AsleepInTheBack
03.19.24 | An odyssey
What do you use
When did you use them
Why |
Colton
03.19.24 | my sony xm4’s were a life changing purchase. it’s insane that loving music as much as I always have, I didn’t get a really good pair of headphones until december 2021. I would love to go all out and get a really crazy $1000+ pair but they don’t really make wireless bluetooth headphones like that with good noise cancellation and I mostly listen to music at work, on walks or at the gym so it’s probably not worth it |
Futures
03.19.24 | been a bose guy forever. first pair of over the ear back in the day. got the qc45's a few years back and they've been a revelation. i know audiophiles will tell you it's not the highest quality for the price but they are by a large distance the most comfortable headphones i've ever worn. forget they are on. so worth it. got some anker p2's for working out, amazing for the price. |
Ryus
03.19.24 | i thought this was about user headphones may he rest in peace
i have the sony wh1000xm3 theyre fine ig idk im not an audiophile i just wanted something with noise cancelling |
Colton
03.19.24 | i also got a pair of bose quiet comfort ultra earbuds from my work which are pretty sweet but i’m just not an earbuds guy. they’re a great backup pair to have though |
Ryus
03.19.24 | earbuds suck yeah |
zakalwe
03.19.24 | 700 quid. Fuck that. |
SteakByrnes
03.19.24 | sony xm4s for my wireless and then senn hd6xx for my wired rn, love both a lot |
fogza
03.19.24 | I have the Sony wh1000xm5. It's ok. Also have super cheap JBL earbuds so if I lose them it doesn't matter. They're not bad considering the dirt cheap price |
bellovddd
03.19.24 | i use earbuds at work and Sennheiser HD660S at home. |
budgie
03.19.24 | hell yeah focal!!! |
Ryus
03.19.24 | are they rly that good
i might get 5 i need an upgrade |
AsleepInTheBack
03.19.24 | I mean they’re a bit unnecessary and over the top and way too much money and diminishing returns and all that but I have only had them for one day and I love them. Played In Rainbows and started bawling like a baby.
Probably not worth the money, they aren’t twice as good as my old Bose, but definitely better, and I figured music is my main passion hobby etc, if they last me 10 years like my Bose basically did then it’s like £70 per year, and I can live with that. |
budgie
03.19.24 | every brand has good and bad stuff but im a focal fanboy
you can get focal clears second hand for under a g |
AsleepInTheBack
03.19.24 | I think high end headphones seem (from my 1 evening with them) to matter more for jazz and electronic and the like. I jammed Jane Doe with these and it sounds identical to the Bose, whereas Giant Steps now sounds insane. Also tried Iglooghost and it sounded completely different and brilliant. |
Hyperion1001
03.19.24 | been rocking beyerdynamics for over a decade now. have both DT990s and DT770s and run them through a Soundavo HP-DAC 1.
ive tried a few real expensive cans and wasnt impressed enough to justify spending that much money on a pair. |
Colton
03.19.24 | isn't noice cancellation a wild concept? imagine how it felt when people discovered that exists |
Sevengill
03.20.24 | I have Jabra Elite 65t's, which are in-ear wireless buds. They have a pretty big casing, but if they fit your ears, they're amazing. They come with an app where you can adjust the sound environment, play downloadable soundscapes, or use a microphone in the earbuds to mix music with nearby background sounds (i.e. someone trying to talk to you or traffic while crossing the street). Very cool for about $70, since they're a few years old now. |
ArsMoriendi
03.20.24 | Headphones was a good user |
Dewinged
03.20.24 | My teens: broken earbuds, I still remember the crackling. They were plugged to a walkman so it was charmingly terrible.
My 20s: probably got a discman and October Rust at some point and it blew my head off, still shitty earbuds though:
My early 30s: blank spots, didn't jam much music but made a lot of my own. It was shit.
My late 30s: Entered the Sennheiser universe. Can't remember the model but broke and bought another pair, I joined Sput around the time.
Early 40s: AKG open, used it for monitoring and recorded more music. They leak sound like a mf.
Recently: Bluetooth Sony earbuds. Incredible sound, perfect choice for commuting.
And just months ago: Finally made the jump and got the Meze 90s classic for like 300$. You have to tweak the EQ if you don't plug it to a proper amp but once you do, holy shit, it makes you want to revisit your entire library. |
Pikazilla
03.20.24 | focals are so good
I got a pair of utopias and the sound is just out of this world |
zakalwe
03.20.24 | At what cost though mate? |
AsleepInTheBack
03.20.24 | Jesus aren’t the utopia like $5000? Would you like to give me them? |
zakalwe
03.20.24 | Fuck me. They are as well. |
Pikazilla
03.20.24 | I got them for 4,500 quid, but they are so worth it |
Demon of the Fall
03.20.24 | I only use Sennheisers at the minute, open bulky ones at home and on-ear closed cup on commutes. I've had an AKG noise-cancelling pair and portable Bose on-ear in the past. Nothing crazy expensive though
I'd like to enter the next tier up but I'm not at all unsatisfied with my current pairs, just a case of FOMO
Maybe when I finally obtain a vinyl set-up I can seek some out |
Pikazilla
03.20.24 | vinyl is a fad |
Demon of the Fall
03.20.24 | yeah, but it seems fun |
zakalwe
03.20.24 | Vinyl is great
4 and a half grand on headphones is absolute insanity. |
AsleepInTheBack
03.20.24 | I mean, I’d buy them if I had that kind of money, but I gotta buy food and shit
Vinyl is a terrific waste of money I love it. Started getting my partner into it and it’s a disaster |
Mort.
03.20.24 | i need to get some earplugs for botch shiieeeet cant find mine |
Demon of the Fall
03.20.24 | If someone was to hand me 4.5k then yeah sure I'd definitely consider... erm, not actually buying headphones and instead fund a new boiler / pay off a chunk of the mortgage, lol |
DePlazz
03.20.24 | 4.5k wtf, I'm not even ready to spend that on a higher-end sound system for the entire house/family.
Have various sets of bose & senn now, would love an upgrade |
Pikazilla
03.20.24 | no boiler would cost four and a half grand, demon, unless you're living in a mansion |
zakalwe
03.20.24 | Listening to nearly 10000 albums through five grand headphones and 2.5ing Nirvana is absolute peak brat. |
Demon of the Fall
03.20.24 | you wanna bet Pika? Top of the range brand / proper installer etc. yep, most of that will be gone in no time |
Pikazilla
03.20.24 | install it yourself, ez
I hope your walls are double insulated lmao |
Demon of the Fall
03.20.24 | lol, no chance could I do it
I mean even people who do this for a job screw it up regularly, you won't get the proper efficiency if they half-ass it. We're hoping to 'get some of the cost' back via cheaper bills |
zakalwe
03.20.24 | Death by Carbon Monoxide, corpse found donning a swish pair of headphones. |
Pikazilla
03.20.24 | going out with swag innit |
mkmusic1995
03.20.24 | Right now my best pair of headphones is a $130 pair of Sennheiser open backs. They sound pretty solid for the price but I'm definitely in the market for an upgrade. |
AsleepInTheBack
03.20.24 | “No boiler would cost four and a half grand, demon, unless you're living in a mansion”
No joke I live in a 3 bed house and got quoted £5000 to replace the boiler, with no finance option. Madness. Got it replaced in the end for £2800 ish from another company with 0% finance
Adult life is boring |
InfernalDeity
03.20.24 | I have always been an over the ear open back headphone guy. I recently got my first set of iems, the aful performer 8. Mind blowing for classical and metal. I cant listen to metal or classical without them now. |
Maniac!
03.20.24 | I just got my first open-back headphones and I'm a convert. I picked up DT 1990 Pro's and they're amazing |
AsleepInTheBack
03.20.24 | I’ve always gone closed back as usually listen to music on the go, or at work, and can’t really justify bothering everyone around me with my sweet riffs. Do want to invest in some good open backs for home use at some point though. Just don’t know how often I’d actually use them. |
zakalwe
03.20.24 | I have some WH-1000XM5 which do a decent job but I never wear them outside cos I look like a massive bell end.
Have to look sharp and over ears are absolute fashion faux-pas. |
Hyperion1001
03.20.24 | gotta be honest, spending 4.5k on headphones is peak audiophile delusion.
ive got some platinum plated diamond RCA cables to sell you too lol. |
Ryus
03.20.24 | listening to prowler of the yard from my iphone speaker rn |
Pikazilla
03.20.24 | 'gotta be honest, spending 4.5k on headphones is peak audiophile delusion.'
I made the jump from 150 quid headphones and I don't care enough to research the market to look into this shit. It's not like it made a dent in my bank account anyway. And from what I know cables don't really matter THAT much as long as you get decent ones. |
Ryus
03.20.24 | post your pay stub and credit card info |
Beardog
03.20.24 | Had a lot of apple earpods or whatever they were called when in high school.
Switched over to some Sony pods which were +-€30 I think, after that Urbanears Bagis. Then I owned a headphone which I forgot the name of, was around +-€70. With that purchase I was sold on headphones, sadly it broke down due to failing cables due to all the cycleing quite quickly. Owned Sennheiser Momentum 3 (€300) after, where the cable also kept breaking due to cycling. 2 years back I bought a B&O Beoplay HX (€499 at the time) which was super nice sound wise and hasn't broken down due to Bluetooth. Also bought Sennheiser Momentum inears whatever they are officially called, they are fucking magnificent for the €200. Bought them for cycling cause a headphone gets quite sweaty. Now planning on buying the Audeze MM-500 when it finally gets in stock in NL to finish it all and never buy anything better ever (I hope). I'll of course keep the Beoplay HX for at work / in trains / in planes. InEars I'll keep using when cycling/walking or when I need something small to travel with. |
zakalwe
03.20.24 | No mean to pry and by all means tell us to mind my business but what on Earth do you do for a living? |
Feather
03.20.24 | My fiance has been begging for the Apple Airpods Max for the past 6 months despite me telling her she can use my Audio Technicas M50 Bluetooths whenever she wants ... I finally caved and got them for her, havnt tested them out but I anticipate they are great but not worth what I spent on them. |
Beardog
03.20.24 | Me? I work as an engineer and spend 50% of my day with music so to be honest I think the headphones are really not expensive if you think how much time you use them. Some of my friends have cars as a hobby, trust me, a lot more money goes into something like that hahaha |
Demon of the Fall
03.20.24 | “It's not like it made a dent in my bank account anyway“
do you fancy investing in my cryptocurrency business? Maybe some NFTs on the side? |
Pikazilla
03.20.24 | nah, mate, crypto and NFT bros are omega cringe |
Beardog
03.20.24 | lol it was about pika obviously my bad. Good stuff being that rich though Pika lmfao |
zakalwe
03.20.24 | lol Bear
Pika. What are you upto 🤔 |
Pikazilla
03.20.24 | Zak I am what you all hate
I am a landlord |
Avagantamos
03.20.24 | i have a pair of ATH-WS1100is, and some sennheiser momentum true wireless 2 earbuds for at work. they're both pretty good, but I much prefer listening on my desktop speakers |
zakalwe
03.20.24 | ‘I am a landlord’
You dirty bastard. |
protokute
03.20.24 | i have possibly the most basic Sennheiser Bluetooth (HD200 or HD250 can't recall) headphone which I bought it really cheap, but I use it only when taking the bus/metro, at home I have a pair of Edifier speakers. Good headphones are crazy expensive here in Brazil |
Beardog
03.20.24 | So are you a good landlord or a bad landlord Pika?
