[Norbert]

Thread of the month. Great headphones will sound "good" on crappy sources. the audigy card (if it's a laptop card) has an optical line out. Plug a DAC into that and the sound on those grados will compete with most cdp's in my humble opinion. The headphones are good and can sound even better than you realize. So let the flaming begin.

 

[music_man]

i just thought of a great car analogy. "not everything is for everyone!"
i like the bmw m3 better than the m5. the m3 is well balanced(to me). the m5 has to much "cojones". however the m5 is far more prestigious. so you have to get the m5! forget that m3! lol.

music_man.

 

[kwitel]

Quote:

Originally Posted by music_man i just thought of a great car analogy. "not everything is for everyone!" i like the bmw m3 better than the m5. the m3 is well balanced(to me). the m5 has to much "cojones". however the m5 is far more prestigious. so you have to get the m5! forget that m3! lol. music_man.

M3 over the M5?
Have you lost your marbles my good man?
Who cares about prestige?
I want 500bhp with 10 cylinders!
Its about time someone changed this thread into a worthy conversation

 

[twc5964]

candg,I'm not sure if you use any form of an equalizer with your media player,however,if so....then lower the treble a little bit so as to tame the bright highs with your rs-2's and be sure to encode your mp3's to a higher bitrate such as 320.Good headphones such as those will reveal the sound from bad sources(low end soundcard,lousy engineered cd's etc...).As several others have stated and they need time to burn in.

Grado headphones will always have a bright sound..thats part of their signature. Some of us either love that or detest it. If your not pleased with them,return them and experiment with other brands and models. Be aware though,some brands/models have a higher ohm rating and might sound even worse thru your computer unamped. Look at the technical specs when researching headphones and pay close attention to the ohm rating 32,120,300,600 etc...most of those can sound decent but a headphone amp helps to drive them better. Lot's of folks have offered some great suggestions here regarding better soundcards etc....and Grado just may not be your cup of tea.Give it a week or two ok !

 

[Jahn]

this reminds me of me dragging my friend 1911 kicking and screaming into the hobby - weaning him off the v600 took a LONG time. i finally had to gamble and get him a RA-1 and RS-1 combo blind and hope he liked it - and if he did he would have to pay for it. good thing for me that he liked it (but over v-crap i would hope so!) i also scored him a K501, and he got a HD650 by himself.

but he STILL insisted on running his PDR-04's headphone out to the RS-1 and swearing that it sounded good! i finally convinced him to step up to an Apogee MiniDAC, and with the HF-1s he got, he really enjoyed it.


now he lent his apogee out for a week, and he just told me that he tried to go back to the PDR's headphone out and it sounded like crap. yes indeed, his ears are finally trained to enjoy a quality signal!

 

[Filburt]

Try an E-Mu 0404 or M-Audio Revolution. If you want to go cheaper, try a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz.

For playback, use something like foobar2000 and take some time to get familiar with the equaliser DSP plugin (it's included with the application) and tune the sound for your RS-2s to your liking.

Also, give them some time to burn in, and experiment with the different pads. You may also want to look into things like a headphone amplifier; perhaps even DIY (do it yourself) so you can add in bits (such as output impedance, filtering, etc.) to tune the sound for yourself.

 

[bcwang]

The answer to your problem, the Audigy 2 sounds like crap. How do I know? I own one. I had a turtle beach santa cruz from 5 years ago and it sounded much better. Once I switched to the audigy 2, music through the computer is really unbearable. So really, use a better source and your RS2 will sound much better.

 

[false]

Quick question. What sort of CD's are you using to listen to on your Dads receiver? Are they burns or original CD's?

The reason I ask is because I'm not too sure your mp3's are ripped very well. You said they were 1000kbps +/- 100kbps. No mp3's go up to 1000 kbps. FYI 320 kbps is the highest bit rate you can encode mp3's at. Do a quick test and check your bit rates. Here's an example using Winamp (www.winamp.com)...

A quick rule of thumb is...

- 128 kbps and lower sound not too hot.
- 128 kbps - 160 kbps is satisfactory
- 160 kbps - 192 kbps is decent
- 192 kbps and up is good with 320 kbps being very very good.

Even if you rip your mp3 back to CD the sound quality is lost. Someone said already garbage in garbage out. If the source audio files are bad you can't expect the Grados to save the day.

PS. Id take an Audi RS4 over either BMW any day

PPS. I know Foobar is better then Winamp.

 

[Norbert]

and yet...I cannot help but feel that I have been played.

 

[carlosgp]

Ok, you don't have the better of sources. Bad sound cards are a real pain with all this noise, interferences and thin sound (I don't know if this is your case). BUT... You don't need the best of the sources to know if you like your new phones. If you plug your RS2 in any other source you are having a good taste of what the RS2 sounds. Any receiver, cdp or ipod would serve. Wait for a reasonable break in period, but if after that you don't like your grados, I wouldn't be much surprised. I enjoy different profiles of sound and I like variety, but grados are not amongst my favourites. Too bright

. Having said that, I have to say I didn't like my HF-1s at first. After a short period of break in, I started to enjoy them a lot as a specialized headphones. Detailed sound, yes, but mellower highs and stronger bass. So give yours RS2s a chance.

About mp3: I would use vbr above any 160, 192 bit rate.

 

[cinnamonandgravy]

i rip at 1000kpbs +/- 100kbps. i use the wma format.

 

[Pete7]

Check again...Even for WMA Lossless the maximum bit rate is 940 Kbps.

 

[dhp]

play it from an actual CD player with an amp

using an original CD

 

[false]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cinnamonandgravy i rip at 1000kpbs +/- 100kbps. i use the wma format.

Im at a loss where do you see 1000kpbs +/- 100kbps????

This is what the import options look like for WMA...

If you've never changed your WMA import options, and my guess is you haven't, you're ripping at the default 128 kbps. Please check your WMA files.

 

[music_man]

kwitel, lol. that actually did make me laugh.

anyways, you cannot plug a appogee mini dac into an audigy and get good sound. the audigy will ruin any sound any way you slice it. a turtle beach or maudio(midiman) product is a big step up from a audigy. but still no match for a $500 all-in-one cdp and a $200+amp. well, depending on the cdp and amp that is. i am pretty sure this guy could actually go get a $500 cdp and $200+ amp that sux. haha. you want real sound out of a computer you gotta go get the stuff i mentioned several posts up. and sorry about your wallet if you do that!

music_man.