[TheGiantHogweed]

Phew that was close...what's this thread about again??...Oh yes, AKG K550's anyone?

I was thinking the same. We should be appreciating and discussing things about the K550s!

 

[GirgleMirt]

So how to know if the soundcard is doing a bad/good/great job at powering to the K550s?  If the 550s don't sound as great as expected, is it that the 550s which aren't as good as expected or is it amplification or another factor?  Sadly, even if you think the amplification is up to snuff, the only way to really know would be to listen to the 550s on gear which is...
 
Since that's often not practical or possible, at least I'd say a good way is comparing the comments.  "bass is weak" or the sort seems to me like it indicates an amp issue, because that's not how they should sound when powered correctly...  Or like the guy who was saying the 550s were bad and he preferred a 40$ headphone over the 550s, when reviews clearly ranked the 550s above said 40$ headphones, seem to indicate amplification or other issue...  Oh well... 

 

[SSandDigital]

Look at my recabled K551 AGAIN!
 

 

[cel4145]

So how to know if the soundcard is doing a bad/good/great job at powering to the K550s?  If the 550s don't sound as great as expected, is it that the 550s which aren't as good as expected or is it amplification or another factor?  Sadly, even if you think the amplification is up to snuff, the only way to really know would be to listen to the 550s on gear which is...

Since that's often not practical or possible, at least I'd say a good way is comparing the comments.  "bass is weak" or the sort seems to me like it indicates an amp issue, because that's not how they should sound when powered correctly...  Or like the guy who was saying the 550s were bad and he preferred a 40$ headphone over the 550s, when reviews clearly ranked the 550s above said 40$ headphones, seem to indicate amplification or other issue...  Oh well... 

I think by and larger, personal listening tastes, fit (seal), and placement position of the K550s are going to be THE biggest factors over whether or not someone likes the K550s. I have personally found that the K550s sound pretty darn good relative to the capability of any device that I have plugged them into. Even if say a computer soundcard has a high output impedance (like most of the Creative cards) that's just going to skew the frequency response a little.

So I still wouldn't blame the device in that instance as the cause for why someone didn't like them. It's just way too likely that the other factors are the cause.

 

[cel4145]

Look at my recabled K551 AGAIN!

Nice

 

[Baycode]

Look at my recabled K551 AGAIN!

Looks great! What kind of cable is it? Any changes (soundwise) compared to stock one ?

 

[SSandDigital]

Looks great! What kind of cable is it? Any changes (soundwise) compared to stock one ?

 
It's a standard quad braid using doublehelixcables' OCC wires and switchcraft plug.  Not really sure, since when I saw how horrible the stock K551 cable was and the microphone was worthless and controls didn't work, I recabled it same day.  

 

[ratinox]

So how to know if the soundcard is doing a bad/good/great job at powering to the K550s?

Go ask x RELIC x 'cuz according to him I don't know jack about audio.
Because I'm done with head-fi. There's no point. You people don't care why sound works, don't care why your low impedance headphones sound like **** when you use them with high impedance outputs, don't care that you're wasting you money on stupidly expensive junk.

 

[GirgleMirt]

Go ask @x RELIC x 'cuz according to him I don't know jack about audio.
Because I'm done with head-fi.

Noo!  The question definitely was not aimed at you, it was a rhetorical question aimed at raising awareness of those who are quick to blame the headphones when they might not be at fault.
 

 There's no point. You people don't care why sound works, don't care why your low impedance headphones sound like **** when you use them with high impedance outputs, don't care that you're wasting you money on stupidly expensive junk.

But yeah... 
 
 

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

 
 
I've seen people at audio shows listening to an entire system, and commenting how the cables or the CD player sounded great/bad...  As if they could somehow discern the exact effect of the cables/cdp in a ****ty unknown & untreated room with speakers they weren't even involved in setting up...
 
But with headphones, you have a camp saying X headphones sound good/great, and another camp saying they sound bad.  Even some stating that 40$ headphones are better.  Yet, pro-reviewers which have reviewed both, came to the opposite conclusion, stating that the 40$ headphone was less clear, less accurate, etc., just plainly inferior.   So sure as cel said it could be taste, seal, etc....  But, might clearly be as you've clearly explained, impedance/amplification issue.  Yet, some will ignore that and continue harping that the headphone is the issue, ignoring the source of the problem could be something other than the headphones. 
 
Sure, it could also be seal, position, etc., but, if a key element for good performance is lacking; amplification, you'll never get to hear the full potential of the headphone so how is commenting on the value/performance of the headphone is even relevant?