On topic: Probably gonna order a Cambridge Audio DacMagic 200 next week as a preparation for the Audeze |
Ryus
03.20.24 | pika shuts off the water on his tenants if he catches them listening to djent |
Hyperion1001
03.20.24 | “So are you a good landlord or a bad landlord Pika?”
no such thing as a good landlord. |
Beardog
03.20.24 | Eh, you'll always have people rent instead of buy so when that's the case you need landlords anyhow |
AsleepInTheBack
03.20.24 | Pika if it didn’t put a dent in your bank account i assume you wouldn’t mind buying me and the rest of us a pair thanks |
Beardog
03.20.24 | yeah thanks Pika!!! |
budgie
03.20.24 | i also have utopias pika 🙌 |
theBoneyKing
03.20.24 | https://www.sputnikmusic.com/soundoff.php?albumid=36424 |
ReiniEden
03.20.24 | All I use are Koss KSC75's with an EQ setting from the AutoEQ project on github. Sometimes I use my Sennheiser HD599s also with EQ. |
AsleepInTheBack
03.20.24 | Thanks boney
Thanks pika |
PitchforkArms
03.20.24 | If I'm seated and not moving or am doing critical listening or mixing, I am using AKG K701. For the money, they are pretty top notch, and I am not convinced that the juice is worth the squeeze for headphones at the higher pricepoints, especially comparatively.
If I'm up and moving, I just use airpods for simplicity, or I use shitty 3M ear protection headphones if I am doing construction, mowing the lawn, or any other loud work - they sound awful but maintain a charge for like 30 hours and do the much needed protection that noise cancelling headphones don't do. |
Colton
03.21.24 | did you guys know iphone has a feature to track the current volume output of your headphones? i've been pleased to learn that my volume level is always within the healthy range at which no damage occurs. usually around 70-75 db |
unclereich
03.21.24 | i thought this was about user headphones may he rest in peace[2] |
Futures
03.21.24 | ihihihihihihi blatho |
Demon of the Fall
03.21.24 | "pika shuts off the water on his tenants if he catches them listening to djent"
lmao (probably pop-punk too) |
BaselineOOO
03.21.24 | Get the Meze Empyrean II, there are no better headphones. Maybe the Audeze LCD-5 or the Focal Utopia but they're nearly double the price. |
AsleepInTheBack
03.21.24 | Damn they’re still 2k. I never fully comprehend my peasantry until this day. |
BaselineOOO
03.21.24 | It's strange because my least and favorite headphones, Meze 99 classics vs. Empyrean II, are made by the same company. It's also strange that they're made in Romania, very close to my home village! |
BaselineOOO
03.21.24 | Listen, you spend 2k dollars, which in most western countries is basically a random shit minimum wage any idiot can earn, and you'll enjoy music on a level that 99.99% of the population doesn't, for years and years. If you are not willing to work a total of 22 days in a month to acquire this level of audio then you 100% hate music and your taste in music is probably disgusting. That's how I think of it.
Spending 2k or 5k or even 10k dollars on audio hobby is nothing. I don't get what the big deal is about. Imagine spending 20-100 bucks on crappy audio products and then PRETENDING to love music for the rest of your life wtf, that's truly insane. |
AsleepInTheBack
03.21.24 | My peasantry intensifies |
Demon of the Fall
03.21.24 | Baseline with some nice pasta right there
idk, like could I purchase crazy expensive headphones? Yeah. But, like, I wanna pay off my mortgage and shit. Not to mention the wife would bloody kill me!
maybe when I'm older / retired and living the good life (I hope) |
AsleepInTheBack
03.21.24 | “Not to mention the wife would bloody kill me! “
Lol [2] this! When I bought the £700 ones she was like “this better not eat in to our house renovation savings” and I gulped because uhhhhhhh it does oops |
Demon of the Fall
03.21.24 | haha, yep we moved a couple of years back and have been putting the bulk of our finances towards necessary home improvements
Now, we still have money for 'fun' so I could justify some expenditure there, but that sort of money is entering significant outlay territory (and that's my own estimation, not the wife's - although presumably she'd feel similarly)
One thought I did have is that I haven't bought a home game console since my PS4, so maybe I'll just skip this gen entirely and use this 'budget' to buy headphones instead. Plenty of old games I can play and that hobby is definitely secondary to music |
garas
03.21.24 | Holy chocolate milk, those prices! :0
And here I am with Panasonic RP-HJE125E earphones which worths like 10$... (But I swear these are shockingly good.) |
Colton
03.21.24 | i know baseline is trolling (sloppily and unfunnily, shit technique) but isn’t minimum wage less than $100 a day in a lot of states |
AsleepInTheBack
03.21.24 | @demon for sure for sure
My partner got on board with my purchase in the end cause she was like you spend all your time listening to music anyway, so better to divert what fun money I have saved into that hobby, rather than whittling it a way on less meaningful stuff, even if £700 is a big upfront expense for us. PS5 is coming to the end of its life cycle anyways, apparently, which is kinda mad, given not that many unique games came out on it. |
AsleepInTheBack
03.21.24 | I’m being hypocritical though cause I bought a ps5 like a year ago and I love it lol |
SteakByrnes
03.21.24 | you better spend a lot of money on headphones or else you hate music!!! lol so stupid |
BaselineOOO
03.21.24 | @colton
Lol first of all I mean the real west, Europe; who cares about the United States wtf? Also $100 a day still makes $3000 a month, which is more than enough for excellent top of the line headphones, assuming you don't spend your money on frivolous things. But then again, audiophilia and high IQ are directly proportional, so it only reinforces my point that some people are just not meant to enjoy music recordings in their highest form, because they're too busy monkeying around, eating garbage food, going out, living the slave-like busy city life. |
Demon of the Fall
03.21.24 | $100 a day seems way too high anyway, like wtf that can't be the 'minimum' unless living costs are absolutely barmy (maybe they are) and therefore surely it would depend on which state you lived in? |
Ryus
03.21.24 | minimum wage in my state is 15 bucks an hour which is $120 per day if you’re working full time |
Demon of the Fall
03.21.24 | admittedly I'm not up-to-date on my currency conversions but that sounds like a lot, then again cost of living might be silly / you have to pay x amount for healthcare etc. |
Pikazilla
03.21.24 | free healthcare in uk is dogshit anyway, you're better off kicking the bucket in most cases |
Ryus
03.21.24 | apparently that comes out to £94 a day
cost of living is quite silly indeed! i pay the equivalent of 1700 pounds in rent for a one bedroom |
Pikazilla
03.21.24 | ryus does that include utilities |
Ryus
03.21.24 | no lol |
Pikazilla
03.21.24 | yeah, I feel in the modern day and age if you don't make at least five grand a month (uk currency) post tax in big cities, then you're kinda fucked
luckily remote work has become increasingly common so you can live in a smaller town while working a big city centre job |
Ryus
03.21.24 | yes it is quite absurd
and i’m in the process of moving to an even more expensive city 😪 |
DoofDoof
03.21.24 | split mortgage £1500 per month
ok, not too awful
childcare £1550 per month
oh shit
|
gravityswitch
03.21.24 | I live with 1900€ a month with a single child in a big city, in France.
I have shitty earplugs tho (and beyerdynamics dt 770 at home) |
Ryus
03.21.24 | audiophilia is a disease |
Havey
03.21.24 | i once joined an audiophile discord community just to see what they were listening to and it's all video game soundtracks and k-pop - they are gooning out they are goons |
Demon of the Fall
03.21.24 | "i pay the equivalent of 1700 pounds in rent for a one bedroom"
oh, yeah that'll do it... wtf? lol
I mean, it doesn't surprise me because I've heard similar things before, but damn is that still insane money to me (especially as someone who lives in the NORTH of England, which doesn't compare to the south at all - especially London and the surrounding areas) |
AsleepInTheBack
03.21.24 | My mortgage is like £1500 a month atm but for a 3 bed, £1700 rent for a 1 bed is big sucks man |
Demon of the Fall
03.21.24 | technically we have a '4 bed' (even though the loft conversion isn't ever used as a bedroom). I won't tell you how (relatively) little we pay as y'all will undoubtedly be well jelly
would be expecting... "yeah but the north is shithole" as a riposte either way, so that's another reason for abstaining from gloating |
protokute
03.21.24 | guys, can someone please reassure me that Baseline doesn't truly mean anything she says |
Pikazilla
03.21.24 | north england is v nice wdym
essex has been and will forever be the true english shithole |
Demon of the Fall
03.21.24 | what's wdym?
I mean not ALL of it is great, obviously
our hometown is pretty sweet tho. Very picturesque views, 'countryside-ish' but with amenities / close to the city. Decent balance |
Pikazilla
03.21.24 | wdym = what do you mean
I love some of the scenery in the north yeah. |
AsleepInTheBack
03.21.24 | I miss the north. Live in the midlands. Family all based up north. Sucks. |
protokute
03.21.24 | i would love to visit the english countryside someday... |
Demon of the Fall
03.21.24 | "I miss the north. Live in the midlands. Family all based up north. Sucks."
