[jipan]

I laughed hard at this...
 
Quote:

My mom. "Something's wrong. I hear two different sounds."

 

 

[MattTCG]

My daughters friend got beats for Christmas. She came to our house one day and I let her listen to my d2k, she says, "wow those must be really expensive!" 

 

[veyrongatti]

Quote:

My daughters friend got beats for Christmas. She came to our house one day and I let her listen to my d2k, she says, "wow those must be really expensive!" 

i thought they cost more then the solos.....
 

 

[MattTCG]

Mine cost $210 shipped, but the point was that she thought they sounded much better, more expensive than hers.

 

[zaodriver]

I already know that I am in for the long haul. I heard differences in cables in my guitar amp and I want hear how tubes sound in a home stereo/headphone amp. I am a firm believer that every part of the chain within sound reproduction can help/hurt/neutral the output. It is a matter of what you perceive as correct. I only EQ'd the system (before the arrival of an actual headphone amp) because, on a basic level, the sound card simply can't power my headphones properly. The audio signal had all of the information necessary but the electrical current was simply not dialed in to power headphones. After the amp arrived, I realized how distorted the signal was. Without the amp, it was the closest I come get to forcing the headphones to sound right due to improper power. With the amp, music sounds much more correct, balanced, and effortless. There is definitely an emergence of details within songs that I haven't heard before. I am now catching the bug to just obtain as much music as possible to hear subtle nuances that I hadn't heard before. I am sure I can get at least one guy in my office to get into the hobby. He is a 50ish guitarist that is big into 70s rock. He painted his guitar room in his house pink and purple: pink for Pink Floyd and purple for Deep Purple. I know he would appreciate a good headphone since he can't just crank a giant stereo system due to roommates.
 
I haven't heard Beats, Skullcandy, or Bose headphones. I have only heard the few crappy early pairs from the 90s, my junior year roommate's Sennheiser HD 497, my Grados SR60s and SR225s. After hearing the Senns and Grados, I don't know if I could ever go back to listening to crap headphones again. The frequency imbalance always led to fatigue and "an itch" to fix whatever was wrong with it. I am always shocked to hear that some people spend hours with their $10 headphones but won't even think about upgrading, yet a new fashionable/hot item comes out and they dump nearly $500 into it....just to have the item used once and never used again.
 
To Leckel: agreed with your outlook on society. Most people think that if the item isn't at their nearby popular store, it isn't good. Just because (oddly popular yet under-performing stereo system company) is in every Best Buy, doesn't mean that it can outperform a real system. For the love of humanity, they make a clock radio for $300 and $500. A clock radio. A (expletive) clock radio. When will people wake up? This is advertising and manipulation of the public at its best. To the company: Kudos. You did exactly what you should do as a company. I hate your products, but, as a business for profit, I have the utmost repect. To the public: shame on you for not seeing past the smoke and mirrors.

 

[ZetsuBozu0012]

$120 for the AKG Q701s (had some Amazon credit) and $140 for the FiiO E17. I doubt I'll purchase anything else for a longgggg time (that's why I jumped straight to the Q701s). I just had to spoil myself with something nice after my first paycheck with my new job arrived, though.
 
They arrived with 20 hours of burn-in, I ran them for two days straight in a desk drawer, and I have just been using them normally ever since. They are probably approaching 100 hours of use. I think I detected the biggest sound difference when I got home on day two of the continuous burn-in (at approx. 60 hours). The bass had definitely gained some impact.
 
At first I was skeptical about the amp/DAC because I'd spent more on it than on the headphones, so I did some A/B testing... Yeah, my laptop's sound card isn't really up to the task of resolving all the chaos contained within a song such as "Moanin" by Mingus.
 
Quote:

hows your wallet going?

Quote:

Also, it's kinda cool that you jumped straight to the Q701s. The thing is though, those are the kind of cans that need a few hundred hours of burn-in before they sound their best. If you think they're awesome now, check in with yourself in about half a year and compare notes XD

Lucky that you got cans that agree with your taste in music, by the way. When you get that high up the upgrade ladder, spending that much money on headphones with a sound sig that doesn't match your music preferences is pretty much the worst thing that can happen to a newbie audiophile.
 
