Beardog: Audiophiles/production snobs unite!

Beardog 03.11.24	SNOB WITH ME
bighubbabuddha 03.11.24	good beardog
Beardog 03.11.24	Thank you, (what is) next(?)
pizzamachine 03.11.24	You’re asking the wrong guy cuz I make my crystal clear recordings via my phone on Bandlab. No fancy equipment just my phone
mkmusic1995 03.11.24	Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Let Love In is one of the best sounding records in my opinion
Beardog 03.11.24	Sounds horrible Pizza!! @mkmusic I will listen to that one!
mkmusic1995 03.11.24	Hope you enjoy my friend!
pizzamachine 03.11.24	@Beardog: nah it works very well for me
Beardog 03.11.24	That's OK of course, to each his own.
mkmusic1995 03.11.24	It's incredible what you're able to do with just a phone nowadays.
kkarron 03.11.24	Yello - The Flag specifically this mix of The Race - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrnijFOnNAA This is what you get when you go into recording music when you're already a millionaire.
trilo 03.11.24	i haven't tried the gear you're looking at, but i have a pair of high end headphones (Kennerton Rognir) paired with JDS Labs amp/dac. PERSONALLY i think high end amps are a waste of money. i couldn't discern any differences between them and ones in the ~100-200 range. the amp is just to power the cans imo i also owned a pair of Audeze cans maybe 8 years ago. wasn't a huge fan,. build quality and comfort left a lot to be desired. but it wasn't the model you're looking at so ymmv
Beardog 03.11.24	Thanks Trilo! I for sure need to do a comparison between the different amps, might very well be that you are right. Which KR do you have? @kkaron I'll check!!
trilo 03.11.24	bog oak!
PitchforkArms 03.11.24	The diminishing return on reference monitor headphones is pretty staggering above like 5/600-ish bucks. I have an extreme amount of experience with AKG K701/2s and they are absolutely stellar for the price range (and are often very very heavily discounted - I'm seeing K701s on amazon right now for like $150????? wtf?????) Also have loads of experience with the next few levels up such as the K812 and the closed back K872, which are quite great, but the price multiplier is steep. I may or may not work for this company.... Super expensive headphone amplifiers are absolutely a waste of money.
GiaNXGX 03.11.24	Boards of canada - geogaddi Burial - untrue Steven wilson - grace for drowning Sheena Ringo - Shouso Strip
Beardog 03.11.24	oh that is PROPER expensive trilo haha, sick. You really weren't able to hear much of a difference between amps with a headphone like that?
PitchforkArms 03.11.24	A great deal of amps and DACs are essentially 100% transparent nowadays. Obviously look for something with a quality build, but really most of what's necessary to care about is headroom, and most amps are fine for most listening levels.
Beardog 03.11.24	Steven Wilson always has stellar production for sure GianXGX! I think I'll just make a separate playlist with all your production recs haha
Beardog 03.11.24	@PitchforkArms thanks for your input! I usually don't listen to music on a loud level so I probably don't even need that much of 'amp'. Just a great DAC and the power needed to properly power the headphones. And yeah, price multiplier is for sure true, I now have more than perfect gear value-for-money wise, but I just want something amazing, since I spend so much time listening to music anyway. So the multiplier is not something I care about that much.
trilo 03.11.24	i didn't try a high end amp with these just older ones, which were still very good cans from ZMF, Sennheiser, Beyerdynamic etc. maybe you'll hear a difference with a tube amp or something.
Beardog 03.11.24	Aight, it will now for sure be something I will put a lot more thought into then I was planning. Thanks guys!
Beardog 03.11.24	Also kkarron, that Yello album really is something else, wheww sounds awesome
kkarron 03.11.24	Aye, Yello had a knack for dynamics and separating instruments for massive headroom, which makes it perfect for audio equipment testing. Some stupid rumour on the internet suggested it's what BBC radio uses to test its audio equipment. Seems a tad unlikely but I can see the idea.
Chippe 03.11.24	I drive my Audeze XC with RME Adi-2 Dac, a versatile little monster. Don't run my music from a computer, so it's PEQ (5 band), bass and treble adjustments can make some shitty produced metal sound quite good (and I don't want to start a debate about hifi pvrism). Audeze can handle eq really well.
Beardog 03.12.24	yeah their instrument separation is very interesting, and they really utilize their frequencies well. Great stuff indeed kkarron
Beardog 03.12.24	@Chippe What made you decide for quite an expensive DAC like that? Did you compare a lot, or owned a lot of different DACs beforehand?
Beardog 03.12.24	Also got a new mini-jack cable and I think there is a minimal difference to be heard, everything is just a tad more clear. Fun how those thinks actually make a difference (albeit insanely minimal). I'm not as snobby to buy it for quality btw, I just needed a longer one haha
AlexKzillion 03.12.24	i don't know anything about audio setups etc. but my least favorite thing about 14 has always been the production haha. the language does sound great though
Beardog 03.12.24	Haha it is kind of an acquired taste, not gonna lie. But I do love how it sounds, especially on more better headphones I was blown away what was actually in them. I think some mixes translate worse on good audio systems and better on cheaper ones, and vice versa.