I see you have the opposite problem to me then!
well, my wife's family are all from Yorkshire, but mine are from London (and my mum and brother live 'in-between' - in separate parts of Northants) |
Pikazilla
03.21.24 | Yorkshire? Your wife must have a sexy accent |
BaselineOOO
03.21.24 | Why is the US and even the UK so much more expensive than let's say France and Germany? By people's descriptions, life in anglosphere seems crazy expensive and exclusivistik nowadays, which is weird, considering these countries are losing their global influence. Here in DE I could survive well enough on 1000 dollars a month, rent and expenses if I tried (luckily I'm rich but that's another story). |
Pikazilla
03.21.24 | yeah you aren't surviving on a thousand quid a month even if you own your flat
not sure about the us, but uk is expensive because we produce fuck all and don't have any natural resources |
BaselineOOO
03.21.24 | "yeah you aren't surviving on a thousand quid a month even if you own your flat"
You make the UK sound dystopic af, but I have never went to Britain so what do I know! Germany is dirt cheap for basic survival. You can easily manage with 500 euros rent and taxes + 500 (more than enough) on groceries at Aldi, Lidl, Kaufland, you name it. But I do not live in a "big" city, so yeah, maybe that's that. I swear I had almost 6500 euros net wage and I saved like 4500 of it 2 months ago, and even went to restaurants a couple of times and paid my own gas. |
Ryus
03.21.24 | i mean the places im talking about are some of the most expensive places in the world due to low housing stock, desirable location, lots of jobs, high wages, etc. most areas in the us wont have you paying north of 2k for a one bedroom |
Demon of the Fall
03.21.24 | “yeah you aren't surviving on a thousand quid a month even if you own your flat”
pretty sure I could, even in London
People are just shit with money
|
smaugman
03.21.24 | i have sennheiser momentum 4. good overall, one weird bug that sometimes come, but the best thing is its insane battery time of like 60 hours WITH ANS |
Pikazilla
03.21.24 | 'pretty sure I could, even in London
People are just shit with money'
don't forget you still have bills to pay, it's not just a thousand quid on food obviously |
Demon of the Fall
03.21.24 | I have no car
I have no kids
I have a mobile phone contract of £7 a month
I have no absolute requirement to take out fancy TV packages, certainly wouldn’t have movies / sport in this scenario or mega fast fibre (i.e. if I lived alone)
I use / wear stuff till it falls apart, the wife usually has a word first
I last got a haircut a year ago
Yeah I’d be fine |
frozencarl
03.21.24 | love the north of England, spent some time there in undergrad. Chester and York are very pretty.
re: the thread, I use airpod pros i got years back that make this annoying scratchy noise every now and then that Apple wont replace since I got mine a month after their cutoff for getting em replaced for free. pretty unlucky. I have some open back Sennheisers at home but don't use em as much as I should |
Pikazilla
03.21.24 | what about transport costs, demon?
or do you work remotely? |
Demon of the Fall
03.21.24 | yes, but this is the ‘I live in London’ scenario, wouldn’t be too bad as presumably I’d be working there too
The budget you provided me with would be sufficient for my necessities I reckon, quite easily in fact
Now if you have to pay rent then it’s a whole different ball game |
Pikazilla
03.21.24 | my sister spends around 400 quid a month on her transport card |
AsleepInTheBack
03.21.24 | UK is spenny yeah. My partner is le French and keeps saying we should move to France and buy a mansion and I mean she’s not wrong, it’s so much more affordable. |
AsleepInTheBack
03.21.24 | Problem is I have an IQ of 12 and don’t think I could learn le French I barely speak le English |
Pikazilla
03.21.24 | just work remotely but live in france ez |
PitchforkArms
03.21.24 | This thread sent me on a bit of an internet self-flagellation tour looking up user reviews of nice headphones. What a crock, lol. People will seek to use any adjective that makes them seem what they know what they talk about... "These have such brilliance and punch compared to these others which have more of a glossy sound with lots of impact" - this type of bullshit. All of those descriptor words are great and have actual uses for them. It's ever so barely one step removed from the shite that people say when describing guitar tone "this knob is the scringle and if I do this you can hear the bongle".
A small bit of background to legitimize my annoyance (at least a little bit) - I am an acoustician at a large audio-product corporation and spend loads of time designing, testing, listening, and tuning audio things. The jargoneering is a quick way to make nearly everyone who spends loads of time in the industry disregard everything that is said.
Sorry for the bitching but I got triggd as fuck last night looking through threads of smooth brains arguing about subjective adjectives and how "vinyl is so much more accurate than digital" and needed to verbalize in order to avoid physical meltdown. |
Pikazilla
03.21.24 | honestly, fuck vinyl
I just buy digital because that's the exact mix and sound you'd get on the mastertape, right?
and all those verbose praise-singing texts have got to be written by the marketing teams |
Beardog
03.21.24 | I mean trying to verbalize sound is hard anyway no? Just look at what is said in the reviews on here lmfao |
PitchforkArms
03.21.24 | I have hundreds of old old vinyl records, mostly jazz and country, and it just intrinsically feels *right* to listen to them on vinyl lol. But when it comes to vinyl having any sort of upper-hand on digital, I think we live in times where we solidly do not have to succumb to myths like this... Sure a needle is reading a a format that is unbound by sample rate s and bit depth quantization - but this is offset by the fact that the turntable needle imparts it's own spectral footprint and noise floor on whatever it reads, and you chase the rabbit down the whole monetarily trying to get near what a super cheap (or even built-in) DAC+amp will reproduce (even with 44.1/24 or 48/24 files...). That's not even to mention that most things that were made post-2000-ish are not really recorded, mixed, or mastered for vinyl, other than vinyl-specific masters to accommodate that medium's requirements (but even those are usually just mono-summing bass and limiting certain frequency and spatial-based mixing parameters). Liking collecting vinyl is cool and all, and even enjoying listening to it, but let's not act like it is intrinsically "better"... |
Pikazilla
03.21.24 | Thanks for your detailed reply, pitchfork! It all makes perfect sense. |
budgie
03.21.24 | "My partner is le French and keeps saying we should move to France and buy a mansion and I mean she’s not wrong"
you should do it man france is stupidly pretty |
Pikazilla
03.21.24 | language's garbo tho |
AsleepInTheBack
03.21.24 | I love France, Brittany beautiful Cornwall vibes, southern France warm and wine, alps are also beautiful, central regions blow, otherwise great country. Their food and wine makes England feel like le sucks. I gotta learn French before we have kids anyway as I can’t have them badmouthing me in a language I can’t understand lol. |
Ryus
03.21.24 | yeah one of the ugliest sounding languages def |
budgie
03.21.24 | yeah brittany is gorgeous, i lived there for a while. great people & food, just have to like the rain, awesome beaches there too in the cotes d'armor department running from ploubazlanec over to lannion |
budgie
03.21.24 | also any frankish readin this thread your language is beautiful dont let these Inselaffen get you down
"central regions blow" you should look up lac d'aydat or lac de chambon in auvergne or morvan in burgundy, while rewrite your opinion of the central regions! |
Pikazilla
03.21.24 | france is just an eu principality for money laundering yeah |
gravityswitch
03.21.24 | "also any frankish readin this thread your language is beautiful dont let these Inselaffen get you down"
I mean yeah we don't have the best sounding language but at least it's not Dutch |
Hendoi
03.21.24 | I have beats |
Storm In A Teacup
03.21.24 | "By people's descriptions, life in anglosphere seems crazy expensive and exclusivistik nowadays, which is weird, considering these countries are losing their global influence"
Gotta get the last big money profits before it all collapses. |
Storm In A Teacup
03.21.24 | Demon won this thread kinda. Demon your next step of being a responsible better than other people person is to cut your own hair instead of going to a shop. |
gabba
03.21.24 | German is the best sounding language of them all (not my native language). Listening to Nena or Falco via Grundig headphones is a dream I have. |
Ryus
03.21.24 | i like russian a lot |
Colton
03.21.24 | all languages are cringe. making noises with your mouth? grow up. hit the gym |
budgie
03.21.24 | oh ya colts nothin sexier than body language bb |
Pikazilla
03.21.24 | Italy clears |
Solipsist
03.21.24 | Zmf are best money can buy imo. I have a pair of Auteur Classic and they are perfect. Focal Utopia may be even better tho. I would not know. |
budgie
03.21.24 | utopias shine for classical and vocal, i wouldn't recommend them to someone who listens to techno or hip hop |
Storm In A Teacup
03.21.24 | "oh ya colts nothin sexier than body language bb"
Their name isnt Colton anymore, it is Green Day. |
Storm In A Teacup
03.21.24 | "utopias shine for classical and vocal, i wouldn't recommend them to someone who listens to techno or hip hop"
Im pretty sure thats not far from travis scott tho |
budgie
03.21.24 | isnt that a motorbike sport guy |
Storm In A Teacup
03.21.24 | Thats a rapper. He sells bmx bikes on the side. |
protokute
03.22.24 | waiting on the language rank list |
budgie
03.22.24 | "I speak Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men, and German to my horse." and english on the internet |
Colton
03.22.24 | so what are the best headphones you can get that aren’t audible to the people around you |
Colton
03.22.24 | cause nobody can hear my xm4’s which is very important for me |
budgie
03.22.24 | go to a hifi store and sample the closed backs everyone has different tastes |
Colton
03.22.24 | yeah i think i’m gonna have to do that |
Colton
03.22.24 | also there is a 0% chance baseline is employed |
budgie
03.22.24 | hes such a committed troll i kinda almost respect him for the tireless hustle |
Colton
03.22.24 | he tries too hard and it’s actually a lot less effective cause of it |
budgie
03.22.24 | that was my take for the first like 6 years but now its like. do ur thang cuz |
Colton
03.22.24 | the level of sheer attrition is impressive true |
Storm In A Teacup
03.22.24 | Baseline is female you dingbats. And she won $3 million a couple years ago. |
Colton
03.22.24 | sure, storm. let’s get you to bed |
budgie
03.22.24 | whats the best accompaniment to mashed potatoes |
Colton
03.22.24 | ketchup is pretty good |
Colton
03.22.24 | also fish |
budgie
03.22.24 | idk ive had that brandade de morue dish before and i was not lovin it |
Storm In A Teacup
03.22.24 | "sure, storm. let’s get you to bed"
She gave me $5,000 6 months ago. You go to bed. |
DePlazz
03.22.24 | "Not to mention the wife would bloody kill me!" [4]
"honestly, fuck vinyl" [3] |
AsleepInTheBack
03.22.24 | Baseline can I have $5000 worth of headphones pls thanks, pika has let me down |
BaselineOOO
03.22.24 | "also there is a 0% chance baseline is employed"
Why do you say that? With an IQ of 153 and my nice looks it's kind of impossible NOT to be employed, but sure, enjoy your little fantasy. :)
@AsleepInTheBack
No. Nothing personal I just don't care about other people's lives / give charity etc. |
pizzamachine
03.22.24 | I’m so employed right now |
gabba
03.22.24 | Baseline, be a good Christian and give people money so that they can enjoy some decent black metal on high-end headphones. |
AsleepInTheBack
03.22.24 | Peasantry intensifies further |
Feather
03.22.24 | I would like one large Hawaiian Za please |
budgie
03.22.24 | you know what really sounds good on high end cans uh
tchaikovsky op. 35
those strings make my soul weep |
BaselineOOO
03.23.24 | Depends on the recording and the conductor. |
Storm In A Teacup
03.23.24 | "Baseline, be a good Christian and give people money"
Must suck to be a person knowing you could have been a storm. |
Butkuiss
03.23.24 | I go between my ATH M50s and Sony XM4s and I find them both pretty good for the price range. The XM4s have suddenly shit themselves after like eighteen months though - not happy Jan! |
AsleepInTheBack
03.23.24 | Looking at the Meze 190 pro and getting fomo they are so pretty gaaah |
Colton
03.23.24 | what happened to your xm4s buttkiss? |
BaselineOOO
03.23.24 | I wish your ATH M50s break so you consider buying real headphones butkuiss. Denon AH-D5200 is the only answer when talking about portable closed-backs, or AH-7200, any other closed-back headphone is a waste of money. |
Hyperion1001
03.23.24 | yeah I own a pair of ath-m50x’s and I don’t like them at all. extremely bright and harsh, bad mids and muddy bass. probably the most overrated pair of cans on the market.
