[BunnyNamedCraig]

Hi guys

I go by c0nfuciu5 on the internet, but my name is Zach.

Been lurking the forums for a month or so now. I've always been what I would consider an audiophile, but never really dove in. I'm a musician and a big pc gamer. I always used to use cheap logitech gaming headsets so that I had a microphone to talk with. This always lead me to just listening to music and movies with those same headphones. I bought a pair of Sennheiser PC350's when I got my first job and that's when my eyes were opened. I initially bought them for comfort. My gaming sessions were getting longer and I needed something more supporting.

I was big in to Dave Matthews at the time (still am, with more variety now). The first note that rang through those headphones I realized what I had been missing for years. I had no idea that a pair of headphones could make such a difference.

These headphones were 150ohm. I had no idea what that meant, but all the reviews I read recommended an amplifier to help them. The first thing I noticed was i had to run my pc volume at 100% to get it where I wanted it, and with all my other gaming headphones I would run anywhere between 35 and 50%. I could get the volume where I wanted so I never looked in to amplifiers any further.

Fast forward about 8 years of countless set ups, buying better headphones, newer styles of the Sennheiser gaming series, other brands, and my most recent purchase and favorite pair, Sennhesier 598C. I really thought just switching headphones and buying better headphones was the only way to get better sound. The last few months I've run a Denon stereo amplifier so I can use external speakers and headphones whenever I want, all running through my PC. Its big. It takes up a lot of my desk, and I've had to repair it multiple times. At this point if the sound peaked high the right side of sound would cut out, and I am done with it. So I decided to start looking at headphone amplifiers, and realized that I've been missing out on something for a long time.

I came across this site and saw that there are some solid state ones, some hybrids, and all tube ones. I didnt want to blow a chunk of money at first and really not like the experience or it make a difference for me. With that being said, my first amplifier arrived yesterday (3/7). I went with the Nobsound NS-08E after reading through that thread on here for about 5 days.

At first it was super distorted and I was discouraged. Unplugged everything, new audio cables and reseated the tubes and bam. Crystal clear. I am blown away. Like, actually shocked. That experience I had years ago when I bought the Sennheisers not realizing it would make such a difference just happened all over again for me. The sound coming through this amp is just something I didn't know could be in existence. It seems so silly now that I type it and read it and actually have an amp, but I truly didn't think the device delivering the sound to my headphones would have that much of an affect on the sound. I've read everywhere to replace the tubes. I will do that, but I am genuinely enjoying the experience, even with stock tubes.

I look forward to my new found journey, the dumping of so much money, and hope to experience it with you guys!!

Thanks,
Zach

Very fun read! Those “a ha” moments when you get a huge smile on your face from music is the whole reason why I am in this hobby. I loved hearing that you got to experience from your amp and can. It’s the tops!

(Ps- what I highlighted in bold is something that is very under rated in this hobby. Make sure you ride the wave of good times as long as you can! The feeling to upgrade can come at you quick. Just make sure you are enjoying your self. Sounds like you are . By the way- I love DMB. I finally got to see Dave Mathews play live for the first time when Farm Aid came to Pittsburgh. It was him and Tim Reynolds and I was blown away... I need to see him and his band live now!)

 

[c0nfuciu5]

( By the way- I love DMB. I finally got to see Dave Mathews play live for the first time when Farm Aid came to Pittsburgh. It was him and Tim Reynolds and I was blown away... I need to see him and his band live now!)

I highly recommend doing it soon! They didn't tour last year, all though it was to make a new album. But they are all getting old. I don't see this going on much longer unfortunately

 

[Uncle_Leon]

Hi everyone,

Just as everyone here I am a music nerd and like to read and think about everything audio. I am particularly interested in participating in the discussion of the Sony NW-A45, my newly acquired mp3-player. I also have some synthesizers and a DJ-set at home. Nice to meet you all!

