using an iPod or phone with limited storage. Then there is wav and AIFF files that are not compressed at all. I use ALAC for mediocre recordings and AIFF for high quality recordings. There's is a bit on controversy on whether or not lossless recordings sound just as good as WAV of AIFF.  Keep in mind that WAV and AIFF use a lot of disc space. Lossless recordings are about 40% compressed. I say if you have the disc space, use WAV(Microsoft) or AIFF(Apple). Avoid MP3-LAME Even if you have limited disc space. Most computers some with a 1 terabyte hard drive. You can put 2000 CD's on a 1TB your hard drive. It's a good idea to purchase an external HUD to back everything up. A 1TB goes for about $60  Amazon.
Hope this helps.

I thought I would go ahead and weigh in with a little bit more info since there have been some questions:

Basically the wav or aiff file types give you the absolute best sound quality you can get at the bit depth and sample rate of the digitally recorded file. FLAC and ALAC take a source file and shrink it slightly without throwing away any data, but you sacrifice a small amount of extra CPU power while playing the file because as you play it you are basically reconstructing the wav file in real time from the compressed FLAC/ALAC file (yeah I know that's not exactly how it works, since you are going to a PCM bitstream and not assembling it into the wav format, but close enough). It also takes a little while to convert an album to FLAC/ALAC, though most modern computers could probably do an album in a minute or two.

So, in essence, wav, aiff, FLAC, and ALAC files that are recorded at the same bit depth and sample rate (like 16/44.1 or 24/192) will produce the exact same sound through your headphones. The only thing to consider is whether your devices can play the format you choose, or if you have the space to store them. Luckily, converting from one format to another will not cause any loss of sound quality as long as you don't change from one bit depth and sample rate to another while you are converting between formats.

The wav and aiff formats are uncompressed, so a 16bit 44.1kHz file is storing 16 bits of data (that's two bytes) 44,100 times every second. That means a 4 minute long song takes 44,100 * 2 * 60 * 4 = 21,168,000 bytes = 20.2MB worth of hard drive space. When you go HiFi and get a file that is 24/96k, that same 4 minute song balloons up to 65.92MB (or 1.30GB for an 81min CD)

This is where an average savings of 40% is a huge benefit. If you are downloading an album from one of the popular HiFi music stores online, you definitely want to save 400MB worth of download time, but you also need to save room on your 32 or 64GB microSD card. If you are eating more than a GB of data per album you need to save as much space as you can on your mobile/portable devices.

Hope this helps!

 

[thaoxu240]

Hiiiiii. ive just joined today, at first only for the fiio m3's discussion thread, but now i feel like my eyes are getting burnt with all the cool headphones ;;-;;

 

[cloman61]

I need new headphones that will be okay with the iphone 6 plus. So far I have used Sony on the ears noise cancelling and they were ok. I would like to try over the ear headphones that I can use on my home system and my iphone. I'm not sure what to buy, so please let me know some options.

 

[Moys]

Hello,
 
I'm new here as well! I've been looking at threads for quite some times to look for advices when looking for the best gears for me, I've made my purchases mainly based on what I found here, it really helped me, thanks!

 

[N0BOX]

I need new headphones that will be okay with the iphone 6 plus. So far I have used Sony on the ears noise cancelling and they were ok. I would like to try over the ear headphones that I can use on my home system and my iphone. I'm not sure what to buy, so please let me know some options.

We would probably need more info to make any good suggestions:

Do you plan yo use an external DAC?
Do you want to use a headphone amp (this can often be included as part of the external DAC, but not all DACs have the amp)?
What kind of music will you be listening to, and do you prefer the music sound bass-heavy, treble-heavy, V-shaped, pronounced vocals, detailed, or neutral?
How much money do you have budgeted for headphones?

With so many choices out there, these questions should help pare down the options.

 

[blackcrunch]

I am newbies too but i have read this forum for a while. I used to use ATH-ES7 but it was broken.
Nice to see everybody here.