P.S.
If no one's said it yet:
Welcome to Head-Fi, and sorry about your wallet. 
 
 
... I've always wanted to say that

 

... Unless you;re planning on getting an even better amp, that is. Fiio has great value for the price, but they're still technically "entry-level" when compared to the like of Schiit, Woo Audio, and Little Dot, just to name a few of the more well-known brands. If you want to keep your wallet from emptying out, remember to never audition a good amp with your cans

Good luck!

 

[doggybags]

It's even funnier if you had seen the confused look on her face. 
 
From apple stock earbuds to a Sennheiser HD650 coupled with a Shaling PH3000 Amp. It was priceless
Quote:

I laughed hard at this...
 


 

 

 

[wilky61]

Well, now you have me wondering about a few things...
 
1.) Exactly how do you mean "better amp"? Better in terms of output power or better as in a vacuum tube amp?
 
2.) I'm presuming that sometime in the next year, FiiO will release an E19 amplifier to dock with the E17. Let's presume at this point that it's an improvement over the E9 similarly to how the E17 improved upon the E7. Is this what you have in mind when you say "better amp," or again are you suggesting that eventually I ought to expand my horizons beyond FiiO?
 
3.) With the Q701s as my cans, why would upgrading my amp to a more powerful unit improve my audio experience? The E17 outputs approx. 200 mW of power to my Q701s; I typically use it at the medium gain setting and at a medium volume level (usually between 30-45 or so). Beyond that, the sound would be uncomfortably/dangerously loud. So my intuition tells me that I'm not even using the E17's full amplification potential since I use pretty middle-of-the-road gain/volume settings, and my intuition also tells me that I would have to use very low gain/volume settings if I upgraded to a more powerful amp (say, with an output of 2-4 Watts). Can you help me to understand better? Thanks much.
 
Quote:

... Unless you;re planning on getting an even better amp, that is. Fiio has great value for the price, but they're still technically "entry-level" when compared to the like of Schiit, Woo Audio, and Little Dot, just to name a few of the more well-known brands. If you want to keep your wallet from emptying out, remember to never audition a good amp with your cans

Good luck!

 
 

 

[ZetsuBozu0012]

 
Quote:

Well, now you have me wondering about a few things...
 
1.) Exactly how do you mean "better amp"? Better in terms of output power or better as in a vacuum tube amp?
 
2.) I'm presuming that sometime in the next year, FiiO will release an E19 amplifier to dock with the E17. Let's presume at this point that it's an improvement over the E9 similarly to how the E17 improved upon the E7. Is this what you have in mind when you say "better amp," or again are you suggesting that eventually I ought to expand my horizons beyond FiiO?
 
3.) With the Q701s as my cans, why would upgrading my amp to a more powerful unit improve my audio experience? The E17 outputs approx. 200 mW of power to my Q701s; I typically use it at the medium gain setting and at a medium volume level (usually between 30-45 or so). Beyond that, the sound would be uncomfortably/dangerously loud. So my intuition tells me that I'm not even using the E17's full amplification potential since I use pretty middle-of-the-road gain/volume settings, and my intuition also tells me that I would have to use very low gain/volume settings if I upgraded to a more powerful amp (say, with an output of 2-4 Watts). Can you help me to understand better? Thanks much.
 
 
 

1.) Actually, I was referring to the latter; I suppose you could attribute my use of the word "better" to my preference for warm sound signatures. Then again, there are a few solid state amps (the HeadRoom line comes to mind rather quickly) that really excel.
 
2.) Hmm, good point. I'm actually debating on whether or not I should buy a portable amp now or save up a bit more for a desktop one in the near future. Anyway, I wasn't saying that you ought to expand beyond FiiO (come to think of it, I'm not sure about the usage of the word "expand", but that's probably just the anal-retentive, grammar nazi side ofme speaking). Rather, I was saying that there could be other amplifiers that pair well with the Q701s; just because an amp is expensive, don't expect it to make every headphone you own sound better. It's somewhat like a mix-and-match process where you try to offset the things about your headphone's sound signature you don't like and emphasize those that you do. 
 