Chippe 03.15.24	Beardog: Have spent a lot on pricey hifi gear over the years and have baught some dacs of various price levels. Differences between them have been very small, not sure a blindtest would separate them. Decided on the RME due to it's versatility (headphone amp, preamp and dac) and it's PEQ and tone controls. Have listened to my music without eq for two decades and with modern high end equipment. Fantastic sound with some recordings, horrible with others. Got tired of this. Very happy with the RME and XC combo and the shining star here is the bass.
Beardog 03.15.24	Thanks for the input Chippe!
Beardog 03.26.24	OK I just got a Cambridge DacMagic 200m amp/DAC for my B&O Beoplay HX because wow, the difference is honestly immense. Expected nothing, and got 10% more frequency range and seemingly double the clarity and stereo imaging...
budgie 03.26.24	i've had a ~700 USD gustard amp/dac, ~300 USD topping amp/dac, currently use a ~1100 USD rme amp/dac, and a pixel 5a phone, they are all indistinguishable, my advice: pay for features, power, and build quality (and looks honestly), there shouldn't be a difference in sound quality unless something is malfunctioning or you're dabbling in tube amplification for loudspeaker amps i've had a bunch of optonicas with the black frontplate, they are gorgeous units, and some revel pieces, some pioneers, some schiit crap (truly crap), but small form factor is important to me these days, i'll probably grab some audiophonics units next time i set up a loudspeaker area also yeah i have a pressing of 7 it's gorgeous
Beardog 03.26.24	Yeah, the Cambridge has nice features and all the outputs I would need in this lifetime I suppose. And also it was one I could try out in a physical store which I can always contact when something is wrong with the product. Buying these kinda things online does not sit right with me. But I really did not expect this huge of a sound difference with Bluetooth-based headphones. All you're advice was for sure useful, although I did knowingly not compare this DAC with a more expensive one just cause I did not want to have a FOMO if the more expensive one would have been better haha
Chippe 03.28.24	Happy for you, Bear
mryrtmrnfoxxxy 03.28.24	im a snob in that i avoid remasters when i can. wanna hear the shit how it released. i dont buy hi-fi equipment. i listen through airpods or my stock car speakers via bluetooth
BaselineOOO 03.28.24	Any dac or amp above $200 is overdone + a waste of money. The Audeze MM-500 is a great choice tho, they make everything sound smooth and enjoyable with enough detail.
Frost15 03.28.24	I'm also a snob when it comes to music. I invested a lot in equipment and after going a bit crazy I settled on a very very good dac / headphones combo and exited the rabbit hole. My experience in the audiophile market was cool but there was a lot of snake oil and FOMO syndrome around. My opinion nowadays is there are very good sounding options below 500$ (for headphones specially), so don't spend too much money on expensive stuff, just test two or three good options under 500$ and keep what suits you. I've found myself enjoying 450$ headphones over 2000$ ones... I tend to avoid remasters too, since most of them are way louder and sound worse to my ears
Beardog 03.29.24	@Baseline Yeah I know the Cambridge is a bit overdone but I like the features and the fact I was able to try it out and can always return to the store physically if anything happens. Worth the extra costs imo.
Beardog 03.29.24	@Frost15 yeah most remasters sound worse imo. And yeah, spending over €500 is not necessarily worth it, unless you thoroughly enjoy the details / sound quality / production in music. Which I do, so I think spending that amount is perfectly fine. But now I got this DAC I do not see the need to upgrade that quickly, everything sounds so much better than before now.
Frost15 03.29.24	@Beardog yeah I would spend more in a dac than in headphones. I'm now settled with a very good dac (in the 1500-2000$ price range) and 500$ headphones. I had very expensive headphones in the past but once I found my love for flat fr/neutral headphones I settled with these and I'm just enjoying music nowadays haha
budgie 03.29.24	"yeah I would spend more in a dac than in headphones." "I'm now settled with a very good dac (in the 1500-2000$ price range) and 500$ headphones. " i don't want to get into a thing here but for other people reading this thread: this is not conventional wisdom at all, more normal for 90% of your budget (really) being spent on the speakers/headphones/transducer element, and the digital signal chain making up a pretty small portion of your budget
Beardog 03.30.24	For everyone reading this chat: Try things out in real life and buy what you think sounds nice. The higher in price you go the more extreme the opinions become lol @budgie lmfao you said almost exactly the same thing in the 'Headphones' list mb
trilo 03.30.24	even though i agree some cheaper cans sound better than expensive ones there is no shot i’d ever put more money into a dac than headphones. very skeptical one could blindly pick the “better” dac
Beardog 03.30.24	Tbh Trilo, I just got a €500 DAC for my €500 headphone and it honestly does make it sound twice as good haha. Blindly picking the better DAC is something I would like to try out once. Not now though, I don't wanna get FOMO while I just bought something nice.
trilo 03.30.24	what was your setup before? did you get an amp as well? i’m mostly skeptical of upgrading an amp/dac to another amp/dac rather than like audio jack on pc to amp/dac
Beardog 03.30.24	Yeah the DAC has an amp included, so it's a combination for the price, quite important to mention lol mb. Anyway, I have a self built PC with a Realtek ALC887 soundcard, which sounds like absolute shit (although my laptop is worse). When I ran through my mixing board (Behringer Xenyx Q1002) everything sounded much better, couldn't find what kind of audio equipment was in there but it was obviously an improvement. Now this Cambridge is a huge improvement, might even say my Beoplay HX sounds more than twice as good.