[Oski]

Okay, just for fun I dropped by J&R Music World today and picked up the Turtle Beach Audio Advantage Micro soundcard ($20) and a pair of Sennheiser HD 201 headphones ($20), combined they cost me about $43 with taxes.

I plugged them into my computer (Sony Vaio FS 550) and played some tracks from iTunes and couldn't believe that this setup actually sounds pretty decent...but considering the price it's ridiculously good!

The TBAA Micro soundcard is about the size of a regular USB flash drive (or thumb) and brings about a much appreciated improvement in sound compared to the headphone out directly from the computer, which just doesn't provide enough output to properly drive even the HD 201s which have a rated impedance of 24 ohms (though it seems like it's more). As people have suggested in the past the sound quality of the TB soundcard is about that of an iPod, for better or worse...but this thing is $20 bucks! I would also suggest to use the generic USB drivers already on your Win XP as others have already suggested which is cleaner than the ones proveded on their CD. In other words, just plug it into an available USB slot and your computer will recognize it as a USB audio device and install the proper drivers all by itself.

As for the HD 201, I had some apprehensions as there were people that didn't like their's too much. But there are others that seem to really appreciate them, particularly HeadRoom. But I figure for $20, heck...why not. Well, I know it's all plastic and pleather, but my gosh...how does Senn manage to build these things cheap enough to make any money? The build and finish is better than what I would expect for a $20 pair of headphones and the sound is simply unbeatable at this price. I mean really what headphones remotely in this price range manages complete circumaural ear pads and have this type of balanced sound with nothing obviously obstrusive? So it's not the last word in imaging or detail or soundstaging or extension...but these should easily outclass most headphones 3 to 4 times their cost.

I think for the newbies on a shoe string budget stumbling into Head-Fi, just plunk down the $50 including shipping and get the heck out before doing any more damage to the wallet.

 

[Tyll Hertsens]

Or 5 to 10 times the price. However, I'll admit that they need some poop to drive them. But, OMG, what a nice call on this device; it's, no doubt, just the BB2902 USB chip in a dongle, but: I want one now!

Sometimes, this hobby is just plain idiotic.

 

[Oski]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tyll Hertsens Or 5 to 10 times the price.

Yeah, I was originally going to put in more than 5x the price, but I thought people may think my sanity may be in question....but now that you've chimed in with that ratio, people will for sure think both our sanities are in question.

 

[erikzen]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tyll Hertsens OMG, what a nice call on this device; it's, no doubt, just the BB2902 USB chip in a dongle, but: I want one now!

Is it proper grammar to use the word "dongle" in the same sentence with a colon?

I agree that the HD201's are an amazing piece of work. Granted, when I heard them it was through a new HeadRoom Max and Meridian CD player, but still, they just ain't natural!

 

[lan]

I'm looking forward to hearing these at your place next time

SHould be burned in by then eh?

 

[lini]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tyll Hertsens (...) it's, no doubt, just the BB2902 USB chip in a dongle, but: I want one now! (...)

Sorry, but even if you don't doubt it to be BB2902-based: There's just C-Media inside. Should be the CM102, iirc, whereas Miglia's HarmonyExpress (difference to TB AAM: the Miglia doesn't have an optical s/p-dif out, but an additional mic input) should use the CM108.

Greetings from Hannover!

Manfred / lini

 

[cmirza]

I was also plesantly surprised by the Turtle Beach Audio Advantage. I used it on my desktop until I got my Go-Vibe. The noise floor is a little bit higher than the Go-Vibe but the sound quality was head and shoulders above that of my old SB Live. Oski got it right, a Turtle Beach Audio Advantage makes a great, inexpensive source. And don't use the bundled drivers, plug it in and let WinXP install the Generic USB Audio drivers. Another good alternative to the HD201s, would be KSC75s. I used them with the TBAA and they also sound rediculously good together. The TBAA should definately be up there as one of the great values in audio.

 

[blessingx]

I picked up a Turtle Beach Audio Advantage Micro two weeks ago, to give a try, and I'm not sure if it was broken (unfortunately my local Fry's only had one in stock), but dropped audio and had pops quite often. This is without any drivers installed just straight from CoreAudio (Micro is suppose to work this way on a Mac, you lose the option for 5.1 and 'environments' is all). I admit it sounded quite decent (tried it with Scott Nixon and HD650), but only going 5 secs at a time without an issue made it unusable. I know this sounds like (especially to Windows users) a driver issue, but this is how it is suppose to work with a Mac and how (though not connected at the time) I run an Xitel to my stereo without problems. Again, my unit could have been a lemon. Would be curious to try again, just don't have much faith in it at the moment.

