InSides
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jan 29, 2005
- Posts
- 414
- Likes
- 10
Lately, I haven't spent much time on Head-Fi, and the times I did, I mostly read through the meet reports. Reasons are various, but mainly default to me being busy with work and related travelling. That and listening to vinyl on the speaker rig at home while I was home.
Been on the road for more than a month now has kept me away from speakers and helped me rediscover some of the headphone magic. Before I left, however, I was able to pack up more gear than usual and I also wanted the comfort of full size headphones instead of being restricted to earbuds and an iPod. Hence, I have been listening to two very barebone setups [see for descriptions below] for the past weeks. What I heard surprised me and at the same time, asserted the love for our little hobby as well as this great community.
What follows are not reviews of the equipment used during my travels. Every single piece of gear mentioned below has been extensively documented on these pages a lot of times in the past. In fact, one of the primary reasons for acquiring that gear [apart from the obvious audition] are the opinions of Head-Fi members. I would like to focus on the sound and the joy it brings me.
Transportable Setup
Not a portable one by any means, this actually doubles as my work rig. Consists of a Apple MacBook Pro, a WD external drive and a Edirol UA-25 external audio interface. A true nomadic rig - every part of it has proved to withstand the rigors of travel I put them through without any functionality issues. That and the USB powered Edirol make for lesser requirements on power sockets. And, it all fits in my messenger bag.
I opted for the BeyerDynamic DT990Pro for my full sized headphone. Reasons are twofold... one is that I wanted to have a balanced headphone to try out of the Edirol and I didn't want to drag along the HD-650, and the other one is I felt the DT990Pro is sturdier and can better withstand travelling.
I did mention balanced? The Edirol has both the headphone output and the main output volume controled, so I was itching for a comparison of the single-ended to balanced drive. The headphone above has the original cable replaced with a dual entry HD-650 cable terminated with a 4-pin Neutrik XLR. Part of the cable was used to construct both a SE and a Balanced adapter.
Source material has been 400+GB of lossless FLAC tracks, and the player of choice is foobar2000 0.8.3 playing over ASIO using the UA-25 ASIO driver. I should say I tried Kernel Streaming, but preferred ASIO, so I stuck with that. For those of you wondering why I am listing foobar2000, ASIO and KS, note that I am using the MBP with Windows under BootCamp for various work reasons. That and the fact that the OSX driver for the Edirol I found was quite flakey.
Onwards to the sound.
I should begin saying I am in awe listening through the UA-25. That little box pumps out so much musical bliss it is unbearable at times. And the ability it has to detract me from my work schedule! I was afraid that it would not supply enough power for the headphones being USB powered, but all my fears went away the first time I plugged in into the headphone port. I haven't been listening to the DT990Pro in a long time, and this trip has made me wondering why that is. Listening actively as I type this as I try to get as much out of it during my free hours.
I have always felt that the DT990Pro is my headphone for listening to electronic music. Labeling a headphone like that has the disadvantage of not using it's full potential and even trying it out with various types of music. That was a mistake. One of the recent acquistions in my digital library are Herbie Hancock's "Head Hunters", and "Friday Night in San Francisco" featuring Al Di Meola, Paco De Lucia and John McLaughlin. Both excellent albums, each with a specific mark of its own.
Starting with the Head Hunters, the opening track "Chameleon" struck me so hard I actually sat there, surprised, not moving for the 15+ minutes of the track length. Note this may very well be due to my month long depravation from the speakers, but this sounded good. Very good indeed. What was I hearing? There wasn't "more detail", nor "more separatation and air between instruments".
It was just right and I was getting the music as a whole. Then, my feet started tapping. All was good.
Moving over to "Friday Night in San Francisco" only asserted my feelings about what I was hearing. No, I "wasn't there", but I could hear the musicians respond to the cheers of the audience, and I could feel the joy and exhilaration of witnessing three of the greatest guitarists on a single stage. That must have been a Friday to remember indeed. I have never been a big fan of McLaughlin - although I have always respected his work - but his rendering of "Short Tales of the Black Forest" [originaly by Chick Corea] is excellent on that album, especially following the opening theme of "Mediterranean Sundance" from said album. Especially on this recording, I have found the confirmation of one line repeated here so often "headphone systems can offer equal enjoyment as speaker systems at a fraction of their cost". Man am I glad I decided to take on headphones in the first place.
I went through the usual array of my familiar recordings, moving through the likes of Pink Floyd, The Police, Tool, Incubus, Temptations, Dire Straits, The Cure, Kings of Convenience... and much more. Found I equally enjoy all of those, although I prefer some of my other headphones... especially for such artists/recordings as Pink Floyd ["Dark Side of the Moon", "Wish You Were Here"] and Dire Straits ["Communique"]. And then, at some vague point over the last four weeks, I decided to go balanced, straight from the UA-25.
