dougmwpsu
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- May 10, 2004
- Posts
- 281
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- 0
Quote:
Well this was basically my thought process. I saw this thread and remembered the thread back maybe 2 months where you were trying to get reassurance that you'd love your headphones if you bought them. Since it was news to me that you'd actually gotten around to getting them, I was interested to see what you had thought after a year of anticipation. Plus I was a bit surprised that you were already looking into spending double what you had already spent. I searched through your previous posts till I fond the 12 pager when you first got the cans back in June. It was that 2 week Goliath that inspired me; I was unaware that you had come to appreciate the phones in the intervening time. Since I was just looking at your thread titles from the past month and saw no "I love my at500's now!!!" and since you were already interested in putting more money down, I made the assumption that you were still unhappy with your purchase.
My apologies, I really didn’t mean to harp on you over old info, I just wasn’t aware the story had changed.
Quote:
Nope, I’m telling you to go away for your own good, as my serious response to the thread title. You need to give it at least 6 months from your first foray into head-fi to start to get a feel for what you just purchased. In the intervening time you should try to audition some other gear. Try to catch a meet in your area, try to see how the at-500's handle all manner of music under the sun. Fiddle with that great parametric eq the karma has and figure out where you like it. You seriously need to spend some time with your cans without any thought in your head about how you're going to upgrade next. The only way to not think about such things is to not visit head-fi for awhile.
As far as upgrading... at some point someone said that with headphones you were weren't doing upgrades so much as sidegrades and I feel that's true when you're taking about the headphones themselves. The sound you're getting now is already that leap and bound better than what you've had. Another headphone is just going to put its own flavor and interpretation on that high quality sound. 200 bucks isn't even close to the amount you need to spend to enter "the next level". From a simple headphone-mp3 player setup, you're going to have to move up to a full system to really reach upwards from where you are now. From what you've been saying that seems to provide unique difficulties in your situation.
If you don't like that answer and are still convinced you need to drop more money, then...
Source: first of all, where do you do the majority of your litsening? I own a karma, and it is a fine portable source, maybe the best there is without an amp. You don't sound like you have any cds so a stand alone unit is out. You said you don’t have access to your computer for more than 3 days a week, so getting a decent sound card is out. Really it sounds like you are set as far as a source goes, at least for what you have to work with. As far as the material, now that you have a decent set of headphones, you are at liberty to tell US what sounds good. Take a decent sounding cd and compare lossless to 320 to aps to 128 to 32. I highly recommend you do some abxing using foobar's excellent plug-in. Everyone has a different level to which they can detect the flaws in compressed music, and you need to find that level for yourself. No one else can tell you that you can't use 192 bitrate mp3's to do serious listening but you. People can say what they've found out for your own ears, but that means zip to you. Personally aps is fine for me. As long as the cd is encoded to at least that, there is no perceptual or statistical difference to the cd for my ears. Encoding your own music is better than downloading things off the internet, since you’ll know your files were encoded well and have not undergone any transcoding or re-riping. It also lets you bump the quality level of your music up easily when you get new gear and find you now have more exacting standards.
Amp: this is a toughie, especially since you'd end up having to connect it to your karma dock line outs. There are alot of choices and you might not necessarily need one depending on the headphone you decide. Based on what you've read here (I don't know) the at500's get no improvement with an amp. This is really a matter of research to find out what synergizes well with whatever cans you decide to get from here.
Headphones: This is really the question, isn't it? Even though there are only a handful of manufactures, there are still reams of choices. There are so many thousands of threads on this point that I don’t really feel I could add anything but to repeat my recommendation that you try and attend a meet. If you can’t attend a meet you can try finding a pro audio store in your area or tracking down a benevolent head-fi member in your area that would let you audition some of his gear. If there’s absolutely no way you can try before you buy, about the only thing you can do is zero in on a headphone that you think you might like based on what you've read, and take the plunge. Some people have recommended utilizing the return policy of Todd or others, and I think that’s a decent compromise monetarily.
