Middle18
11.15.25 | Im a headphone collector and I absolutely love my Heavys, they do need some EQing tho as they have quite a thick sound and muddy sound out of the box, I use 2 EQ's on them, first the Heavies EQ to reduce the bass a bit and elevate the treble mostly, then I use a third party EQ and have a similar set up to the first.
They are a double frequency headphone so a double EQ makes sense but they really are like a surround sound set of speakers for your head, watching movies with them feels like your in the Cinema. Also great for gaming. |
zakalwe
11.15.25 | I have over ear Sony WH-1000XM5 for home
In ear Sony WF-1000XM4 for when I’m out and about.
The fact remains over ear headphones make anyone look like an autistic tool |
Hyperion1001
11.15.25 | hifiman ananda stealth v3 through a soundavo HP-DAC1 amp with some light EQ using the Peace + equalizer APO combo.
I still have some beyerdynamic DT770’s and DT990’s that ill throw on occasionally, but I prefer the Hifimans for most of my general listening nowadays. |
DrGonzo1937
11.15.25 | Very interesting that middle, I will look into that myself!
@zak
Totally agree. I’d never leave the house with over ear headphones lol for when I’m at my desk in my study. I wear some £30 in ears things at the gym or walking outside. |
Beardog
11.15.25 | Got the Audeze MM-500 through a Cambridge DACMagic200M, and it sounds magical. The clarity and spaciousness can be stunning |
budgie
11.15.25 | i've gone from $200 to $3000 headphones and currently am happy with my focal clears which i got for like $650 and have no intention to ever replace them
as far as signal chain i just use a period audio portable dac. perfect setup. clears are just perfect |
AffableMartyr
11.15.25 | Have a bunch of headphones and iems, I almost always use my Letshuoer S12 Pros |
ThyCrossAwaits
11.15.25 | Beyerdynamic DT-1990s (the MkI)
Best headphones I’ve ever had |
zakalwe
11.15.25 | You walking around with them things on? |
RVAHC13
11.15.25 | Jbl makes decent muffs I just don’t like them because they squeeze my huge head. I had a pair of old sennheisers from one of my old radio gigs that I lost, only pair that I ever liked. As far as cheap buds go I think Jlabs are a good alternative to ridiculously overpriced Apple products. |
Hyperion1001
11.15.25 | chifi earbuds are the only option for portable sound imo. equal in quality to the sennheiser and audiotechnica IP’s they stole and literally 25% of the price.
I’ve had KZ and Tozo earbuds for years now and for the price nothing on the market comes close. |
trilo
11.15.25 | kennerton rognir going through some basic JDS labs dac/amp stack. don’t remember the stack name that stuff is a meme but the rognirs are incredible and basically my perfect headphone. usually i get an itch to try something new every few years but i have no desire with these |
gabba
11.15.25 | At work I use Sennheiser 660S2 with the mighty Dragonly Cobalt DAC, which I plug into my laptop and further boost with the legendary EQ feature of WinAmp. For the mobile option I do wear over the ears publicly but also at home if family annoys me, and my choice was the Bowers & Wilkins Px7S3 because I saw David Beckham wearing the same and I look like him anyways. Both choices were mediocre, which fits my taste in music. |
smaugman
11.15.25 | i dont understand why anyone would care if someone used headsets outside. i live in a cold climate and i dont need a hat when using my headset |
ThyCrossAwaits
11.15.25 | I don’t know if zak’s question was directed at me, but absolutely, the Beyers are super comfortable and lightweight. I had the HiFiMan Sundaras before these and I’d argue these are even more wearable despite being a bit bulkier. |
Josh D.
11.15.25 | I used to use Beyerdynamic DT990 Pro (250 ohm) with a headphone amp and they sounded excellent. I stopped using them because for mixing purposes they weren't good, the low end wasn't accurate for what I heard on any other speaker. So I bought Sterling headphones from Guitar Center for $100 because I just needed something more accurate and they sound quite good for the price range.
The BD's are good for listening to music, but I don't listen to music with headphones at home, so I eventually sold them. |
RogueNine
11.15.25 | Who cares what you look like, sound quality is worth it. |
asanisimasa
11.15.25 | been using the Sennheiser HD650s for like 7 years and I love em |
MTObsidian
11.16.25 | "[...] over ear Sony WH-1000XM5[...]"
Just got a pair of these myself and absolutely love them. They actually make me want to listen to more music instead of just podcasts and stuff through a dying set of AirPod Pros.
