[Apfelmus]

Hello,

I am using a notebook from hp (elitebook), spotify premium and bt headphones from sony.
I am intending to upgrade my setup in order to increase the sound quality. Do I need a cable headphone for example?

 

[Sonic Defender]

You need to provide more information, that is the first step in getting good input. For instance, what specifically do you hope to improve on? What do you think that your current setup lacks for your needs/preferences? What type of music do you listen to? Do you need open or closed headphones? What sound characteristics are most important to you .. neutrality, a little warmth, sound stage, extreme detail …. Once you give the community more information they can better make suggestions targeted towards your preferences/needs. Good luck.

 

[Apfelmus]

Hey thx for your reply.

I am listening to hip hop, indie rock and classical music.
I prefer to have closed headphones.
In general, I hope to increase the sound clarity. I am not sure if I am fully making use of spotify's sound quality with my bt headphones.

 

[Sonic Defender]

No worries. So this answer won't cover everything, but I'll go off of what I think addresses your current situation. The sound quality from the laptop would certainly be acceptable, but definitely not stellar. I would be shocked if the headphone input on your laptop was connected to a good circuit so there is no reason that Bluetooth can't sound even better. Saying that it depends on the Bluetooth chip in your laptop and what codecs' it can use. AAC is excellent, every bit as good as Apt X, Apt X HD in my experience. So if you have decent Bluetooth with your laptop the Sony XM3 is very good, I use the XM3 myself. However, you can easily make the XM3 sound better as the stock signature is rather muddy due to excessive bass energy. Frankly it sounds very underwhelming stock, and I like strong bass response.

I would strongly encourage you to find a system wide EQ that you can install on your computer, or by JRiver Media Center and use the WDM driver option as it allows you to take the audio stream from your web browser (Spotify in your case if you use the web based option) and process it through JRiver so you could use the built in parametric EQ. Regardless of how you achieve it, absolutely you need to experiment and trim the bass down with the XM3. Once you find the proper attenuation you will hear just how good the XM3 can sound. Once the bass muddiness is cleared up you will have a more clear and balanced signature with solid bass response.

When I first received my XM3 I was going to return them right away as they sounded like such a muddy bass mess to me, but I decided to try equalizing them instead and I am very pleased with the results. So if you don't want to spend any additional money, and you may not need to, try cleaning up the XM3 first and reevaluate. If after that experiment you still aren't satisfied there are plenty of great options available to you such as adding a USB DAC/amp, but depending on your needs/goals, you may not even need to do that.

EDIT: Just noticed that you didn't mention which Sony BT headphone you used. Not sure why I thought that you had said you were using the XM3. I must be confusing you with another poster somewhere. My apology and my answer may not be very useful in this case. What headphone model from Sony are you using?

 

[Apfelmus]

No, you are right I am using the xm3 as written in the thread title.

Thank your for your reply, I will try the trial version of JRiver Media. My notebook is the hp 850 g3 and has bluetooth 4.0 (not sure whether this answers your question).

 

[Sonic Defender]

No, you are right I am using the xm3 as written in the thread title.

Thank your for your reply, I will try the trial version of JRiver Media. My notebook is the hp 850 g3 and has bluetooth 4.0 (not sure whether this answers your question).

Yes, I see that it was part of your thread title, my bad. I thought that I had read you had an XM3. Likely the Bluetooth on your laptop will not be the best in terms of codec support so one logical step would be to begin researching DACs that have good quality two-way Bluetooth so that you could use your laptop with JRiver and Spotify while also transmitting Bluetooth to your headphone. That would come only after you decide if the XM3 with some equalization can be cleaned up and made to be more satisfying to your preference. If not, you then have new decisions to be made such as do you even stay with Bluetooth or do you get a desktop DAC/amp to use with your laptop.

I would say that if you do end up moving towards a desktop setup in conjunction with your laptop that you seriously consider making sure that whatever kit you decide on that Bluetooth is properly implemented in the design. We are now at the point where Bluetooth is capable of delivering very stable connections with very high-quality audio as well so unless you enjoy being tethered up by wires likely you will find the added benefit of having Bluetooth capability to be very important. I haven't kept up as much on devices that implement two-way Bluetooth capability, but there certainly are some. I believe in the DAP world FiiO offers it with the M11 and M15, but I am sure there are more offerings available from other companies as well.

Obviously your phone can also simplify everything if you are content with it as a source, but having a phone be your primary audio source isn't without potential issues so I get why most people prefer to use their phone as a secondary source or only for when they are on the go. Good time for you now as you have so many possible options and approaches that you can take, and nearly everything we can choose from these days produces quite good sounding results.

 

[tmb821]

I use amazon hd on my hp stream. I use a Fiio k3 as a dac and a schiit magni heresy to power my hifiman he-4xx. I have found it to be a superior sound to the Bluetooth in the laptop. I also use the Boom 3D equalizer app, it is a system wide eq that allows me to fine tune the sound.
hope any of that helps!