im gonna start a crowdfund to get donations so I can get a pair of DT1770’s please contribute friends. |
AsleepInTheBack
03.23.24 | Hush now hyp this is my crowd funding page not yours someone send me $5000 |
BaselineOOO
03.23.24 | The DT1770 have the wonkiest bass response ever, harsh highs and scooped, anemic mids. A quick reminder that the Denon AH-D5200 exist. |
AsleepInTheBack
03.23.24 | How do y’all build up an understanding of so many headphone models? Try a bunch in store, or just go through a lot of cans? |
Hyperion1001
03.23.24 | hmm those do look nice. the upper limit im willing to spend on cans is about 500-600. feel like it’s diminishing returns beyond that. |
BaselineOOO
03.23.24 | Denon have great deals, those drop in price to around $350-400 from time to time. They have the most amazing dynamics, bass response and analogue-like sound quality. |
budgie
03.23.24 | @hyp get secondhand focal clears on ebay |
budgie
03.23.24 | also i have a pair of dt 770s but they are garbage i will literally post them to you if you want. but they are garbage. |
BaselineOOO
03.23.24 | Never buy second hand Focals. They have the worst customer service of all brands and their headphones are known to have very low durability. |
budgie
03.23.24 | nice internet meme bro, focal 5 year transferrable warranty, first brand i look at: hifiman, 1 year nontransferrable warranty
anyway if you are stupid enough to break headphones you probably shouldnt be buying them |
budgie
03.23.24 | "analogue-like sound quality." lol |
BaselineOOO
03.24.24 | You ignore the hundred of threads on headfi, reddit and hifiguides about Focal headphones being prone to breaking after as little as 1-2 months of use and their customer support straight up ignoring buyer's warranty claims, then proceed to compare them with Hifiman, the company with the very worst quality control out there, in order to paint them in a positive light. Just because you own one of their headphones doesn't mean you have to be their little bitch too btw. Focal is infamous for not honoring warranties.
Yeah, what I've said is funny, there's no such thing as analogue-like sound quality, but this abysmally stupid line of yours is so much worse: "*certain headphone* shine for classical and vocal, i wouldn't recommend them to someone who listens to techno or hip hop".
You see, what I'm doing is describe something to a newbie in corny terms so he can understand, what you're doing is straight up lying. No headphone is better at any genre than others and you'd know it if you had more than 2 active brain cells.
I wish there was a "block budgie" button. I mean, I expected users here to have shit taste in headphones too, not only in music like they do, but this guy is straight up being deceitful. |
gabba
03.24.24 | I have a super-shit taste in headphones, not only music, would like me blocked by a button please. |
Beardog
03.24.24 | Do the €5k headphone users have an amp+DAC as well or do they just don't care? |
Colton
03.24.24 | takin a close look at these denon ah-d5200s rn |
BaselineOOO
03.24.24 | I drive my $3k headphones with a $200 dac+amp. |
Colton
03.24.24 | baseline sell me on the denons |
Beardog
03.24.24 | Which one Baseline?
@Colton I think just trying them in a store will sell you just fine. |
BaselineOOO
03.24.24 | @Beardog: Topping DX3 Pro+ for my Meze Empyrean II and Sennheiser HD800S, it does a fantastic job. The amplifier can drive any headphone with ease (except some rare few) and the DAC is state of the art. Read the review on audiosciencereview if you want to go into details.
@Colton: If you live in Europe you can find them for very cheap on Amazon.de $300-400, in US they're probably more expensive but they're still worth getting even for around $500. You said you enjoy your Sony xm4 alot, well the Denon obliterates them on all fronts. Just pull the trigger and try 'em out. Remember they have no noise cancelling and other novel features, they're pure audiophile neutral sound. |
AsleepInTheBack
03.24.24 | I’ve been looking into the empyrean (he says, referring to some YouTube scrolling he did earlier today) are they good they are very pretty |
budgie
03.24.24 | "Yeah, what I've said is funny, there's no such thing as analogue-like sound quality, but this abysmally stupid line of yours is so much worse: "*certain headphone* shine for classical and vocal, i wouldn't recommend them to someone who listens to techno or hip hop"."
different headphones have different EQs : https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?attachments/focal-utopia-frequency-response-measurement-png.121878/ as do genres exaggerate different frequency ranges dipshit but why the fuck am i even reading your troll posts |
BaselineOOO
03.24.24 | The first Empyrean were overpriced, totally not worth it, the Empurean TWO are the single greatest pair of headphones I know. PS: I've auditioned most TOTL headphones. |
BaselineOOO
03.24.24 | "different headphones have different EQs as do genres exaggerate different frequency ranges dipshit but why the fuck am i even reading your troll posts"
And different recordings and albums exaggerate different frequency ranges regardless of genre dipshit but why the fuck am i even reading your pathetic monkey opinions.
And headphones have frequency responses, not EQs lmao. EQ is something you apply as post processing to correct the frequency response, not an inherent property of the headphones themselves. |
budgie
03.24.24 | fasho bro enjoy ur analog-like cans |
budgie
03.24.24 | "Do the €5k headphone users have an amp+DAC as well or do they just don't care"
i have an RME ADI-2 which is amp/dac but it's unnecessary, utopias sound just as good from my google smartphone, same with the focal cleans, the sennheisers ive had (HD650s? and borrowed HD800s) were not driven loud without a dedicated amp though, same with beyerdynamics dt770s, and akg701s, hubbub about digital parts of the signal chain flavoring the sound is not something worth paying attention to unless its explicitly meant to change the sound like an eq module, if you need an amp just pay for features, don't pay for "cleaner sound" or whatever, same with DACs |
Pikazilla
03.24.24 | I just use dragonfly cobalt |
Pikazilla
03.24.24 | And I don't use an amp because everything is loud enough and super crisp anyway |
Demon of the Fall
03.24.24 | Hmm, would you get ‘better’ sound out of an entry level Sennheiser + Cobalt vs just buying the next level headphones?
Also, wondering what Base’s rec for open backs in the £250-£350 ish range is. I’m not rich lol |
AsleepInTheBack
03.24.24 | I think beyerdynamics are meant to be pretty good at that price range though I’m no expert |
Demon of the Fall
03.24.24 | Yeah, that brand are supposed to be reputable. I should try a few at the local shop some time as I think some are stocked there |
budgie
03.24.24 | @demon better not to think about headphones being strictly better than one another, most important thing by far is to just get yourself into a hifi shop and sample them yourself, i'm sure in blind testing plenty of people would choose cheaper options. that being said akg701s are fairly affordable at ~200 USD and have really fun imaging. i like them more than the sennheisers i've used and about 1000x more than the beyers i have |
Demon of the Fall
03.24.24 | Oh yeah I realise that, thanks for this info though. Just wanted to try out some more premium options potentially because I haven’t before now
I like AKGs, had some in the past. Their ‘very affordable’ noise-cancelling model was a real eye-opener for me in terms of sound quality, I just didn’t think they were particularly robust (I didn’t misuse them). Having said that I did get another pair free of charge at one point! |
Beardog
03.24.24 | Thanks guys! |
budgie
03.24.24 | very probable that every brand's 'very affordable' line of products won't be particularly robust hah. if you're talking about build quality / structural design |
Transient
03.25.24 | In order, I've owned:
DT 880 Pros
ATH M50s (for listening to stuff on the go)
Hifiman Sundaras
Focal Clears are my current headphones (kinda regret upgrading from the Sundaras tbh)
And for in ear bluetooth the Sennheiser True Momentum 2s
My friend owns Focal Utopias and they're the best headphones I've ever listened to. Second favourites are the Audeze LCD-2s because I love the planar magnetic sound. |
budgie
03.25.24 | yo i have those same earbuds
left bud stopped charging after like a month so i shelved them and have completely forgotten about them
|
Transient
03.25.24 | Yeah I really love the sound that I get out of them but I've had a pair stop working before too (although I'm pretty sure it's because I wore them when I went for a run in the rain like an idiot so prob my fault).
I really wanna get the Technics AZ80s because they look amazing but don't wanna drop that much money on something I might break within a month or two. |
Colton
03.25.24 | I think I'm gonna buy the denons |
budgie
03.25.24 | id advise against taking advice from someone who only speaks in superlatives
"Denon AH-D5200 is the only answer"
"any other closed-back headphone is a waste of money."
lol
i mean at least get your hands on something at a similar price point to compare them against |
Colton
03.25.24 | i am going to buy them on amazon in a blind leap of faith |
Sinternet
03.25.24 | ok why wont it actually post my full comment wtf |
Colton
03.25.24 | they are also beautiful |
Sinternet
03.26.24 | bro wtf
oh TIL list comments don't like less than signs |
Sinternet
03.26.24 | having tested pretty much every major headphone in the under £500 range the ath-r70x are far and away the best in the category
have literally warn these for 18 hour sessions and never noticed they're there, super lightweight and comfy, excellent neutral and wide frequency response. you go up a price bracket and you can find even better but they punch well above their weight,, and beat any other comparable open-back hands down |
Colton
03.26.24 | open back is so limiting though |
budgie
03.26.24 | ya amazon is smart, i bought KEF R300 and focal aria bookshelves and compared them side by side for a week before returning the KEFs with no hassle. more comfy than sitting in hifi shops. kind of a hassle to haul packaged bookshelves to the post though |
z00sh
03.26.24 | "I go between my ATH M50s and Sony XM4s and I find them both pretty good for the price range. The XM4s have suddenly shit themselves after like eighteen months though - not happy Jan!"
i've had mine for the past couple years and they still work pretty well. just gotta take care of them real good.
|
BaselineOOO
03.26.24 | @Budgie, since you advise everybody against my recommendation (totally not for subjective reasons like the fact that I've owned you two times on this thread - let's say), my question is, what do you think is a closed-back headphone that holds a handle to the Denon AH-D5200 in the same price point? I'm waiting. I guess the Focal Elegia is a good alternative, but the frequency response is kind of wonky with too many valleys and peaks.
