[syndrome]

Hello.
So I'm totally new to this forum and headphones in all, so I hoped you would be able to answer some of my questions.

My story. I've been going with my old Philips HP250 for a while, but recently bought the Philips HP895. So I wonder about the "burn in", will it really be a great change in quality? And how long does it usually take? Will I notice it, like a click?

And soon it'll be time for me to get my first "real" phones, and I'm thinking about Senn's HD555 (not too expensive), but is it really any reason for me to buy "real" phones when I'm running my music from my computer, with a not-so-great soundcard. I'm afraid I won't get the real experience from the phones.

Oh yeah, and sorry for my wallet

Hope you can help me out.
/ Syndrome

EDIT: Also considering Grado SR-60. They are at the same price as HD555, and my impression is that SR60 are very appreciated

 

[warpdriver]

Whether burn-in is real or imagined is still debatable, I think a bit of it is definitely just getting used to the sound. I'd say most burn-in happens before 50 hours of use. Some other people say it can go on over 100 hours. Usually, the overall change is subtle.

As for getting good sound out of your current setup, a nicer headphone always makes a difference, because cheaper headphones can't get the basics right. You should be able to notice an improvement right away.

Now the quality of your music is probably the most important factor in getting good sound. A high bitrate LAME MP3 rip at say 260kbps will sound a very listenable and a good headphone will let you hear that difference more readily.

I think you would appreciate the improvement a HD555 would bring, even on your current setup, but you can even improve it some more. Upgrading the sound card is always worthwhile you don't need to spend a lot of money, even something like a $30 Turtle Beach Audio Advantage will provide an improvement over many cheap on board sound cards, and something like a $99 EMU 0404 will bring you 90% of the way to the best sound available.

 

[syndrome]

Quote:

Originally Posted by warpdriver Whether burn-in is real or imagined is still debatable, I think a bit of it is definitely just getting used to the sound. I'd say most burn-in happens before 50 hours of use. Some other people say it can go on over 100 hours. Usually, the overall change is subtle. As for getting good sound out of your current setup, a nicer headphone always makes a difference, because cheaper headphones can't get the basics right. You should be able to notice an improvement right away. Now the quality of your music is probably the most important factor in getting good sound. A high bitrate LAME MP3 rip at say 260kbps will sound a very listenable and a good headphone will let you hear that difference more readily. I think you would appreciate the improvement a HD555 would bring, even on your current setup, but you can even improve it some more. Upgrading the sound card is always worthwhile you don't need to spend a lot of money, even something like a $30 Turtle Beach Audio Advantage will provide an improvement over many cheap on board sound cards, and something like a $99 EMU 0404 will bring you 90% of the way to the best sound available.

Thank you for your answer.
Is Soundblaster Live! 24bit worth a buy? It's not very expensive (~$30), but maybe it'll make an extreme improvement? (I don't know if I want to tell you what soundcard I have right now, you'd probably kill me for using such a lame card)

Most of my MP3's are over 192kbps, but I feel that HP895 sometimes just aren't enough. There is some fizz and so on, and I feel that the Senn's could be much better. But I just bought the Philips, 3 days ago or something.

The hard part is to decide whether to buy a pair of Senn's 555 for good listening at home, or be happy with the Philips and focus on buying something good for my portable audio (It's kind of crappy right now).

 

[Inter]

Quote:

Originally Posted by syndrome Thank you for your answer. Is Soundblaster Live! 24bit worth a buy? It's not very expensive (~$30), but maybe it'll make an extreme improvement? (I don't know if I want to tell you what soundcard I have right now, you'd probably kill me for using such a lame card)

Creative sound cards are relatively crap, and especially the Live!. But it would probably be an upgrade to the built-in soundcard on most motherboards these days.

 

[syndrome]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Inter Creative sound cards are relatively crap, and especially the Live!. But it would probably be an upgrade to the built-in soundcard on most motherboards these days.

But is it really that crappy? I mean, I'm no pro, and I can't spend hundreds on a card.

 

[sgrossklass]

The Live! 24-Bit is a decent budget card and pretty hard to beat it its price, particularly if you need a headphone out or want to record. (For plain playback over an amp, the AV-710 over its alt out should be better.) I would, however, strongly suggest to invest in something better (the Live! 24-Bit does have a number of limitations and not the best of output stages), such as a Hercules Fortissimo 4 (~45€), M-Audio Revolution 5.1 (~80€), Terratec Aureon Sky / Space (~70/~80€), Audiotrak Prodigy 7.1 / 7.1 LT (~100+/~100€).

BTW, give the HP895 a good break-in before contemplating to buy other cans. And do upgrade the sound card if yours is so crappy now.

 

[technetium]

I know the live 24 bit, and I don´t like it, if I was you I would go for the
philps aurilium. Its a quite ok USB soundcard, although I don´t know the prices in the US, but here in Denmark (EU) it was quite cheap.
I is not so good with games, but it is a lot better with music than Creatives.


http://www.techspot.com/reviews/hard...um/index.shtml

http://www.techtastic.ca/reviews2/aurilium.html