The problem you're facing is really the heart of the head-fi hobby. You get some recommendations, you make some purchases, you form some opinions, and you post those opinions on the site so that the cycle can continue. The best thing you can do for your wallet is to make that cycle goes as slowly as possible.
| Originally Posted by Azure ...I don't get it. Where did this post come from? |
Well this was basically my thought process. I saw this thread and remembered the thread back maybe 2 months where you were trying to get reassurance that you'd love your headphones if you bought them. Since it was news to me that you'd actually gotten around to getting them, I was interested to see what you had thought after a year of anticipation. Plus I was a bit surprised that you were already looking into spending double what you had already spent. I searched through your previous posts till I fond the 12 pager when you first got the cans back in June. It was that 2 week Goliath that inspired me; I was unaware that you had come to appreciate the phones in the intervening time. Since I was just looking at your thread titles from the past month and saw no "I love my at500's now!!!" and since you were already interested in putting more money down, I made the assumption that you were still unhappy with your purchase.
My apologies, I really didn’t mean to harp on you over old info, I just wasn’t aware the story had changed.
Quote:
| Originally Posted by Azure Exactly why I'm being asked to "go away" I don't understand, but if it's because of the whole A500 fiasco and my endless questions, then I'll try to tone it down. If it is more serious than that, then I'll consider leaving head-fi and just go to some other audiophile place (Hopefully you guys don't have accounts there, too 
|
Nope, I’m telling you to go away for your own good, as my serious response to the thread title. You need to give it at least 6 months from your first foray into head-fi to start to get a feel for what you just purchased. In the intervening time you should try to audition some other gear. Try to catch a meet in your area, try to see how the at-500's handle all manner of music under the sun. Fiddle with that great parametric eq the karma has and figure out where you like it. You seriously need to spend some time with your cans without any thought in your head about how you're going to upgrade next. The only way to not think about such things is to not visit head-fi for awhile.
As far as upgrading... at some point someone said that with headphones you were weren't doing upgrades so much as sidegrades and I feel that's true when you're taking about the headphones themselves. The sound you're getting now is already that leap and bound better than what you've had. Another headphone is just going to put its own flavor and interpretation on that high quality sound. 200 bucks isn't even close to the amount you need to spend to enter "the next level". From a simple headphone-mp3 player setup, you're going to have to move up to a full system to really reach upwards from where you are now. From what you've been saying that seems to provide unique difficulties in your situation.
If you don't like that answer and are still convinced you need to drop more money, then...
Source: first of all, where do you do the majority of your litsening? I own a karma, and it is a fine portable source, maybe the best there is without an amp. You don't sound like you have any cds so a stand alone unit is out. You said you don’t have access to your computer for more than 3 days a week, so getting a decent sound card is out. Really it sounds like you are set as far as a source goes, at least for what you have to work with. As far as the material, now that you have a decent set of headphones, you are at liberty to tell US what sounds good. Take a decent sounding cd and compare lossless to 320 to aps to 128 to 32. I highly recommend you do some abxing using foobar's excellent plug-in. Everyone has a different level to which they can detect the flaws in compressed music, and you need to find that level for yourself. No one else can tell you that you can't use 192 bitrate mp3's to do serious listening but you. People can say what they've found out for your own ears, but that means zip to you. Personally aps is fine for me. As long as the cd is encoded to at least that, there is no perceptual or statistical difference to the cd for my ears. Encoding your own music is better than downloading things off the internet, since you’ll know your files were encoded well and have not undergone any transcoding or re-riping. It also lets you bump the quality level of your music up easily when you get new gear and find you now have more exacting standards.
Amp: this is a toughie, especially since you'd end up having to connect it to your karma dock line outs. There are alot of choices and you might not necessarily need one depending on the headphone you decide. Based on what you've read here (I don't know) the at500's get no improvement with an amp. This is really a matter of research to find out what synergizes well with whatever cans you decide to get from here.
Headphones: This is really the question, isn't it? Even though there are only a handful of manufactures, there are still reams of choices. There are so many thousands of threads on this point that I don’t really feel I could add anything but to repeat my recommendation that you try and attend a meet. If you can’t attend a meet you can try finding a pro audio store in your area or tracking down a benevolent head-fi member in your area that would let you audition some of his gear. If there’s absolutely no way you can try before you buy, about the only thing you can do is zero in on a headphone that you think you might like based on what you've read, and take the plunge. Some people have recommended utilizing the return policy of Todd or others, and I think that’s a decent compromise monetarily.
The problem you're facing is really the heart of the head-fi hobby. You get some recommendations, you make some purchases, you form some opinions, and you post those opinions on the site so that the cycle can continue. The best thing you can do for your wallet is to make that cycle goes as slowly as possible.