@Demon: For open-back you could get a Sennheiser HD660s2 on offer or even second-hand since their 6-- lines are built to last decades. I think those are the best open-backs under $400, they're not immediately mind-blowing like some planars (Hifiman Edition XS, Sundara), but they make up for it in frequency smoothness, tonal coherence, more natural timbre, and comfort. Or if you're lucky you might find a used Audeze LCD-2C for around $350 in your area, superb pair of headphones, but it needs a much better amplifier. Alternatively, you could just buy a Hifiman Sundara, they're more technically apt than Sennheisers but they're built like shit, I personally had to replace two pairs and then sold the third. |
budgie
03.26.24 | you should rec colt some nice cable risers dude. get that elusive analog-like sound |
gabba
03.26.24 | OK, so here's a dumb question: should I bother with those high-end expensive headphones if I'm mostly listening to music on my laptop when I need them (at work)? |
AsleepInTheBack
03.26.24 | I think the idea is that if you buy top end headphones and run them through a shitty system, you’re not getting the full potential out of the headphones re sound, so are arguably wasting your money. If you’re gonna run through a laptop, you might want to look at efficiency (I.e. headphones that don’t need much power to run). The Meze 109 Pro are meant to be good for that. But if you’re at work you might want to stick to closed back. Though others above have said they run high end stuff without anything fancy, so idk. It’s all a mystery to me. |
DePlazz
03.26.24 | The general idea these days if you're listening to music from a digital source is to have a decent DAC sitting between the source and your high-end headphones. E.g. a dragonfly cobalt between your laptop or phone and the headphones. Wireless headphones are a different story, they should have a decent built-in dac |
gabba
03.26.24 | Thanks, a DAC is what I was looking for! A Meze 109 Pro may cost a bit too much for my budget, but I'll check for alternatives! |
Beardog
03.26.24 | Ugh I just got a DAC and I'm really surprised by how much a difference it makes. Literally feels like I'm listening to different headphones. |
budgie
03.26.24 | @gabba all DACs that are functional should be indistinguishable, all you need to consider is if your headphones have enough power from the amp module in the laptop, most expensive cans probably won't get very loud, which is where a small headphone amp would service you. if you really don't want to bother with a headphone amp, look for easy to drive headphones, low impedance and high sensitivity. i can't personally back sennheiser hd599s but they are popular and are easy to drive, and not too expensive. there's already a DAC in your laptop, it's not necessarily deteriorating the signal |
Beardog
03.26.24 | So I added a DAC to my B&O Beoplay HX, which I thought would not really get noticeably different with a DAC/Amp attached. But wow, was I wrong. I get 10% more frequency range and it seems like the clarity and stereo imaging is twice as good. And I was already playing from something that was noticeably better than my PC soundcard. |
budgie
03.26.24 | well i don't think the literature supports the possibility that DACs can affect something like stereo imaging
but if that's what you're hearing does it really matter what the literature says 😀 |
Beardog
03.26.24 | Why would a better conversion of a digital to analog audio signal not improve (supposed?) stereo imaging? If audio is put through more clearly then I think that for sure has effect on how the stereo imaging is perceived. Of course the DAC does not literally pan the instruments more or less to the sides, but where it sits in the 'room' really sounds noticeably further apart. Or the 'room' just sounds a lot more clear haha |
budgie
03.26.24 | DAC just takes an (inverse?) fourier transform of the encoded data to reconstruct the original analog signal, it shouldn't change the data, aside from possible degradation, it certainly shouldn't sonically enhance the data |
Beardog
03.26.24 | This is of course compared to the source I previously had, which was a mixing panel from Behringer (which sounded a LOT better than the soundcard in my PC lmfao). Literally speaking obviously the DAC+amp should not enhance the input. But since my previous set-up hard degraded the input, this one doing it a shit ton less does make a huge difference haha |
gabba
03.26.24 | The thing is I had no intention whatsoever to upgrade my shitty gear, but lol ended up ordering a cobalt DAC + Sennheiser HD 660 S2. Thank you all, now I’m happy and relaxed after getting rid of the cash and I’m waiting eagerly to test how the noisy shit I like will sound like. It’s been a journey. |
Beardog
03.26.24 | Oh yeah those Sennheisers are insanely good for their price. Nice gabba, you will thoroughly enjoy it I'm sure! |
budgie
03.26.24 | be sure to deflower them with the roxy music debut. it's tradition |
gabba
03.26.24 | I always use “Take California” by Propellerheads, because it sounds good on almost anything. |
gabba
03.26.24 | Roxy Music is an interesting choice, will consider. This is like entering a secret society, I wonder what the handshake’s like. |
budgie
03.26.24 | 😁 |
AsleepInTheBack
03.26.24 | I want those Sennheisers gimmie that intimacy we will see if/when I get bored of my new Focals this is a potentially expensive rabbit hole I have stumbled down oh dear |
budgie
03.26.24 | which focals you have? |
AsleepInTheBack
03.26.24 | See list entry 5 (Bathys)
I want the utopia but I’m poor and pika won’t pay me |
budgie
03.26.24 | oh cool, i've never gotten my hand on the bathys
if you have heard the utopias and know you like them already, consider clears really, i waffled between the utopias and clears for a long time before settling on the utopias, but they are really similar, if something happened to my utopias i would just buy clears and be happy with them. utopias just have a special shimmer, because the Be doesn't deform as much at high frequency (so it is alleged), so when you're listening to classical, that percussive shimmer is like, sexually gratifying, but otherwise clears are to me 95% of the way there imo. but don't pay 5k anyway wtf, i got them new for much cheaper |
AsleepInTheBack
03.26.24 | Good to know, thanks, especially when the clear are like a fifth of the retail price of the utopia lol |
Colton
03.27.24 | @baseline are the denons audible to others when you're playing music at a reasonable volume (i'm usually at 70-75 db) |
Colton
03.27.24 | also if I buy them how will it affect our sputnik relationship will it make you think i'm cool |
BaselineOOO
03.27.24 | Yes, they leak sound but not a lot. If you're worried about sound leakage then why don't you just buy an IEM? You could get insane sound quality for under $100. You can find the Truthear Hexa for like $60 these days and they're incredibly refined and technical with almost a dead neutral response, which makes it good for all genres. Letshuoer S12 if you want a V-shaped technical monster and listen to music in shorter sessions. Add a little more and get the Truthear Nova, which at $150 and their foam tips are comparable in sound with any expensive headphone up to $1000. |
Butkuiss
03.27.24 | I’m not spending a thousand bucks just to listen to Emmure at the gym, sorry |
AsleepInTheBack
03.27.24 | Sound financial judgement right there |
Demon of the Fall
03.27.24 | definitely bookmarking this thread for when the urge gets overwhelming, I'm already getting an itchy trigger finger tbh
certainly some interesting looking info in here, cheers everyone |
budgie
03.27.24 | colton i think less of you now |
osmark86
03.27.24 | What the actual tit are people spending on headphones in here? If I were to spend like $5k on headphones I'm pretty sure my wife would question my sanity and priorities XD |
budgie
03.27.24 | i'm fixin to spent like 8k on some focal sopras here soon |
Demon of the Fall
03.27.24 | same here osmark, reduce the price by around 90% and I MIGHT get away with it, lol |
Alondite
03.27.24 | My main pair of headphones are a pair of Focal Clear. They're incredible, but they had better be for $1500 MSRP.
They definitely need quality upstream gear to really reach their potential, though. I've got a Schiit Yggdrasil OG for my DAC, my main amp is a DNA Starlett SET tube amp, which rules.
I also have a few other amps. A Nitsch Pietus (which is so good it basically makes every other amp under $1000 irrelevant) and a Schiit Jotunheim 2, though I'm looking to replace that with a Mjolnir 3 which is by all accounts a summit-fi solid-state amp for half or less than what one normally costs. |
Alondite
03.27.24 | Oh, and I'm seeing some talk about the Sennheiser HD660S. Don't buy them, either the S or the S2. They are a straight downgrade from the HD600/650/6XX because the 150 ohm driver used in the new models is a piece of shit compared to the 300 ohm drivers used in the original line.
Some people think they're more clear or detailed because they're more hard-edged and etched, but they're not, they're less resolving and less dynamic. It's all fake detail created by nasty overshoots and resonances (seen clearly in burst decay plots) at around 4-5kHz.
if you want an improved HD6X0 model, get the JAR600/650 from Jupiter Audio Research. Much, much better than the 660.
The 6XX is like $220 from Drop and is the best deal in headphones right now. Needs an amp to get the most out of it. Nitsch Piety or Schiit Valhalla 2 are probably the best low-cost options for amping it.
The HiFiMan HE400SE is another great deal at about $110. And if you want to go the IEM route the Moondrop Aria 2 are a stupid good deal at $80. |
budgie
03.27.24 | yeah i have also heard nothing but bad things about the new 660 so it seems like an odd standout to recommend
guess that's what happens when you take advice from a fuckin troll, guys |
Piglet
03.27.24 | fuck headphones my doods. theyre always uncomfortable and give you tension headaches, and they just fingerblast you with insane audio fidelity for the price of a mortgage. who needs that when you can just buy sum efficient chinese iems for 30 dollarydoos that you can actually use outside without looking like sum kind of marxist. spend the rest of your money on a 2 month long pilgrimage in south east asia or sum shit, gaurentee you'd have a better time then getting fucken tension headaches and quibbling over trebly ride cymbal hits in dissonant death metal or whatever it is you audiophiles do these days lmao |
Beardog
03.27.24 | Thought the HD660's were good, like I fucking know that the S/S2 is a downgrade and worse compared to something I have never heard of lol, I just tried them once and was pleasantly surprised. Guess that makes me a troll. |
budgie
03.27.24 | beardog stop trolling! you maniac |
Beardog
03.27.24 | no you >:( |
budgie
03.27.24 | " theyre always uncomfortable and give you tension headaches" get some akg 701s dude super super cozy |
gabba
03.27.24 | Well, I ordered one of those HD660 S2s yesterday, can’t wait to submit it to the troll test. But what do I know? Next to nothing, I’m upgrading from a Marshall Major IV, so anything should sound better than that, not to mention the DAC I’ll experience for the first time. I’m hyped, I’m learning, and these are nothing more than lifeless objects. |
Beardog
03.27.24 | Yeah when you get too deep into the audiophile world everything just becomes nit picking. Of course there is always something better you could have bought for the money lol |
gabba
03.27.24 | Like for every decent fetish, I’m very well aware of that. |
BaselineOOO
03.27.24 | The HD660s and HD660s2 have the best imaging of all headphones I've heard. It's brutally accurate in determining the placement of instruments within the stereo image. That doesn't sound like something worthwhile until you hear it yourself, then they become really FUN to listen to. Not to mention the bass, which is more dynamic and textured than on the HD6XX where it's puffy and loose as fuuuck. Saying the 6XX or other cheaper Sennheisers are better than the 660s/2 just proves you have shit ears and probably shit taste in music too. Gabba, enjoy your new headphones, they're phenomenal. Cheers! |
gabba
03.27.24 | Thanks Baseline, this is a really fun thread to be part of! I'm pretty sure I won't notice the 150 Ohm difference between models that Alondite mentioned, but I will definitely test it on Yo La Tengo's "Ohm", just to be on the safe side. |
Beardog
03.28.24 | I was very surprised by how well they gave each instrument their own place, but to be honest, the Beoplay HX kinda suck at that so that also played a part haha |
PlanningMyDeath
03.28.24 | Beats are siiiiiick but too expensive |
Alondite
03.29.24 | "Saying the 6XX or other cheaper Sennheisers are better than the 660s/2 just proves you have shit ears and probably shit taste in music too."
