[chris1729]

Hi, all.  I've been lurking on the forum for a few days getting ready to buy my first set of "real" headphones.  It's been informative, but I can't get past one nagging question I have.  I'll be using the headphones primarily at the office, plugged into my work laptop, listening almost exclusively to Internet-streaming audio.  So my question is this: is it possible to run into quality overkill?  Will there really be much of a difference between a $100 set of headphones and a $200 set if they're both plugged into a 64k Pandora stream?  GIGO?  At what point does signal quality put a hard limit on performance?  I've read posts in which other members describe getting near-CD quality from streaming stations, but it usually involves a quality DAC or something.
 
Of course, I'd also welcome any recommendations for actual headphones.  I'm looking for:

1. Closed-back
2. Full-sized, over-ear
3. $100 to $150.  Could go over if it will be worth it.
4. Not sure about wired versus wireless.  I was giving the Sennheiser RS160/170s a hard look, but probably should stay wired for this first purchase.

 
Thanks for your opinions!

 

[billybob_jcv]

That's a complicated question. It is certainly true that the sound will be no "better" than the weakest link in the chain. A scratchy old 8-track tape is still going to sound like a scratchy old 8-track tape when it is played on $20,000 worth of audio gear.

HOWEVER, there is a difference between "better" and "different". You can *change* the sound without necessarily making it "better" in the grander sense. It really depends on how you define "better". For example, you might be currently using a headphone that lacks bass but has excellent treble. If you replace that with a headphone that has excellent bass, but lacks treble, is that better? The answer is: It depends on what *you* like!

Value is also a personal judgement that only you can make. People spend thousands to get a slightly different flavor of sound than what they already have, and it's debatable whether that slight difference was an improvement or a reduction in "better".

If you are going to be listening from your laptop, then what you need is an efficient, easy to drive headphone. What kind of music do you like? Bassy? Smooth?

 

[Blastomussa]

I think the distortion from bad headphones is going to be magnitudes worse than the signal integrity from streamed music. Therefore buying decent quality headphones should be a big step up regardless of your music source. Specifically answering your question, you can hit "quality overkill" in a few different ways. First, some of the nicer headphones are either high impedance or inefficient, or both. Therefore they will suffer a bit if you plug them directly into a laptop headphone out - max volume, bass response, overall presentation...may all be less than optimal. You will want to buy headphones that are directly or indirectly designed for portable use (lower impedance and higher efficiency) so that your computer can drive them sufficiently. Secondly,you may find that highly detailed headphones sound equal to or worse than less resolving headphones given low quality streaming and recordings. A primary example of this would be HD800 vs HD650, the HD650 being the less expensive and potentially better headphone for low quality music.
 
I used a pair of Sony SA5000's at work for over a year while streaming Pandora before I got the Spotify premium account and I thought they sounded amazing compared to anything else I had heard at the time.
 
To answer your second question, I don't think the difference between a $100 and $200 headphone is going to be quite clear. At that price point, the difference might be aesthetics and marketing rather than sound quality. Try to base your choice on perceived/reviewed build quality and sound quality rather than the price.
 
And to respond to your comment on DACs: I don't think a high-quality DAC is going to help here. Given a high resolution digital signal, a good DAC will be able to reproduce the original analog signal with near perfect integrity. But since you are supplying the DAC with a low resolution digital signal, it can only perform to the level of supplied data.

 

[manbear]

It really depends. 

An absolute garbage stream is going to sound bad on the best equipment. A DAC isn't going to make it better either. 

I listen to youtube at work on my thinkpad all the time, using B&W P7 headphones which are $400. Yes, the P7s do sound better on my DAC/ amp at home but there is no quality overkill on good youtube videos. It sounds great and I'm honestly missing maybe 5 or 10 % compared to my at home setup with lossless files, DAC, amp, etc. 

For you, headphones in the $100 to $150 range will absolutely not be overkill using streaming sources. You may find that quality streams (like spotify premium or youtube HD) will sound better than, say, pandora free, but even a 64k stream on good $100 headphones will sound worlds better than the same stream through cheapo earbuds. Sure, all other things equal, the same headphones will sound better using a DAC, amp, and lossless files but the difference is not huge. You will hear the difference. 



 

 

[chris1729]

Thanks for the responses.  Particularly Blastomussa's note about paying attention to whether the laptop by itself can drive the headphones, which I hadn't even considered before.
 
To Blastomussa and manbear, based on the headphones you both mentioned, can I assume that you use those with an amp?

 

[Blastomussa]

I originally listened to the Sony MDR SA5000s on a Yamaha receiver with 1/4" headphone out, using the headphone out from my laptop to supply the Yamaha receiver.
 
More recently I got the Benchmark DAC2, which is a DAC/amplifier combo. I did side-by-side comparisons with the following:
   1) Galaxy S4 (cellphone) headphone out --> SA5000 (with a 3.5mm adapter)
   2) Macbook USB --> DAC2 --> SA5000
 
I had some hi res music that I downloaded along with my typical Spotify Premium 320k streamed music. I was a bit surprised but they sounded about the same. I would have been unable to pass a blind test. 
 
I also did this with the HD800 and that was much different. The sound quality suffered big time out of the Galaxy S4. This brings everything full circle with choosing the correct headphones for the application.

 

[chris1729]

This has been helpful.  Based on the reviews and this thread, I think I'm going to try a pair of M-50s with some kind of small amp.  Thanks again.

 

[Roy Munson]

Good luck! Let us know how it turns out.