[Kel Ghu]

I am a newbie... And I want to tell to the other newbies that... Hmmm... Stay a newbie forever!

3 months ago, I heard I needed an amp to properly drive my headphones (at the time AKG K701). Read positive reviews of Headamp Pico and RSA Predator. After hesitating a good while, I bought a Pico with DAC, but I couldn't hear the difference with my laptop. Actually, I could... But after long and repetitive listening... Being curious, I bought the Predator to compare it with my pico, as people said it was different and had nicer bass. Again, the difference is far from being obvious unless you spend a good amount of time comparing them. I mean...
The pico is said to be good out of the box and doesn't really benefit from burn-in. I can confirm that, as I hear no difference or maybe do I get used to the difference all the time.
The Predator is said to be average out the box. I found it extremely similar to Pico, which is supposed to be good out of the box. So is average equals good? Predator is supposed to change a lot during the burn-in process... Will I notice it? I doubt it... Unless I really want to and spend more time analyzing the music more than really enjoying it.

What I want to say is if you are a newb, don't have the absolute pitch, listen music for fun and to appreciate the global artistic value of the music without wanting to become an expert on how every instrument should sounds etc... Then don't train your ear. Don't try to know the difference between amps or cables. Get good recordings (source) and the pair of headphone you like best then that should be enough...

If you want to become a grand master, hear every subtility in the sound signature of all the existing equipment, spend great amount of money into very small sound upgrade and maybe never be satisfied and endlessly wanting more... Well, that's good too!

You have to choose... Be ignorant but happy... Or aware and never totally in peace...

I now want to untrain my ear. I am going to stop listening with my good sounding cans for a good while (Can I really do that?

)... Finding a better amp wasn't very rewarding to me. And it was even less rewarding to my wallet... That was only for portable amps... What? Predator or Pico? Haha, I am not going to tell you And I have to wait it to burn in a bit more... Sigh...

 

[shigzeo]

some go up in price to demand the best in this hobby and others don't.

i ended up selling my amp and just using an impedence cable that adds 75 ohm resistance to my iems for elimination of hiss (gone, completely) and find the sound much more agreeable than with an amp as it is silent and still great bass etc.

 

[TSi]

Kel, I can help u keep your noobginity =D, just sell me both of those amp for super cheap, and do that with the K701 too =D

 

[boomana]

Kel Ghu, you picked up two nice portable amp/dacs, but the warning you should be giving to noobs is to do more research before buying. You're were right that the K701s need an amp, but your mistake was in buying portables to do the job when a home amp is needed for those headphones. There are multiple threads saying just that around here. There is nothing wrong with your hearing, but there is something wrong with the choices that you made. You won't experience much difference when you're using amps that can't drive the K701s, no matter how good they are with other headphones.

The good news is that you situation is pretty easy to correct. You can sell the K701s and get some excellent headphones more suited for use with a portable, or you can sell one of your amps for little loss at all and pick up a dedicated home amp. If I'm not mistaken, quite a few folks are using their pico as a dac and connecting it to another amp (I've never tried it with mine). There are a few amps available for near or under the cost of either the pico or predator that play well with the K701s.

BTW, if you've made your first big mistake and learned from it, you're no longer a noob.

 

[Jaska]

Quote:

Originally Posted by shigzeo /img/forum/go_quote.gif i ended up selling my amp and just using an impedence cable that adds 75 ohm resistance to my iems for elimination of hiss (gone, completely) and find the sound much more agreeable than with an amp as it is silent and still great bass etc.

Yep. I sold my portable amp and LOD and now just use my ER-4S with my 5G iPod. Absolutely no hiss. Thinking I might be missing something, I bought the ER-6i to use with the iPod. The sound was good, but the hiss was annoying and the ER-6i was nearly impossible to remove from my ears. I returned them for a refund.

My conclusion is that the differences in quality and enjoyment between using the excellent ER-4S with a portable amp and LOD vs. directly from an iPod are so small that they do not justify the expense of the extra hardware. I am now officially done spending money on my portable setup, and happy about it.

 

[kpeezy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by boomana /img/forum/go_quote.gif Kel Ghu, you picked up two nice portable amp/dacs, but the warning you should be giving to noobs is to do more research before buying. You're were right that the K701s need an amp, but your mistake was in buying portables to do the job when a home amp is needed for those headphones. There are multiple threads saying just that around here. There is nothing wrong with your hearing, but there is something wrong with the choices that you made. You won't experience much difference when you're using amps that can't drive the K701s, no matter how good they are with other headphones. The good news is that you situation is pretty easy to correct. You can sell the K701s and get some excellent headphones more suited for use with a portable, or you can sell one of your amps for little loss at all and pick up a dedicated home amp. If I'm not mistaken, quite a few folks are using their pico as a dac and connecting it to another amp (I've never tried it with mine). There are a few amps available for near or under the cost of either the pico or predator that play well with the K701s. BTW, if you've made your first big mistake and learned from it, you're no longer a noob.