 

[episiarch]

I'm glad to see others like the little Turtle Beach unit. I've been a fan for some time. I've only used with the bundled drivers, though, and with them I rate it as very good but clearly lower-fi than the iPod, especially in the extended treble. I'll have to try removing those drivers and see what I can get out of it.

Too bad, though. I thought the pseudo-3D effect provided by the drivers was kinda neat, and I sometimes used the equalizer as well.

 

[Oski]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lan I'm looking forward to hearing these at your place next time SHould be burned in by then eh?

Okay, but I'll have to give it 200 hours before critical listening and then you can do one of your uber expensive DAC1 mods on it....

 

[Oski]

Just as an update, I've given it a few more hours and have now also tried listening to the TBAA Micro with my MS-2i and DT 880 and the HD 201 with my Overture/SR 71 setup...and the conclusion is the TBAA Micro and HD 201 just happen to have incredible synergy (the parts are actually much less than the sum of the whole).

The TBAA Micro with the MS-2i is much too forward and compressed with some odd lower treble emphasis. On bass heavy tracks there is not enough control to maintain the type of bass and dynamics the MS-2i’s are capable of. The forwardness is corrected with the DT 880 which generally has a wider soundstage, but because of their inefficiency (250 ohms) the TBAA Micro does not have what it takes to drive them effectively, so the sound doesn't quite blossom, resulting in a flat and dull sonic picture.

As for the HD 201 I tried them directly out of the iPod headphone out and frankly it sounds like poo, just washed out and not clear. For the rated 24 ohms, it certainly seems to need a lot more oomph to get them going. Then I tried them with my Overture/SR-71 combo…ah much better. The soundstage opened up with actually a semblance of space and depth. But the response is a bit odd throughout the spectrum and not the most natural sounding and a tad distant (but I'm used to this setup with my DT 880 and MS-2i), however the HD 201 still sounded pretty decent nonetheless.

Then back to the TBAA Micro and the HD 201 pairing. Wow, the sound that drove me to the crazy rave from last night returns. There is just something so very right when the two are combined. I mean they just sound balanced, slightly on the warm side of neutral, spatial, detailed, and as I said before RIDICULOUSLY GOOD! Maybe these budget pieces just refuse to partner up with more expensive equipment, instead taking a united proletariat stance against the bourgeois to show that budget components can take on the big boys like David against Goliath…and in this case the sling aims true.

 

[Emon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tyll Hertsens it's, no doubt, just the BB2902 USB chip in a dongle

Huhuh, you said 'dongle'.

 

[Teerawit]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oski Just as an update, I've given it a few more hours and have now also tried listening to the TBAA Micro with my MS-2i and DT 880 and the HD 201 with my Overture/SR 71 setup...and the conclusion is the TBAA Micro and HD 201 just happen to have incredible synergy (the parts are actually much less than the sum of the whole).

Hey dude that's pretty cool...you just picked the TBAA Micro and HD201 off the shelves and found synergy. I wish my sonic-matching skills were that easy!

 

[JWFokker]

Quote:

Originally Posted by erikzen Is it proper grammar to use the word "dongle" in the same sentence with a colon?

I thought it was funny. This crowd must be a bunch of prudes.

 

[OniVerde]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oski Just as an update, I've given it a few more hours and have now also tried listening to the TBAA Micro with my MS-2i and DT 880 and the HD 201 with my Overture/SR 71 setup...and the conclusion is the TBAA Micro and HD 201 just happen to have incredible synergy (the parts are actually much less than the sum of the whole). Then back to the TBAA Micro and the HD 201 pairing. Wow, the sound that drove me to the crazy rave from last night returns. There is just something so very right when the two are combined. I mean they just sound balanced, slightly on the warm side of neutral, spatial, detailed, and as I said before RIDICULOUSLY GOOD! Maybe these budget pieces just refuse to partner up with more expensive equipment, instead taking a united proletariat stance against the bourgeois to show that budget components can take on the big boys like David against Goliath…and in this case the sling aims true.

I just ordered a pair of HD201's to go with my TBAA Micro.

This will be my first pair of closed phones.