On the contrary, suggesting that the 660 are better when both measurements and the most knowledgeable and experienced audio folks and gear builders disagree suggest that you are the one with shit ears.
I have to wonder what your upstream gear because nothing you've said should be true under normal circumstances. If the 6XX aren't properly amped, then maybe, but even then the 660 are still grating and very obviously colored in an unpleasant way through the upper mids and lower treble. |
Colton
03.29.24 | "Yes, they leak sound but not a lot. If you're worried about sound leakage then why don't you just buy an IEM?"
I just don't like having anything in my ears. it's never comfortable. I like the comfort and ease of use with headphones. just throw them on and don't worry about adjusting. but I want a pair to use at work, so leaking sound would be an issue. but I don't listen to music super loud as I mentioned |
BaselineOOO
03.29.24 | "colored in an unpleasant way", yeah alright, because the 7db pinna spike at 3khz of the 6XX is totally natural and not CoLoReD. Please get the fuck outta here. Enjoy your silly-ass 6XX man but please stop advising people to buy mediocre headphones over great ones, especially models you 100% haven't heard in person like in this case. |
Butkuiss
03.29.24 | Imagine if Base put this much fervour into ending racism. |
BaselineOOO
03.29.24 | Racists, you see, tell the truth, so they are lesser idiots than the contrarian guys from this thread. Budgie and Alondite probably just have anchoring bias for the one shitty headphone they bought with all their money, and then they read some online reviews to get an idea of how other gear sounds. |
DePlazz
03.29.24 | In sum: if there's any headphones which Base AND Alondite AND budgie agree upon are good, those could be the ones to get. |
Pikazilla
03.29.24 | the venn diagram appears to be empty |
Beardog
03.29.24 | They 100% both like Beats by Dre |
AsleepInTheBack
03.29.24 | Discussion has confirmed that my next headphone purchase will be Meze Empyrean 2 I just need to sell a few organs first. |
gabba
03.29.24 | Ask Anna von Hausswolff, maybe she’ll buy some. And once you succeed, tell us about your experience with those new cans! |
budgie
03.29.24 | deplazz NUH
the best headphones are the ones you like the most after sampling a good handful at a hifishop
|
Demon of the Fall
03.29.24 | budgie definitely seems the least elitist of the connoisseurs here |
budgie
03.29.24 | i will say again, you all shouldn't listen to the garbage coming out of baseline's mouth, he's a useless troll, and if you knew more about audio you'd see through his braindead bullshit comments like "analog-like sound quality" (fuck i love that) and frequency response signatures not matching genre styles. following his logic, you shouldn't have a subwoofer in a theater room. good lord good lord. but admittedly i have trouble sometimes figuring out if it is trolling or if he's just a moron. it fascinates me |
BaselineOOO
03.29.24 | "Discussion has confirmed that my next headphone purchase will be Meze Empyrean 2 I just need to sell a few organs first."
It's win-win, you'll improve one of your senses at the expense of another. |
Hyperion1001
03.29.24 | honestly my brain damage is far too advanced to be able to have an opinion on any of this. i just listen to my lil flacs in my bedroom and am happy. |
BaselineOOO
03.29.24 | Yes but can you imagine just how good you would look when listening to lil flacs in your bedroom wearing the Fostex TR-X00 Mahogany |
Hyperion1001
03.29.24 | you make a very solid point. i will aspire to that level of cool. |
Alondite
03.29.24 | "Because the 7db pinna spike at 3khz of the 6XX is totally natural and not CoLoReD."
Meanwhile, in Imaginationland...
A quick glance at any FR graph will show you that this flat-out does not even exists. There's no non-linearity anywhere in the 6XX response that is more than like 3-4 dB. Seriously what nonsense compensation curve are you using that shows a 7 dB spike anywhere in the 6XX response?
And you know what the 6XX doesn't have that the 660 do? Egregiously poor performance at ~5kHz. Seriously look at a burst decay. This region overshoots so severely that it's literally off the chart, and not only does it overshoot, but it stays elevated and continues to decay. They perform worse in this region than Grados do, and Grados are notorious for their unruly upper mids and treble.
It's a glaring issue, and it outweighs any advantage the 660 may have, which amounts to little more than tighter, more well-extended bass that is still mediocre in the grand scheme, so still not a strength. It's not so much that the headphones are bad as it is they cost way too much given their performance and what else is available. At half the price they'd be fine, but at their current price they're irrelevant given that the JAR6X0 exist.
"just have anchoring bias for the one shitty headphone they bought with all their money"
Yeah, $1500 headphones, $2500 DAC, $2500 amp....but the 6XX are the only headphones I own and can afford. Sure.
Nah mate, you're just deaf. You're a textbook case of an audio beginner, because the tell-tale signs of audio beginners are an over-emphasis on bass, and thinking that harsh, etched treble makes it more detailed, because you don't know the difference between apparent detail and actual resolution.
And the preference for a V-shaped sound signature is pretty common in beginners, too, which the 660 definitely have. More experienced audio folks generally adhere to roughly a -1dB per octave FR trend for headphones, because it's more accurate and natural. |
budgie
03.29.24 | i haven't been this hard since emma roberts did yoga in american horror story 1984 |
BaselineOOO
03.29.24 | apes together strong < 3 |
gabba
03.29.24 | Actually, I do like the V-shaped setting, it’s perfect for music recorded with a Flying V. |
Sinternet
03.29.24 | i think if you're gonna be an insufferable audio nerd you better be a knowledgeable insufferable audio nerd so kudos |
budgie
03.29.24 | "Actually, I do like the V-shaped setting, it’s perfect for music recorded with a Flying V."
https://tenor.com/view/uhh-okthen-nvm-sad-gif-7234486 |
gabba
03.30.24 | Yeah, homonymy may necessarily be compatible with audiophilia, but jokes aside, I seriously need to experiment more with settings & gears. Time is on my side. With a little help from my friends. |
Beardog
03.30.24 | Yeah just fuck around and find out, one of the most fun things in audio anyway. Alondite must have supreme ears compared to anyone else (or he is just megabiased towards nerd graphs) |
gabba
03.30.24 | I also dig nerdy graphs, but it’s true my hearing needs a polish big time. I decided yesterday to get me one of those big syringes at the pharma and surprise my ears with a thorough enema, for a start. Anyone doing the same regularly? |
zakalwe
03.30.24 | Would do once every few years due to waxy build up causing issues now I’m completely Tinnitus’d off me tits so it doesn’t really make a difference unless there’s a full on blockage |
Beardog
03.30.24 | Yeah when there does not seem to be anything wrong with my hearing I'm not gonna fiddle with it tbh. I don't think cleaning the inside of your ears is actually necessary when there is nothing genetically wrong with you, right? |
gabba
03.30.24 | Well, the internet’s full of disgusting photos of the stuff that can accumulate in there, so it’s worth doing it once in a while, but one should choose the method carefully (no q-tips!). And even tinnitus can get worse with wax as it will not be masked by environmental noises. |
Butkuiss
03.31.24 | I’m leery on the necessity or benefits of flushing your ears regularly for most people but I ended up with a compacted earwax blockage last year and THAT was definitely no bueno. |
budgie
03.31.24 | i had it done when i was like 14 and i remember it hurting more than i would have liked |
Colton
03.31.24 | i have hearing like a bat so i’m with buttkiss, doesn’t feel necessary for me |
pizzamachine
03.31.24 | I have very nice cozy headphones, great for music production and mixing how nice |
budgie
08.20.24 | i got some bathys in yesterday, the functionality is fantastic but man they are so much worse than utopias it's fucking harsh to switch. super convenient though. idk if i keep |
budgie
08.20.24 | also put in an order for clear OGs from headphones.com cause damn they are half MSRP nowadays. might sell utopias and just stick with clears and get 2 grand out of the difference. i remember a/bing them way back when and they were nearly neck and neck |
evilford
08.20.24 | Got some wireless Senn's from my roommate for Christmas a couple years ago. Dont even know what model lol but they're great. Never had a problem with them and the sound is great, they project riffs very well |
budgie
08.20.24 | very shweet very shweet
its nice to watch movies on monitor from bed! without dealing with wiring |
evilford
08.20.24 | Wiring is so....passé |
WretchedCacophony
08.20.24 | Sennheiser IE900 are dope. Wired is superior in nearly every way but convenience, which I'm willing to trade for never needing to be charged... |
budgie
08.20.24 | IEs scare me, like what if a donkey side-kicks me in the head and they get lodged in my brain |
evilford
08.20.24 | I'm a busy guy unfortunately so I don't get to jam as much as I want, but I do when I can. I charge when I'm not jamming. I'm all about the convenience at this point in my life lol |
AsleepInTheBack
08.20.24 | budgie what dac etc are you using for the clear/utopia? I wanna buy some wired headphones (looking at the clear, or empyrean II) but when looking into the whole high end hi fi stuff it’s hurting my brain as to what I need to actually buy with the fancy wired headphones |
trilo
08.20.24 | fancy dacs/amps are mostly snake oil tbh. unless you need some special ~feature~ you don't need anything other than enough power to, well, power your headphones and just about any dac/amp combo will do. jds and schiit make quality ones but i'm sure there's others |
budgie
08.20.24 | im using an RME ADI-2 but they sound just the same out of a modern smartphone.
clears are 790 USD on headphones.com its the way to go, i loved them so much when i was comparing them to the utopias way back when. and they were driven fine out of the smartphone i had then as well
empyreans IIs being planar you may well have to shell out decent dosh for a dedicated processing unit, planar isn't really my territory
as a rule of thumb in the scary world of audiophilia, only the beginning and end of the signal chain should affect sound quality: the source (how the music is produced and encoded) and the transducer/speaker/headphone (how its decoded), everything in the middle, unless it's specifically something like a digital processing module or tube amps, shouldn't affect the sound, so just pay for functionality
lotta people will say a $1200 dac sounds better than a $200 dac, write those people off same as you would write off flat earthers |
PitchforkArms
08.21.24 | budgie is on the money with his point and his sentiment...