 

[cel4145]

But with headphones, you have a camp saying X headphones sound good/great, and another camp saying they sound bad.  Even some stating that 40$ headphones are better.  Yet, pro-reviewers which have reviewed both, came to the opposite conclusion, stating that the 40$ headphone was less clear, less accurate, etc., just plainly inferior.   So sure as cel said it could be taste, seal, etc....  But, might clearly be as you've clearly explained, impedance/amplification issue.  Yet, some will ignore that and continue harping that the headphone is the issue, ignoring the source of the problem could be something other than the headphones. 

Sure, it could also be seal, position, etc., but, if a key element for good performance is lacking; amplification, you'll never get to hear the full potential of the headphone so how is commenting on the value/performance of the headphone is even relevant?

Well, but think about this in relative performance to those $40 headphones. If the $40 headphones have a much higher impedance, then impedance might explain some of that, but not a lot, because the K550 output impedance doesn't vary a lot. Bass quality might suffer a little because of dampening, but unlikely to be such an extent that the K550s would sound sufficiently worse than higher impedance $40 cans. But otherwise, if the quality if the amplification/DAC is bad in general, it's typically going to sound bad for the $40 headphones, too.

 

[GirgleMirt]

Unless the cheapo 40$ has too much bass to begin with and then it doesn't suffer as much when it loses some of it...  Also not sure how much the 40$ headphone was affected vs the 550s...   But anyhow.  To me, the Aune T1 makes a significant improvement to the 550s.  They'll sound quite bland and worse without it being driven by computer output.  So I was just wondering how pertinent it is to comment on badly driven headphones.  Seems to make little sense as you're not listening to them at their full potential. Might be great for those who also wouldn't plan to purchase a dedicated amp, but the comments on the actual performance are largely irrelevant given that they're not driven correctly.
 
Speakers have the same issue.  I had some Totem Arros years back that were incredibly power hungry and being that I was using a modest amp never could drive them to their full potential, my negative feedback of them was more than likely a result of this.  Possible they'd have done a lot better with a much more solid amp, who knows, but as is they weren't incredible.  Other speakers sounded much better with the same amp.  So issue with the amp or speakers?  Or both?  How do you know which is to blame?
 
I'm just asking this question to make people who are quick to blame the 550s wonder if the 550s are really to blame... I'm not so sure.  As I said before, many of the comments just make me believe there's something wrong with what people are listening to.  It definitely could be taste, seal, position, etc., but whatever it is, when there's so much disparity between what people experience, seems more likely that the amplification is at fault. 
 
Pro reviewer & many users says 550s are very good, says 40$ headphone is by a lot worse... Then some say the exact opposite, that the 40$ phone is better and the 550s are no good.  Turns out they're powering the 550s with a computer soundcard or a badly matched amp, which definitely seems like it could be a significant issue.  How logical is it to maintain this proposition given that it's very likely that the headphones aren't driven appropriately?

 

[cel4145]

Unless the cheapo 40$ has too much bass to begin with and then it doesn't suffer as much when it loses some of it...  Also not sure how much the 40$ headphone was affected vs the 550s...   But anyhow.  To me, the Aune T1 makes a significant improvement to the 550s. 

Even a $40 headphone will sound a good bit better with the Aune T1 over much motherboard audio

BTW: Your Aune T1 is not a good fit for the K550s in terms of low output impedance because it's 10 ohms. The general rule is 1/8 of the output impedance of the headphones. You need a new amp!

 

[SSandDigital]

Eh, whatever, $40 blah blah.
 
Back to K551, I've noticed that wind noise is terrible with these.  It's weird because I think they isolate quite well in noisy environment, noisy train or subway or just walking around.  But wind, terrible.  Wind is just awful.  I don't mean wind noise, can hear as the wind passes over the headphones.  Anyone else have this issue?

 

[GirgleMirt]

Even a $40 headphone will sound a good bit better with the Aune T1 over much motherboard audio

BTW: Your Aune T1 is not a good fit for the K550s in terms of low output impedance because it's 10 ohms. The general rule is 1/8 of the output impedance of the headphones. You need a new amp!

Just imagine how much better they'd sound with it!

  I've noticed that wind noise is bla bla bla

Get a home or at least a cardboard box you hobo, these aren't portable headphones!

 

[ampair]

Get a home or at least a cardboard box you hobo, these aren't portable headphones!

 
you clearly never used them during winter. they really are formidable ear warmers