 

[WilliamBlake]

Hello to everyone, I'm from Rome and I'm a music addicted, I often read this forum so I decided to register. Cheers!

 

[Galahad Prog]

Hello, David here from USA, 57 year old musicfile (as opposed to audiophile)(but I do have a nice rig)! Glad to be back, was a member a while back. Peace!

 

[gzll]

Bigtime kabayan!

hahaha! nah, not bigtime!

 

[unnerv]

Hi unnerv here. I have been lurking for the last couple of months and have bought a couple of Hifimans since reading reviews here. Crossing my fingers that my 560's hold up, but worst case I have a 3d printer for when the inevitable happens.

 

[Technomancer]

I'm new here. Great place.

 

[TangoMan]

Good morning guys. Looking forward to becoming a member of the forum. From reading on this forum and a little research I’m now a proud owner of a FiiO Q5 to drive my Sennheiser HD800 headphones.

 

[arouc0079]

Good afternoon guys...

My name is Ari and I'm a from west borneo of Indonesia... Just getting into audio stuff, loves the musics..especially on the 70's era...and I wanted to say what a great site this is. It's already helped me in purchase some audio stuff...really great site!!

 

[Skmzatlanta]

Long time audio hobbyist. Started over 40 years ago with a pioneer amp and home built 3-way speakers. Built and veneered the cabinets and hand wound and soldered the crossovers. Head-Fi lurking got me hooked on exploring the purchase of a nice pair of headphones. The electrical engineer in me was fascinated by planar technology. First purchase was the Monoprice M300 in ears and a dragon fly black DAC. The separation and clarity of the instruments was ear opening. Just amazed how you could focus on one instrument and listen to it! As time went on the bass improved, not sure if was burn in or the brain started to adjust. Truly a listening experience. The overhear hangers broke and replacements could not be easily found so returned them as they were unusable. Ok, the Hifiman he-560 was selling for $350. Loved them, but the dragonfly had trouble driving them. After reading this forum I procured the Schiit Jotunheim. Nice amp that did the trick, my surprise was the silence, zero background noise! The 560’s did have a recessed upper midrange that was noticeable, but Hans Zimmer The Dark Knight gave me chills. Anyone one who likes orchestral music would truly enjoy these cans. Though I am a classic hard rock fan too. Reading the forums I demoed Sonarworks Truefi software which greatly improved the upper mids at expense of veiling the frequencies near the boost. It lost some of the music. Makes me wonder how well planar’s can handle equalization. Wish there was a slider to reduce the amount of equalization. By the by, I found another benefit to this hobby, my son who is a musician has begun to share the passion of head-fi-dom with me. He started mixing his music with these cans and his astonishment was how good the cymbals sound and of course the separation. Then the yolks broke, yes both. Made a repair and a few days later the other side broke, ugghhh really liked these. Back they go. During my research here I saw the post about the Ebay 20% off, so now waiting on the Hifiman Sundara to arrive. Hopefully found the right HP now and will not have to go back to the drawing board anytime soon. Thanks to all for the entertaining threads, the varied opinions and the help with purchase decisions.

 

[OccidentalEars]

Hello everyone. I'm a relatively new audiophile, only appreciating the differences between real and lossy soundwaves for about two years. I listen to a variety of music, from eurobeat to trance to symphonic power metal to baroque to J-pop (primarily anime soundtracks, really) to heavy metal to synthpop to (insert prefix here)wave to some 80s pop to...mostly things in these areas. Other forms of rock and metal too. I'm rather discriminating in the rap/hip-hop and mainstream pop realms outside of songs that have specific nostalgic value to me. I'm falling in love with 24/192 audio, and finding that some 24-bit vinyl rips have a different quality I appreciate. Still, I'm not ready/rich enough to brave going down the vinyl rabbit hole just yet.