Balanced to Single Ended
First reaction was, "Good - it is not worse". After some initial volume matching in order to get the same levels as the headphone out, I concentrated on the music. I would be lying if I said I found out an extreme difference to the better over the headphone output. I already did think that the headphone output was very good. One thing that was very apparent from the first time I plugged the headphones in was the lower noise floor. I was surprised to notice that right away as I did. Switching back and forth in between the adapters [see photo above] only prooved what I have been hearing. So, I just continued my listening with the balanced outputs as I found them equally as good as the single ended headphone output.
Changes become apparent over the next couple of days. I found the music cleaner and unrestricted [note I am trying to avoid "more detail", "more air" and "more separation"]. But I did hear all those things I am trying not to pronounce. Could it be that my ears were being "trained"? Placebo? Maybe. What I do know is that I liked it there and now and I now see no apparent reason to go back to single ended listening from the UA-25 with my balanced headphones.
Portable Setup
While on the move, I couln't actually unpack and setup the gear described above, so I resorted to the most barebones portable system I could assemble [avoid confiscation by airport security is a plus]. Thus, I resorted to my 5G iPod and the "lowly" Etymotic Research ER6i.
The only time you will see me describing the ER6i as "lowly" [even in parenthesis] is the paragraph above. It is now my firm belief that the ER6i are probably one of the best deals [cost/performance wise] that can be had. I ran the ER6i straight from the iPod with the foam tips as I found the flanges a tad uncomfortable. Once properly inserted in the ear canal, the ER6i acts just like a true full-size headphone. I won't describe the sound as that has been covered here a lot of times.
What I will say is [seeing this was my first trip using the ER6i] how surprised I was to find out an IEM can completely eliminate the need for an amount of time. I say an amount of time, as there is a limit to the time I can have those things inserted in my ear canals. I would imagine comfort would be an issue to most people, but, oh my, what joy from a $70 IEM. While I have been set on getting the E500 at some point, I now realise they would have to be much, much better to justify the price difference.
I am happy.
Why This Post?
Yes, why? I wanted to find a way to say the obvious "Thank You Head-Fi!", but strived for a more elaborate [and long!] post on expressing the exhilaration brought to me from all of our toys. And also, I wanted to make up for the lack of posting with a single long one.
Thank You, Head-Fi.
Been on the road for more than a month now has kept me away from speakers and helped me rediscover some of the headphone magic. Before I left, however, I was able to pack up more gear than usual and I also wanted the comfort of full size headphones instead of being restricted to earbuds and an iPod. Hence, I have been listening to two very barebone setups [see for descriptions below] for the past weeks. What I heard surprised me and at the same time, asserted the love for our little hobby as well as this great community.
What follows are not reviews of the equipment used during my travels. Every single piece of gear mentioned below has been extensively documented on these pages a lot of times in the past. In fact, one of the primary reasons for acquiring that gear [apart from the obvious audition] are the opinions of Head-Fi members. I would like to focus on the sound and the joy it brings me.
Transportable Setup
Not a portable one by any means, this actually doubles as my work rig. Consists of a Apple MacBook Pro, a WD external drive and a Edirol UA-25 external audio interface. A true nomadic rig - every part of it has proved to withstand the rigors of travel I put them through without any functionality issues. That and the USB powered Edirol make for lesser requirements on power sockets. And, it all fits in my messenger bag.
I opted for the BeyerDynamic DT990Pro for my full sized headphone. Reasons are twofold... one is that I wanted to have a balanced headphone to try out of the Edirol and I didn't want to drag along the HD-650, and the other one is I felt the DT990Pro is sturdier and can better withstand travelling.
I did mention balanced? The Edirol has both the headphone output and the main output volume controled, so I was itching for a comparison of the single-ended to balanced drive. The headphone above has the original cable replaced with a dual entry HD-650 cable terminated with a 4-pin Neutrik XLR. Part of the cable was used to construct both a SE and a Balanced adapter.
Source material has been 400+GB of lossless FLAC tracks, and the player of choice is foobar2000 0.8.3 playing over ASIO using the UA-25 ASIO driver. I should say I tried Kernel Streaming, but preferred ASIO, so I stuck with that. For those of you wondering why I am listing foobar2000, ASIO and KS, note that I am using the MBP with Windows under BootCamp for various work reasons. That and the fact that the OSX driver for the Edirol I found was quite flakey.
Onwards to the sound.
