[z1ggy]

Ordered these because woot.com had them on a decent sale. I was in the market for a set of closed cans for work and home and these seemed to fit the bill. I was looking for something to hook up to my phone and desktop and wanted a warmer sound due to the fact I listen to a lot of melodic metal, rock, etc etc.
 
Well, needless to say, I got these in the other day and was super pissed at how lame they sounded. Maybe I'm spoiled by my $500 Focal speakers in my car but yikes these were bad. I also put them into my PC and I had my volume up to 100% on my board, plus 100% on youtube and they barely put out anything worth listening to. Thinking of selling/returning these.
 
Do they need an amp or am I picky..? At 32 ohms, I expected full sound at 75% volume or so....Not what I'm currently getting. I currently listen to AD700's for my music right now, but with them being open they aren't great for the office since it will bug other people. I thought I could save some coin and be somewhat satisfied with mid-fi cans, but maybe not. Should I forget these all together and just find a used pair of Fostex or something? I know one user here told me to grab the used pair of massdrop x00's for $290. I also really liked the Sony MDR-1A's in person, which is another possibility. 

 

[Monsterzero]

  Ordered these because woot.com had them on a decent sale. I was in the market for a set of closed cans for work and home and these seemed to fit the bill. I was looking for something to hook up to my phone and desktop and wanted a warmer sound due to the fact I listen to a lot of melodic metal, rock, etc etc.
 
Well, needless to say, I got these in the other day and was super pissed at how lame they sounded. Maybe I'm spoiled by my $500 Focal speakers in my car but yikes these were bad. I also put them into my PC and I had my volume up to 100% on my board, plus 100% on youtube and they barely put out anything worth listening to. Thinking of selling/returning these.
 
Do they need an amp or am I picky..? At 32 ohms, I expected full sound at 75% volume or so....Not what I'm currently getting. I currently listen to AD700's for my music right now, but with them being open they aren't great for the office since it will bug other people. I thought I could save some coin and be somewhat satisfied with mid-fi cans, but maybe not. Should I forget these all together and just find a used pair of Fostex or something? I know one user here told me to grab the used pair of massdrop x00's for $290. I also really liked the Sony MDR-1A's in person, which is another possibility. 

If you read the reviews of them on this site,at least two reviews mention a need for an amp>

Theyre 32 ohms and 97 sensitivity,so they wouldnt need a massive amp to drive them,but an amp of some kind would probably help.

Ive never owned or even heard them before,but my experience with all the AKGs ive owned they all improve dramatically with some extra juice.

 

[z1ggy]

Would the e10k be enough? Or for my phone, the Q1? Not spending a ton of money on an amp for $90 cans. 

 

[z1ggy]

repeat post by mistake

 

[VNandor]

I own a pair of these and I'm (was, not using them right now) overall satisfied with them.
 
If you don't get the desired loudness out of them you probably listen way too loud, or have really crappy amps.
Getting a better amp may improve the performance somewhat in my experience but it certainly won't turn them into a different headphone.
 
Lame sound isn't a too definitive description, what didn't you like about it?

 

[z1ggy]

  I own a pair of these and I'm (was, not using them right now) overall satisfied with them.
 
If you don't get the desired loudness out of them you probably listen way too loud, or have really crappy amps.
Getting a better amp may improve the performance somewhat in my experience but it certainly won't turn them into a different headphone.
 
Lame sound isn't a too definitive description, what didn't you like about it?

I do listen kind of loud yes. I go to a lot of live music, my ears are a bit desensitized. 
 
Yeah it's tough to say, the mids seem much more recessed than I'd have imagined, to the point in a few songs I sampled that I could barely hear the words. I compared them directly to the AD700's, which I guess isn't super fair, but they definitely sound like they need an amp (don't have one connected right now). The overall sound is just not vibrant, it feels muddy and uninspiring. I listened to some Sony MDR-1A's in Best Buy last weekend, hooked up just to my phone, and I was tempted to buy on the spot. They sounded awesome. Granted, that's a $300 set vs a $90 one. 
 
I probably am being a bit snobby, because for $90 I suppose this quality isn't bad. I pretty much got what I paid for. What amp will do the trick to really boost these?

 

[VNandor]

  I do listen kind of loud yes. I go to a lot of live music, my ears are a bit desensitized. 
 
Yeah it's tough to say, the mids seem much more recessed than I'd have imagined, to the point in a few songs I sampled that I could barely hear the words.

I don't know what to say at this point. I have never had problems with that even if I used the crappiest bundled earbuds I have with really bad ~10 years old "stick" mp3 players.
Looking at the specs of the AD700 and K545, they should be equally easy to drive. Do you use the same volume settings with the AD700?
 
Getting a dac/amp could improve the performance but you could be disappointed with that as well because nowadays not all onboard audio chips are garbage. It really depends. You may end up liking your AD700 even more while still disliking the K545, you may find it a total waste of money, whatever... you won't know it until you try it.
 
So yeah, worst case scenario you'll end up returning both the headphones and the dac/amp best case scenario you'll like both of them. After all it's up to you to decide if it's worth the money and effort to try it.
 
Personally, I would try to get a nice dac/amp combo and see how much it improves the sound. That way I would know it first hand if the headphones need a better amp. I have plenty of free time, I can afford a 100$ dac/amp (and could get back my money anyways) and I'm generally interested in these stuff but again that's just me.
 
However you can still deal with your situation easily, you wanted a headphone you like but you didn't like it so you return them. Again it's really up to you.

 

[z1ggy]

I found out the "problem" lol. I noticed when listening to stereo only track, only one ear was playing...I looked at headphone lead...wasn't fully plugged in. Gave it a big ol push and heard a click. Cans came to life and almost blew my eardrums out. 
 
Now these things rock! Little less bass than I'd like, but for $90 I'm definitely happy now. I feel like such a *******. I may still amp these with an e10k, my coworker has one so if they sound even better with it, I will purchase one. Thanks head-fi community for your input, as always. 

 

[Monsterzero]

  I found out the "problem" lol. I noticed when listening to stereo only track, only one ear was playing...I looked at headphone lead...wasn't fully plugged in. Gave it a big ol push and heard a click. Cans came to life and almost blew my eardrums out. 
 
Now these things rock! Little less bass than I'd like, but for $90 I'm definitely happy now. I feel like such a *******. I may still amp these with an e10k, my coworker has one so if they sound even better with it, I will purchase one. Thanks head-fi community for your input, as always. 

LOL