Sad that you have to keep posting this. These threads are getting old.

 

[breakfastchef]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kpeezy /img/forum/go_quote.gif Sad that you have to keep posting this. These threads are getting old.

Not really. There are always new members to this forum who benefit from posts like that from boomana. And, yes, subjects will continue to sprout from the ashes, but they contain basic, important themes that new members need to know. Repetition is a natural cycle in these and other forums.

 

[tcp56]

I agree, As a noob or maybe not any longer according to Boomana, gleaning info from other peoples search for sonic happiness and seeing the results/conclusions - part of why I'm here.

 

[kpeezy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by breakfastchef /img/forum/go_quote.gif Not really. There are always new members to this forum who benefit from posts like that from boomana. And, yes, subjects will continue to sprout from the ashes, but they contain basic, important themes that new members need to know. Repetition is a natural cycle in these and other forums.

I know that boomana's posts are informative. I also understand that topics will be repeated. However, this is the third one in.. what... a week?

-Kyle

 

[boomana]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kpeezy /img/forum/go_quote.gif I know that boomana's posts are informative. I also understand that topics will be repeated. However, this is the third one in.. what... a week? -Kyle

At least six or seven in the past few weeks. I don't get it. Nothing against the op or anyone else. I know sometimes it's difficult to determine what's what around here, but it's not like the information isn't widely available and easy to access. If you're going to throw down over $1000 to build a rig, why wouldn't you take a few days to read around all the forums and see if the components you're looking at actually work well together. Mistakes get made (I've made my own), but I really dislike it when folks come back making declarative statements about either the headphones or the amp or both and talking about their disappointment as if it were a problem with the gear, when, for the most part, it's their own fault (I'm not talking about matching something well and then not liking the sound signature of something, but poor choices based on any number of poor judgment calls).

 

[Kel Ghu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by boomana /img/forum/go_quote.gif Kel Ghu, you picked up two nice portable amp/dacs, but the warning you should be giving to noobs is to do more research before buying. You're were right that the K701s need an amp, but your mistake was in buying portables to do the job when a home amp is needed for those headphones. There are multiple threads saying just that around here. There is nothing wrong with your hearing, but there is something wrong with the choices that you made. You won't experience much difference when you're using amps that can't drive the K701s, no matter how good they are with other headphones. The good news is that you situation is pretty easy to correct. You can sell the K701s and get some excellent headphones more suited for use with a portable, or you can sell one of your amps for little loss at all and pick up a dedicated home amp. If I'm not mistaken, quite a few folks are using their pico as a dac and connecting it to another amp (I've never tried it with mine). There are a few amps available for near or under the cost of either the pico or predator that play well with the K701s. BTW, if you've made your first big mistake and learned from it, you're no longer a noob.

Well, yeah I know I could buy a home amp, but a portable is what fits my needs because I travel a lot and I am away from home for 6 months and I began reading you guys in this forum right before going away... So I can't buy a home amp right now...
Even though I bougth the amps originaly for my 1st headphone, I aquired HD650, PRO2500, K518DJ and also reviewed the amp with SR80 and SR225. Still, the improvement over my laptop is not that obvious and does not make a whole difference to a newb ear. I guess a home amp will show more difference, but I am not even sure now... So it's either my untrained ear (which is getting more trained everyday...) or the portable amps that are unsuited for use (how is that possible?).
I am satisfied with my I got because it is good... But a bit less happy than before I got those amps, because of the money I spent for little improvement. I was expecting more. I could have bought more cans instead. It's more rewarding

A lot of newbie comes here for advices, but opinion are often exagerated to untrained ear imho. That is why I am posting this. Like we see same threads about cans every week, expect to see people share their opinion and experience, good or bad...

 

[helperTcell]

No aural training/ear coaching required to enjoy my home rig:

Disc in...phones on...press play...

Gloriously immersive sound!

No sonic analysis necessary but foot tapping and air drumming mandatory...

Must...get...more...MUSIC!

 

[scaz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tcp56 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I agree, As a noob or maybe not any longer according to Boomana, gleaning info from other peoples search for sonic happiness and seeing the results/conclusions - part of why I'm here.

Agreed. I am too seeking "sonic bliss". I was researching my last headphone purchase and was typically looking at reviews. It was then that I saw that my current headhpones might need an amp to sound better. So that brought me to this new world of Head-fi. This is a great resource for information and I will be spending alot of time here.

I do wish there was an introduction or newbie forum.

 

[rocdoc]

How the hell do I quote stuff here? I'm so inept...
helper Tcell, I couldn't agree more. Since getting decent sounding gear, I find it impossible to put my headphones on and work while listening to music. I end up putting my book down and just drifting off in blissful transportation... I like!... Yagshemash!
You an immunologist?

 

[Zodduska]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rocdoc /img/forum/go_quote.gif How the hell do I quote stuff here?

here you go