I run everything (audio, movies, video games, etc.) out of my computer which is convenient for FLACs, and another reason I don't want to jump into vinyl to further complicate my life. Currently my setup is a pair of Bose Interaudio 4000 bookshelf speakers (I bought them for 50 bucks from a used computer store when I was a normie, but they're better than you'd think for something with the Bose name on it), plugged into an Onkyo TX-800 amplifier ($15.15 thrift store special) running through the integrated audio on my Precision T5500 workstation, which surprisingly sounds better than the X-Fi sound card I found in it.

For portable, I'm currently using a Fiio X5 first gen DAP, and have HD650 (Blue Dragon cable), ATH-50 and Koss MV1 headphones, plus a Senn CX870 IEM. A better DAP, a portable amp, better headphones and better IEM are on the wantlist, but not as high of a priority.

I'm looking to drastically upgrade my setup over the next 1-2 years, spending substantially more on my new audio setup than I ever have on a car. Because that's just what you do when you have taste and priorities.

 

[DiscoveryHead]

Hi all,

Like many, I am a recent convert to Head-Fi. I'm new here and have loads of questions. 20 or so years ago I started getting into the beginner audiophile area of things and enjoyed putting together a system for listening to CDs and Vinyl based upon a Pro-Ject 6 Turntable and Clearaudio Concept MM pickup, Rega Mira and Rega Apollo, Audioquest Slate bi-wire cabling and Mission 755 floor standing speakers. But of course, time marched on, iPods came along, I started consuming my music digitally for convenience. Eventually kids, iPhones and then music streaming services replaced my use of my Hi-Fi and it was all sold. Enter an era of Sonos, Geneva iPod speakers and a succession of lower-end headphones such as my Bowers and Wilkins P5, Shure E5C (too sore to wear) etc, all trying to get back to the clarity and musicality of what I used to enjoy.

I then read an article on a flight recently from a disgarded What HiFi that discussed HiRes music and how to get into it. So, grabbing a deprecated work laptop, I have put together the following set-up and have joined your community. In the future I will be looking at how to get a comfortable in-ear set-up that is very portable that can work with Tidal on my iPhone X and will have a ton of questions about that as well as suggestions on the best set-up for Roon for my desktop office set-up.


Head-Fi Desktop office Setup:

Transport :
Apple MacBook Pro 13” (mid 2014)
3Ghz Intel Core i7 with 16GB RAM
512 GB SSD

USB 3.0 direct attached Seagate 8TB (160MB/S) Music File Store

Roon 1.4 (Build 306) 64-Bit

Source:
All kinds of styles of music, from Rock, Blues, Jazz, Alternative, Indie to Classical - files encoded are a range of :
MP3 44.1 16Bit
AIFF 44.1 16Bit
FLAC 44.1 16Bit through to FLAC 192 24Bit, a few higher.
DSD 64.
TIDAL

DAC:
Chord Electronics Hugo 2
The Chord Company Shawline USB Interconnect using a USB Adapter : USB B Female to Micro-B Male

Headphones:
Sennheiser HD800S
The Chord Company Shawcan cables with HD800S termination (ordered but not received yet)

 

[bunbunwang]

Hi everyone. I'm new to the Head Fi and the audio community but I look forward to learning. Grown up using cheap Skullcandy and iPhone earbuds, not knowing anything else and thought i would be stupid if I spent more money on earbuds otherwise. But golly was I wrong. I had the opportunity to grab a pair of Senheisser HD558 for a relatively cheap price and the difference was night and day. While I love my Hd588, I want to upgrade it eventually.

 

[iWhits]

Hello! My name is Laurence and I started with the stock Samsung earbuds (cheap quality and stopped working in like a week) next was the Apple earpods (better quality) Then I have the Razer gaming headphones (I thought this was already good, but...) then the Master & Dynamic MH40 and lastly were the Oppo PM3s. I enjoy listening to Pop, RnB and songs with really good lyrics so I focus my headphones on either great bass or clear vocals. I hope I can learn more from this place. Especially with headphones in general. Thanks!