Azure
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Jun 13, 2004
- Posts
- 4,449
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I'm starting to enjoy the sound from my A500s now (After giving it a nice long burn-in and time to adjust to the sound) but I'd like to hear even better sound now. In a few months I should have around $200 to spare but I don't know where to start with all this upgrading business. I remember reading a little hierarchy for upgrading in someone's sig; I believe it went something like this:
1. Headphones
2. Source
3. Amp
4. Cables
So, logically, the best thing to do would be the get new headphones. But I've only heard 1 pair of "real" headphones and I can't find any place close by to demo any cans (Most meets are 3+ hours away). And since I can't use audiophile terms, I can't describe the sound I'm looking for. So, finding the perfect headphone for me would prove to be quite a task. And I believe that most $200 headphones require an amp just to sound decent. My final cans would be in the $200-$300 range, particularly something around the DT880s, HD600s, or SR225s; so, if I were to spend the money on cans, I might as well just get my final cans since they would only require a little bit more money. But I believe these all require an amp and have a large difference in sound quality with one. So, there doesn't seem to be any good pair of headphones to upgrade with the idea in mind that my final headphones will be $200-$300.
After headphones would be source. But I never really understood this one. If the player is the source, I use a Rio Karma; am I expected to buy another MP3 Player already? IIRC, the Karma is a pretty good portable mp3 player and shouldn't need to be upgraded. If the player isn't the source, then I'm guessing it's the music. The problem with my music is that you can't really find them on cds or albums (I listen to mainly Trance, Techno, J-Pop, Rap, and little rock here and there). However, there are 9 albums that I could buy that contain music that I listen to. But would I really notice a difference in quality if I ripped them in FLAC? Here are the albums and what I currently have them in (Each "style" is an album and costs $22-$34):
3rd Style: 128kbps MP3
4th-7th Style: 160kbps MP3
8th Style: 192kbps VBR MP3
9th-11th Style: 320kbps MP3
Anything wrong with the quality of the above? I could get most of them for around $200 and then rip them in FLAC, but I'm not sure if I'd notice a difference in sound quality. I mean, right now I hardly notice anything wrong with the songs in the above quality. I've probably only ran into 2-3 songs from the above soundtracks that could have sounded a bit better. That's 2-3 out of 450 songs that I'd get from buying the above soundtracks. Worth it?
The next upgrade is the one I was already thinking about doing, an amp. The only problem with this is that I'm using A500s and I read ~10 threads this morning that indicated that an amp would be useless with Ax00 cans and that I wouldn't notice a big enough difference in sound quality to warrant the cost of the amp and that the big differences that are found with other headphones won't come till you start spending $400+. I was originally thinking about getting a Z-Audio Lambda with Variable Bass Boost, but now I'm not so sure that it'd give me good results with the A500s. I DO watch DVDs and play games through my PS2, so whenever I want to use my headphones with those I have to use the headphone jack on my off-brand TV. So there would be room for the lambda here, but everything sounds find through the TV's headphone jack to me. So, I'm not sure if I'd notice a quality difference there by using the lambda instead. I wouldn't want to spend more than $250 shipped on am amp, so there isn't much that I could get that'd significantly improve the sound quality from the A500s (I believe that the people in those threads were saying that you'd have to start out with something a little better than a Gilmore Lite/SR-71).
Last would be cables, but since they ARE the last step, I don't think I should even consider them in my situation. Especially since I'm directly connecting my A500s to my Karma. So, the only room for cables would be a re-cable, and I remember reading that even a Cardas recable for the HD600/650 doesn't produce a significant sound quality difference (At least not worthy of the cost of the re-cable).
So, what should I do for upgrading? I'm not sure which way to turn in the diffferent aspects of upgrading, and I've been running in circles for a while now. I think I might have gotten myself into a trap by getting the A500s since they are supposed to be between dark and bright and don't need an amp. Because of this I don't have much room for improvement and I don't know what kind of sound quality I prefer (Dark or Bright).
-Azure, confused listener.
1. Headphones
2. Source
3. Amp
4. Cables
So, logically, the best thing to do would be the get new headphones. But I've only heard 1 pair of "real" headphones and I can't find any place close by to demo any cans (Most meets are 3+ hours away). And since I can't use audiophile terms, I can't describe the sound I'm looking for. So, finding the perfect headphone for me would prove to be quite a task. And I believe that most $200 headphones require an amp just to sound decent. My final cans would be in the $200-$300 range, particularly something around the DT880s, HD600s, or SR225s; so, if I were to spend the money on cans, I might as well just get my final cans since they would only require a little bit more money. But I believe these all require an amp and have a large difference in sound quality with one. So, there doesn't seem to be any good pair of headphones to upgrade with the idea in mind that my final headphones will be $200-$300.
After headphones would be source. But I never really understood this one. If the player is the source, I use a Rio Karma; am I expected to buy another MP3 Player already? IIRC, the Karma is a pretty good portable mp3 player and shouldn't need to be upgraded. If the player isn't the source, then I'm guessing it's the music. The problem with my music is that you can't really find them on cds or albums (I listen to mainly Trance, Techno, J-Pop, Rap, and little rock here and there). However, there are 9 albums that I could buy that contain music that I listen to. But would I really notice a difference in quality if I ripped them in FLAC? Here are the albums and what I currently have them in (Each "style" is an album and costs $22-$34):
3rd Style: 128kbps MP3
4th-7th Style: 160kbps MP3
8th Style: 192kbps VBR MP3
9th-11th Style: 320kbps MP3
Anything wrong with the quality of the above? I could get most of them for around $200 and then rip them in FLAC, but I'm not sure if I'd notice a difference in sound quality. I mean, right now I hardly notice anything wrong with the songs in the above quality. I've probably only ran into 2-3 songs from the above soundtracks that could have sounded a bit better. That's 2-3 out of 450 songs that I'd get from buying the above soundtracks. Worth it?
The next upgrade is the one I was already thinking about doing, an amp. The only problem with this is that I'm using A500s and I read ~10 threads this morning that indicated that an amp would be useless with Ax00 cans and that I wouldn't notice a big enough difference in sound quality to warrant the cost of the amp and that the big differences that are found with other headphones won't come till you start spending $400+. I was originally thinking about getting a Z-Audio Lambda with Variable Bass Boost, but now I'm not so sure that it'd give me good results with the A500s. I DO watch DVDs and play games through my PS2, so whenever I want to use my headphones with those I have to use the headphone jack on my off-brand TV. So there would be room for the lambda here, but everything sounds find through the TV's headphone jack to me. So, I'm not sure if I'd notice a quality difference there by using the lambda instead. I wouldn't want to spend more than $250 shipped on am amp, so there isn't much that I could get that'd significantly improve the sound quality from the A500s (I believe that the people in those threads were saying that you'd have to start out with something a little better than a Gilmore Lite/SR-71).
Last would be cables, but since they ARE the last step, I don't think I should even consider them in my situation. Especially since I'm directly connecting my A500s to my Karma. So, the only room for cables would be a re-cable, and I remember reading that even a Cardas recable for the HD600/650 doesn't produce a significant sound quality difference (At least not worthy of the cost of the re-cable).
So, what should I do for upgrading? I'm not sure which way to turn in the diffferent aspects of upgrading, and I've been running in circles for a while now. I think I might have gotten myself into a trap by getting the A500s since they are supposed to be between dark and bright and don't need an amp. Because of this I don't have much room for improvement and I don't know what kind of sound quality I prefer (Dark or Bright).
-Azure, confused listener.