I should begin saying I am in awe listening through the UA-25. That little box pumps out so much musical bliss it is unbearable at times. And the ability it has to detract me from my work schedule! I was afraid that it would not supply enough power for the headphones being USB powered, but all my fears went away the first time I plugged in into the headphone port. I haven't been listening to the DT990Pro in a long time, and this trip has made me wondering why that is. Listening actively as I type this as I try to get as much out of it during my free hours.
I have always felt that the DT990Pro is my headphone for listening to electronic music. Labeling a headphone like that has the disadvantage of not using it's full potential and even trying it out with various types of music. That was a mistake. One of the recent acquistions in my digital library are Herbie Hancock's "Head Hunters", and "Friday Night in San Francisco" featuring Al Di Meola, Paco De Lucia and John McLaughlin. Both excellent albums, each with a specific mark of its own.
Starting with the Head Hunters, the opening track "Chameleon" struck me so hard I actually sat there, surprised, not moving for the 15+ minutes of the track length. Note this may very well be due to my month long depravation from the speakers, but this sounded good. Very good indeed. What was I hearing? There wasn't "more detail", nor "more separatation and air between instruments".
It was just right and I was getting the music as a whole. Then, my feet started tapping. All was good.
Moving over to "Friday Night in San Francisco" only asserted my feelings about what I was hearing. No, I "wasn't there", but I could hear the musicians respond to the cheers of the audience, and I could feel the joy and exhilaration of witnessing three of the greatest guitarists on a single stage. That must have been a Friday to remember indeed. I have never been a big fan of McLaughlin - although I have always respected his work - but his rendering of "Short Tales of the Black Forest" [originaly by Chick Corea] is excellent on that album, especially following the opening theme of "Mediterranean Sundance" from said album. Especially on this recording, I have found the confirmation of one line repeated here so often "headphone systems can offer equal enjoyment as speaker systems at a fraction of their cost". Man am I glad I decided to take on headphones in the first place.
I went through the usual array of my familiar recordings, moving through the likes of Pink Floyd, The Police, Tool, Incubus, Temptations, Dire Straits, The Cure, Kings of Convenience... and much more. Found I equally enjoy all of those, although I prefer some of my other headphones... especially for such artists/recordings as Pink Floyd ["Dark Side of the Moon", "Wish You Were Here"] and Dire Straits ["Communique"]. And then, at some vague point over the last four weeks, I decided to go balanced, straight from the UA-25.
Balanced to Single Ended
First reaction was, "Good - it is not worse". After some initial volume matching in order to get the same levels as the headphone out, I concentrated on the music. I would be lying if I said I found out an extreme difference to the better over the headphone output. I already did think that the headphone output was very good. One thing that was very apparent from the first time I plugged the headphones in was the lower noise floor. I was surprised to notice that right away as I did. Switching back and forth in between the adapters [see photo above] only prooved what I have been hearing. So, I just continued my listening with the balanced outputs as I found them equally as good as the single ended headphone output.
Changes become apparent over the next couple of days. I found the music cleaner and unrestricted [note I am trying to avoid "more detail", "more air" and "more separation"]. But I did hear all those things I am trying not to pronounce. Could it be that my ears were being "trained"? Placebo? Maybe. What I do know is that I liked it there and now and I now see no apparent reason to go back to single ended listening from the UA-25 with my balanced headphones.
Portable Setup
While on the move, I couln't actually unpack and setup the gear described above, so I resorted to the most barebones portable system I could assemble [avoid confiscation by airport security is a plus]. Thus, I resorted to my 5G iPod and the "lowly" Etymotic Research ER6i.
The only time you will see me describing the ER6i as "lowly" [even in parenthesis] is the paragraph above. It is now my firm belief that the ER6i are probably one of the best deals [cost/performance wise] that can be had. I ran the ER6i straight from the iPod with the foam tips as I found the flanges a tad uncomfortable. Once properly inserted in the ear canal, the ER6i acts just like a true full-size headphone. I won't describe the sound as that has been covered here a lot of times.
What I will say is [seeing this was my first trip using the ER6i] how surprised I was to find out an IEM can completely eliminate the need for an amount of time. I say an amount of time, as there is a limit to the time I can have those things inserted in my ear canals. I would imagine comfort would be an issue to most people, but, oh my, what joy from a $70 IEM. While I have been set on getting the E500 at some point, I now realise they would have to be much, much better to justify the price difference.
I am happy.
Why This Post?
Yes, why? I wanted to find a way to say the obvious "Thank You Head-Fi!", but strived for a more elaborate [and long!] post on expressing the exhilaration brought to me from all of our toys. And also, I wanted to make up for the lack of posting with a single long one.
Thank You, Head-Fi.