For example, the Q701s are sometimes said to have, and I quote, an "anemic bass". Since I've yet to audition them myself, I'll just use that statement as a case example (one of the first things you learn is that everyone's got an opinion about everything, and that it's up to you to sort it out). So if, for example, you find the cans to be perhaps a bit too bright-sounding for your tastes, you pair them with a dark-sounding amplifier to balance out the sound. And again, if you don't find it bright enough, then you have but to find a bright-sounding amplifier to plug into. 
 
3.) I'm not going to pretend that I'm very knowledgable about amplifiers and such (I'm pretty much a newbie myself), so I'm just offering up my opinion. Higher-tier amplifiers are said to increase resolution, soundstage, as well as imaging, provided that both the source as well as the headphones are on par with the amp. Basically, amplifiers are not only used to increase the volume of sound (the term is just a bit misleading, yeah?), but also the quality. 
 
That's about as much as my knowledge extends, at least the information that is relevant to your question. Hope I was able to help, even if it was only to give my opinion. 
 
Cheers!

 

[jipan]

That a steep upgrade, a very steep one. What an evil son you are! )
 
my mom didn't even want to put my headphones, she is very ticklish lol
Quote:

It's even funnier if you had seen the confused look on her face. 
 
From apple stock earbuds to a Sennheiser HD650 coupled with a Shaling PH3000 Amp. It was priceless


 

 
 

 

[genclaymore]

 
Quote:

 
1.) Actually, I was referring to the latter; I suppose you could attribute my use of the word "better" to my preference for warm sound signatures. Then again, there are a few solid state amps (the HeadRoom line comes to mind rather quickly) that really excel.
 
2.) Hmm, good point. I'm actually debating on whether or not I should buy a portable amp now or save up a bit more for a desktop one in the near future. Anyway, I wasn't saying that you ought to expand beyond FiiO (come to think of it, I'm not sure about the usage of the word "expand", but that's probably just the anal-retentive, grammar nazi side ofme speaking). Rather, I was saying that there could be other amplifiers that pair well with the Q701s; just because an amp is expensive, don't expect it to make every headphone you own sound better. It's somewhat like a mix-and-match process where you try to offset the things about your headphone's sound signature you don't like and emphasize those that you do. 
 
For example, the Q701s are sometimes said to have, and I quote, an "anemic bass". Since I've yet to audition them myself, I'll just use that statement as a case example (one of the first things you learn is that everyone's got an opinion about everything, and that it's up to you to sort it out). So if, for example, you find the cans to be perhaps a bit too bright-sounding for your tastes, you pair them with a dark-sounding amplifier to balance out the sound. And again, if you don't find it bright enough, then you have but to find a bright-sounding amplifier to plug into. 
 
3.) I'm not going to pretend that I'm very knowledgable about amplifiers and such (I'm pretty much a newbie myself), so I'm just offering up my opinion. Higher-tier amplifiers are said to increase resolution, soundstage, as well as imaging, provided that both the source as well as the headphones are on par with the amp. Basically, amplifiers are not only used to increase the volume of sound (the term is just a bit misleading, yeah?), but also the quality. 
 
That's about as much as my knowledge extends, at least the information that is relevant to your question. Hope I was able to help, even if it was only to give my opinion. 
 
Cheers!

 

Yea, which why I like having headphone amps with op-amp sockets, so I can talior it to my ears or gear. Without having to get rid of the headphone amp and go thru ones til i find one i like.

 

[DarkSleip]

 
Quote:

 
 

Yea, which why I like having headphone amps with op-amp sockets, so I can talior it to my ears or gear. Without having to get rid of the headphone amp and go thru ones til i find one i like.

you should say "so I can tailor it to my brain" because op-amp rolling is bias if they have specs under 2+ zeros, they only thing they will ever do is spend more power

 

[Nightowl217]

yay.
Ive finally read this whole thread.
I feel... fulfilled.

 

[ZetsuBozu0012]

 
Quote:

yay.
Ive finally read this whole thread.
I feel... fulfilled.

 
How many times did people post non-headphone related stuff?

 

[PLUSSOUND]

Everyone who has listened to my Triple.fi10 Pro are amazed by the clarity in sound. Now, they want their own pair.