Spending beaucoup bucks on a DAC is superfluous and internet folks certainly have their black belts in mental jiu jitsu trying to twist and turn the reality to fit their ideas about sound and processing. It's maddening. |
PitchforkArms
08.21.24 | accidental double-post sry bbs |
evilford
08.21.24 | I hear riffs, I like em, I headbang.
I'm a simple man. |
Hyperion1001
08.21.24 | audiophiles when someone listening to Taylor swift on skillcandy Bluetooth headphones is enjoying music just as much as they are 🤬🤬😤😡😤😤🤬 |
evilford
08.21.24 | Lul |
budgie
08.21.24 | ppl enjoying mac n chees while i spent 44 bucks on a confit de canard 🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬 |
Ryus
08.21.24 | airpods |
Avagantamos
08.22.24 | got a pair of HD600s on sale a couple months ago. very satisfied |
DePlazz
08.22.24 | I got the HD650s recently, together with a Dragonfly Cobalt. Very satisfied as well. |
budgie
08.22.24 | i just ordered a pair of HD6xxs off drop for my buddy,pretty good price too, 179 or somethin. i had the hd650s for a long time and dug them well enouggh |
ReefaJones
08.22.24 | Currently using the Sennheiser HD 560S. Can't complain and have to say they're the most comfortable Headphones I have ever owned. No pain on my ears from wearing them too long. Never spend more than 250€ on Headphones. Instead I invested in a good stereo system. |
AsleepInTheBack
08.22.24 | I want a 600 series at some point ye, heard only good things
I’ve refrained from going too far down the expensive kit rabbit hole for years, but tbh totally worth it, has made dense music a lot easier and more enjoyable to listen to, the jazz the grindcore the weird af electronic, and revealed things about my favourite albums that I’d never heard before. Not made much of a difference to my engagement with folk or hip hop, other than ig leaning me unintentionally towards stuff with better prod? |
ReefaJones
08.22.24 | Not surprising that it didn't enhance hip hop. Most Hip Hop is sample based and in most cases the samples used are probably not lossless to begin with lol |
budgie
08.22.24 | good quality audio gear and dream pop is where it's at. super textured guitars and female vox my heart weeps
also cello concertos |
ReefaJones
08.22.24 | Natalia Lafourcade's De todas las flores to me is the best sounding album of the last 20 years. On a good system it sounds like the band is playing in your living room. |
budgie
08.22.24 | jamming now
whats your stereo setup look like? |
ReefaJones
08.22.24 | Rocking the Klipschorn Ak6 which I got for a very good price (helps to know people in the business lol) |
budgie
08.22.24 | very shmexy indeed reefster gotta invite me over sometime |
ReefaJones
08.22.24 | sure, if ya ever in germany. How you like the Natalia album so far |
budgie
08.22.24 | certainly sounds like youre in the room with them
i love the production on laura gibson's goners, always use it first to test anything, give it a spin sometime, some strings & vocal work |
ReefaJones
08.22.24 | María la Curandera especially is a masterpiece |
ReefaJones
08.22.24 | will check |
gabba
08.22.24 | Having the HD660S2 as my first “high-end” headphone for almost 6 months now, and I have to say my first impressions were rather disappointing. The sound is very spacious, and I enjoy the details at high frequencies & midrange, but the bass is surprisingly weak, at least for post-punk and punchier electronica. I could adjust it via the equalizer so that it’s satisfying now, but I just didn’t expect it to be this way. So I wouldn’t buy it again, or would recommend it for jazz/classical/anything softie. And yeah, I’m not an audiophile, just a pleb hungry for more cacao, but of a rich taste. |
budgie
08.22.24 | i haven't tried them but the 660s2 was panned pretty hard by consumers. which makes it extra funny that baseline was recommending them earlier in this thread |
gabba
08.22.24 | Back then I also read mixed reviews, but I wanted to try an open-back headphone, and I found this one at a discount price. I’m not regretting buying it per se, it’s still fun and definitely an upgrade from marshall’s major IV. Just was surprised by the thin bass, successfully remedied by the eqs. |
ReefaJones
08.22.24 | This is why you go to a hifi store and test the headphones before you just buy $400 headphones blind. Why on earth do people do this? |
gabba
08.22.24 | Hmm, maybe because not everyone lives close to a hi-fi store that has the headphone of interest? Mine was at least 500 km away, maybe 1000 km, not sure. Besides, I was enjoying the thrill of buying a headphone blind, as I said no regrets, but would probably choose differently now. |
ReefaJones
08.22.24 | Also I'm curious @gabba. Are you using the headphones for your smartphone? Your amp? Just plugging into your pc/laptop? |
budgie
08.22.24 | amazon US used to have a generous return policy, i bought aria 906s and kef r300s and effectively demo'd them at my own pad for a week before returning one of them no questions asked
nowadays i wouldnt have the confidence in amazon |
ReefaJones
08.22.24 | I need to know @gabba. Please tell me you're not just plugging 300Ω headphones into your pc/phone and then wonder why they sound thin/weak xD |
gabba
08.22.24 | Laptop, but with a dragonfly cobalt. As far as I read, they should provide enough power to the HD660S2. And the DAC does make a difference. |
ReefaJones
08.22.24 | Just making sure. Just glancing over a few reviews of the dragonfly cobalt I've read some questionable things. If you ever have the chance you might want to plug your headphones into the headphone jack of a good amplifier and compare. High impedance headphones can sound real shitty real fast if you're not using them right |
ReefaJones
08.22.24 | Like go to a hifi store at some point, take your headphones with you, say you're interested in a new pair of headphones but want to use yours as reference. They have the right gear for any headphones |
gabba
08.22.24 | Yeah, will definitely do at some point. For now I’m ok, I wasn’t even complaining, just wanted to share experience. |
budgie
09.07.24 | jamming remission with senn hd6XXs - i haven't heard my 650s in ages but i remember this sound, it's missing some things that you take for granted with some other cans, like really textured bass, imaging, soundstage, but they are sonically enjoyable, way more so than any beyers ive heard. super classic cans. but like, i switch back to my utopias to jam the same track (ol'e nessie!) and it's like, holy shit |
gabba
09.07.24 | Yeah, probably, but is that a fair comparison? Utopias cost like 10x more. |
Scoot
09.07.24 | i will say this - for budget earbuds, soundcore has it dialed in
p30i sound awesome once you hone in the eq, they cost like $60 CAD |
budgie
09.07.24 | yeah gabba, it's still, you know, it's just an electromechanical transducer, the tech has been around for a long time, it's odd that there's still such range of sonic capabilities and such a range of price. i get audiophilia is a niche market so economies of scale don't favor the consumer, but still. well, i will say, focal clears are $800 nowadays, and i know from experience that they are extremely similar to the utopias, so maybe everything is settling down. $800 is still quite a bit but also not really, compared to other hobby toys |
budgie
09.07.24 | on a side note i think i'm going to keep my bathys, i'm going to france this winter and the closedback bluetooth noise cancelling business is good for wandering travels. i remember my first "solo" trip to france, i had some ancient harman kardon bluetooth closed backs and i loved sitting in the comfy trains looking at the french countryside listening to black sabbath's sabbath bloody sabbath and witch's s/t and sleep and witchfinder general and earthless. that summer was all stoner rock for some reason |
DDDeftoneDDD
09.07.24 | Still hang with btnc hd 4.50 by senheiser. no complaints. |
Beardog
09.08.24 | yeah bro, a good train and head set is a lovely combo. Best case you get a nice beverage as well |
gabba
09.08.24 | …and a massage |
budgie
09.08.24 | massage on a train? |
Hyperion1001
09.08.24 | gonna listen to sabbath on skullcandy iem’s I bought at the gas station just for budgie |
budgie
09.08.24 | do ur thang man i like kraft singles once in a while |
budgie
09.08.24 | whats all ya fav records when you just want to hear something with really juicy production?
washed out never gets bumped here but i love his paracosm album & within and without, cozy vibrations |
PitchforkArms
09.09.24 | Related, but tangential - while I love me some nice headphones, I am much more fond of a purposefully built and tuned room. I am lucky enough to have been able to seek university education in the field and to have been in two career jobs that have me deeply involved in the design, build and implementation of critical listening spaces, alongside my own personal and extracurricular endeavors that have added to the well of exposure to the environment. It's a whole different world over there - you can have people who will claim that certain speakers are trash but the only place they listened was in their guest bedroom that is untreated and untuned. I am nearing completion of my newest critical listening space with JBL M2s as mains and 2 JBL S1S-EX 18" subs. Also getting a 7.1.4 Atmos system, (I am lucky enough to have a good relationship with Dolby through my current job) with run of the mill JBL 308Ps. |
budgie
09.09.24 | those are some sexy floorstanders wow!!!
i agree speakers > headphones but i am in the renting class alas and haven't had a proper loudspeaker setup in a while
reefa has some awesome looking horns as well |
InfernalDeity
09.09.24 | I just got the sennheiser hd620s and for a closed back theyre pretty damn good. Got them for 300 and have zero regrets. |
PitchforkArms
09.09.24 | Fasho, those M2s are incredible. JBL pairs them with the Crown I Tech amps and has a factory-test anechoic speaker correction calibration that loads to the amp so that any room-processing is not speaker correction. I've been able to be apart of some builds and tunings with them in control rooms and listening rooms and they are truly stellar. Headroom is insane and they have great off-axis response so the spectral sweet spot tends to be quite large. They also tend to be very flexible in terms of how they sound with room correction DSP. I'm wiring this week and am excited as hell to have them in my own space that was built with this system in mind :) |
Hyperion1001
01.08.25 | well i pulled the plug on some hifiman ananda stealth magnets because ive been wanting to upgrade for a bit. never had/listened to a pair of planar cans before but i am stoked. just hope they dont break like hifimans apparently like to do lol. |
budgie
01.08.25 | nice bump im still in the process of downgrading from utopias to clears
ive never heard planars either |
Hyperion1001
01.09.25 | i will report back as soon as i break them in. i figured if i was gonna spend another $300 to upgrade i might as well swing for the fences instead of get another adjacent pair of dynamic drivers. |
AsleepInTheBack
01.09.25 | Still really want the empyrean II from Meze which I think is planar too
But I don’t have three grand going spare so
Defo report back though cause i don’t understand the difference, the empyrean are just well rated everywhere and pretty and shiny and I want them, but if there is a dece cheaper planar to try then id be interested |
Demon of the Fall
01.09.25 | I'm sure by this point I've read a thousand reviews and still have no idea what's what. In store try-outs are an option, but stressful as the environment leads to cloudy cognition/analysis.
I was looking at "Beyerdynamic DT 990 PRO" which are supposed to be exceptional for their price range and also the 600 series Sennheiser's (open backs) but is that gonna move the needle enough?
then again I've been looking at various options for what seems like forever yet still just rocking the entry level Senns for both open and closed back (for outside the house).
I had some AKG noise-cancelling that were pretty good for sound quality considering the 'type', decent but not spectacular for cancelling effectiveness (and maybe questionable construction quality? idk they fell apart over time and I'm careful).
I'm only 'in the market' for open backs anyway, I think. If I could guarantee I'd be blown away with any purchase, my pricing point would be embarrassingly high, lol... I just can't bring myself to pay-up when things are 'uncertain' so I've been conservative thus far. It's all so confusing and subjective |
budgie
01.09.25 | fwiw dt 990s are the only audiophile grade headphones ive ever actually hated
def just make the effort to demo stuff |
Demon of the Fall
01.09.25 | care to elaborate?
yeah like I said, my issue with demoing is that my mind cannot compute the sounds correctly with some dork standing over me trying to decipher my reaction in real time |
budgie
01.09.25 | they're sibilant and made music exhausting
some good hifi shops will let you demo products for a weekend
could also just abuse amazons fairly hassle free return policy |
WretchedCacophony
01.09.25 | 'abuse amazon' yes more more more |
Jurtz
01.09.25 | DT990s are absolutely fine, but perhaps a little strong on the treble side |
Jurtz
01.09.25 | https://europe.beyerdynamic.com/p/dt-990-edition
I've used a pair of these for many years now. |
Chippe
01.09.25 | Hifiman he1000 stealth and Audeze LCD XC. |
Demon of the Fall
01.09.25 | my ears are quivering at the thought of 'strong treble' because they are fragile and the high end of roughly produced extreme metal (in particular) can be rather grating at the best of times
usually lo-fi BM or 80s, well... anything really, are the least palatable |
Jurtz
01.09.25 | Yeah I usually switch to my closed backs for such music, a pair of Mackie MC-350s |
Hyperion1001
01.09.25 | I’m upgrading from a pair of 990’s and a pair of 770’s and of the two I prefer the 990’s just because open back sounds so much more open in general.
beyers are pretty famous (or infamous depending on how you feel) for their treble so if you’re sensitive to high frequencies I would steer clear. ive never found it grating but it’s definitely noticeable. |
AsleepInTheBack
01.09.25 | I have some old beyers and my hearing is shit, which is why I like them - elevate the frequencies I struggle to hear - but even then they are a bit fatiguing yeah. I want to get to the point where I have 3 or 4 different sets of headphones that are good at different things but again I need more money. |
Demon of the Fall
01.10.25 | I'm definitely seeking another pair of open backs, but will stay clear of Beyers then. Nice info, cheers guys |
Jurtz
01.10.25 | The Mackie MC-450 set is the open back version of the MC-350 set that I use. |
NexCeleris
01.10.25 | "beyers are pretty famous (or infamous depending on how you feel) for their treble"
The DT 700 PRO X (closed) fixed most of that. They're collecting dust on my desk because they make most metal sound relatively muffled, but they may be a good choice for pretty much everything else. |
Hyperion1001
01.10.25 | i almost went with the 700 pro x but ultimately decided to really switch it up with the ananda’s so I’m glad to hear i probably made the right choice. |
Hyperion1001
01.17.25 | well, my first impression is that its even easier to tell when an album has shitty production now lmao. |
budgie
01.17.25 | LOL thats a fucking thing yeah and probably what has driven my tastes for the past handful of years. bands like summoning sound so fucking claustrophobic |
NexCeleris
01.17.25 | You haven't ascended until you can assess a production's quality by listening to stuff on og GameBoy blue'n'reds. How's dat bass, Hype? |
Hyperion1001
01.17.25 | pretty good, not overemphasized but very present and smooth. the best part so far is the instrument separation. you can clearly hear each instrument on a well mixed recording in a way i couldnt on the beyers, even though i do think they still sound good. these cans are in a whole other class tho. |
Butkuiss
01.17.25 | Not headphones, but there’s no speakers thread so I’ll dump it here instead. Had some Q Acoustics 3030is arrive today and boooy howdy is wfh going to be a lot more fun from now on!! |
budgie
01.17.25 | sexy butkuiss sexy |
Beardog
01.17.25 | Wish I had a room dedicated to listening so I could install the sickest speaker set up. Sadly will have to do with headphones for now. Still planning on buying the Audeze MM-500 now I got some government subsidies hehe |
budgie
01.18.25 | ive been listened to the clears all day and they dont feel like a downgrade from the utopias lol. everybody should just buy clears. got them on ebay for under 600. also a lot more comfy than the utopias |
BaselineOOO
01.18.25 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hppSIHl2tp0
I listen to this right now on my Meze Empyrean II. It sounds so close to my heart! |
Beardog
02.12.25 | Finally ordered the Audeze MM-500s, can't wait till they arrive! Headphones seem to be quite divisive in the reviews so I'm excited to see how I like them |
budgie
02.12.25 | nice! they look cool
i am in love with my clears
still havent put the utopias on ebay yet though |
BaselineOOO
02.13.25 | Clears are the best headphones. They don't have a perfect frequency response but to my ear everything just sounds pristine. |
budgie
02.13.25 | i swear you were talking shit about clears a while back |
BaselineOOO
02.13.25 | I was talking shit about Focal headphones in general cause they're built like trash (made in France). Never claimed they sound anything but godlike < 3 |
budgie
02.13.25 | racist trash cunt |
BaselineOOO
02.13.25 | They just have issues with their manufacturing sector, other than that beautiful country, people, culture etc. |
budgie
02.13.25 | no they dont. wheres the esa? wheres airbus? wheres the tallest bridge in the world? wheres the chunnel? wheres the only port that hosts nuclear carriers that isnt in the US? whos the second largest arms dealer in the world? go read books on thermodynamics and fluid dynamics, where were carnot, fourier, navier, coulomb, lagrange, d'arcy, laplace, poiseuille, poincare from? which country has been pulling over 80% of their energy generation from nuclear infrastructure when most OECD states pull under 20%? this trope that france can't engineer is the most brainrotten bullshit and you should dunk your head for an hour in a cistern of dogshit for pushing it without thinking |
BaselineOOO
02.13.25 | Saying that France leads in engineering because of historical figures and government funded nuclear infrastructure is reaching. Also, engineering is one thing, but manufacturing quality control [the topic of the conversation (or so I thought)] is another. If you want to flex, at least use things that are actually French made because ESA is a multinational organization, Airbus headquarters is in the Netherlands and production across Europe, the chunnel is Anglo-French (about two thirds Anglo by involvement), the tallest bridge in the world called Millau btw was designed by a British architect as well. Arms sales and manufacturing dominance have nothing to do with one another and France is the ONLY other navy besides the US with a nuclear carrier... Nuclear power? Sure, absolutely. But that is about energy policy, not manufacturing quality. You have no idea that I know France inside out. I’m planning to buy a house there and live for the next 10 years or so. Stop making a fool out of yourself and go eat some French fries cause that’s about as deep as your knowledge of France goes lol |
budgie
02.13.25 | "Saying that France leads in engineering because of historical figures and government funded nuclear infrastructure is reaching."
reaching why? EDF is the leading global firm for nuclear energy science. i literally took this class in my mechanical engineering program in los angeles and it's accepted without question. and it's not historical, it's an ongoing embarrassment that other OECD aren't following what france began to do in the 60's.
"Also, engineering is one thing, but manufacturing quality control [the topic of the conversation (or so I thought)] is another."
no it isn't. manufacturing is engineering and engineering is manufacturing. it's fucking stupid that you don't know this
"Anyway, ESA is a multinational organization
ESA is principally french, and who launched the webb apparatus to L2? arianespace.
"ESA is a multinational organization"
ESA is principally french and functions out of france
"Airbus headquarters is in the Netherlands
airbus is headquartered out of blagnac. take it from their own website: "France is at the core of Airbus skills, technologies, innovation and production. As one of the company’s four founding countries, France hosts the company's headquarters; it has final assembly lines for all Airbus commercial aircraft families; is home to major engineering, production and support facilities for helicopter, space and defence activities; and includes locations for leading-edge research." https://www.airbus.com/en/about-us/our-worldwide-presence/airbus-in-europe/airbus-in-france
", the tallest bridge in the world called Millau btw was designed by a British architect as well
it was designed by a french engineer. the architect was british, granted, but there's a serious difference between engineer and architect. i assume that was lost on you
"France is the ONLY other navy besides the US with a nuclear carrier.
indeed
"You have no idea that I know France inside out
it's exrutiatingly evident
"I’m planning to buy a house there
for the love of all that is beautiful please don't step a foot in france
|
Beardog
02.18.25 | So the Audeze arrived, listening now, wow. Such spaciousness, clarity and everything really has it's own place in the sound. Awesome |
Hyperion1001
02.18.25 | audeze nuts |
swallowtales
02.18.25 | Used to be super into headphones, and have tried heaps of different models, but now my main focus is my speaker system at home. When I'm out and about or at work I jam on Bose QC Ultras which are fun so not complaints from me there! |
Beardog
02.19.25 | Yeah if I had enough space in my work room I would never spend this much on headphones but would've gotten a speaker set up as well. My Beoplay HX are more than plenty for long travels and at the office. |
BaselineOOO
02.19.25 | Tbh, $400 speakers blow away TOTL headphones priced at $5000 or so. But again, it's a different experience, speakers provide a more natural soundstage and physical impact, while headphones offer more detail (perceived!) and intimacy. Now that I'm living comfortably, I rarely use headphones anymore except when producing music, since the sound feels more immediate, like a good short fuck. |
Beardog
02.22.25 | Yeah I just don't have the rooms to set up a proper speaker set-up for production. But this Audeze MM-500 is such an insane improvement mixing wise. One session and the frequencies are correct instead of having annoying peaks on different devices. Helps me so much. |
budgie
02.22.25 | oh shibbidty they are pretty pricey |
Beardog
02.22.25 | Yeah, but I just wanted to get it out of the way. Rather instantly go for something expensive than do 5 upgrades of €200 every two years. |
budgie
02.22.25 | absolutely better to get one great pair then bumble through okay pairs over the years
just like shoes!! |
BaselineOOO
02.22.25 | So true, budgie! I think most audiophiles have this mindset, I only wear moc toe boots and dr martens |
budgie
02.22.25 | shut the fuck up |
gabba
02.22.25 | Which headphone is Converse quality? |
budgie
02.22.25 | senn hd600 |
gabba
02.22.25 | Hey mom, you won’t believe but I’ve finally made it! |