Don't care about what I look like; everyone probably thinks I'm on the spectrum anyways |
BaselineOOO
11.16.25 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnFON_L7PCk |
Emim
11.16.25 | I just hold my phone speaker to my ear at full volume |
RVAHC13
11.16.25 | I’ve been on the road so much the last 5 years I rate albums based on how they sound in my car lol |
Solipsist
11.16.25 | Audeze lcd 3 for me. Kinda heavy but with eq the sound quality is fantastic. Plus I got them 50% msrp. |
DrGonzo1937
11.16.25 | "I just hold my phone speaker to my ear at full volume"
lol |
DrGonzo1937
11.16.25 | @Baseline
bit shitty on their part. guess they'll have to adapt or they won't have much of a future.
for me, i've not had any issues with them so far, and i'm loving the sound of them |
DrGonzo1937
11.16.25 | "I’ve been on the road so much the last 5 years I rate albums based on how they sound in my car lol"
tbf, i've done this for nearly 20 years lol. it's the best way. |
BAT
11.16.25 | been using like fivebelow bluetooth earbuds for years cause my phone had a fucked headphone jack, and like some cheap 10 dollar headset off amazon for my pc lol. got a 'jbl-670nc?.' like a 70-100 buck wired&wireless and it does sound like a giant upgrade over ultrabudget options, but all plastic and they've got like 4 hinges on eachside that i knooo probably aren't survive a year+. generally always avoided noise-cancelling stuff buuut decided to give it a try, they work okay for music but for likee ear muffs/silencing not that great. basically get what you pay for, solid enough to wear during a work shift but probably a little too bassy for hifi/clarity/'accurate' status. they're better than most 50$ sony headphones i've burnt thru growing up but mostly comparable soundwise |
Azazzel
11.16.25 | yeah I'm apprehensive about the Heavys and all that bass, like I imagine it'd be good for more rhythmic genres, all things Death, Heavy or Doom but I don't think that's the profile I want for a lot of the cleaner and melodic genres I listen to. but people are happy with the EQ tuning? plus my good ole ATH-M50x are still goin strong
looked at all that DAC and related equipment but seemed like an audiophile rabbit hole money pit. like I'm not even downloading FLAC so ignorance is bliss I reckon |
Beardog
11.16.25 | if you are listening on 320 kpbs no point really investing in other equipment than headphones tbh |
Solipsist
11.17.25 | Can you elaborate on that Beardog? Are you saying that at that quality having an amp wont help you discern more detail? I myself cannot tell the difference between a high quality mp3 and lossless. I generally think that high end amps/dacs/cables don't really make a difference in sound quality, regardless of the quality of the recording. After several years of being a serious audiophile, headphones are by far the most important factor in music enjoyment. |
Solipsist
11.17.25 | And good choice with the Audeze mm500. Almost bought one myself but the deal on the lcd 3 was too good to pass up. Would love to compare the two. The lighter chassis must be nice although headphone weight does not bother me personally. |
Hyperion1001
11.17.25 | good headphones/signal chain will enhance the experience of pretty much any audio source. they’ll also make it easier to notice the compression on low quality files/streams, but the benefits outweigh that little caveat. |
budgie
11.18.25 | @solipsist, amps/dacs/cables absolutely shouldn't affect the sound, if they do it's degradation and not a good thing (except tubes sometimes). for sound quality in this case all you need to worry about is the source and the headphones, everything else is just functionality |
Solipsist
11.18.25 | I agree budgie. You said you have $3000 headphones which model is that? Emperyean? |
Hyperion1001
11.18.25 | the only part that really does matter in the signal chain is the amp and that’s just to make sure you have enough juice to drive the cans if they’re high impedance.
if they’re 32-80ohm you shouldn’t have to worry with most connections. |
budgie
11.18.25 | they were focal utopias, glorious headphones for classical music but just really heavy |
ThyCrossAwaits
11.18.25 | Believe me, I’m listening to that new Rosalía album right now and if you don’t have at least a low premium set of cans you are definitely missing a whole layer of delicious things. |
smaugman
11.21.25 | i would have thought this thread would get more trafic than this |
Jurtz
11.21.25 | I can vouch for Beyerdynamic and Mackie |
Beardog
11.21.25 | Agree with Budgie, although I have a DAC/amp which does impact the source. Hyperion said it well. The Audeze are nice and comfortable, although also a bit tight but large at the same time. Does not matter that much for me though luckily. But the build quality is superb, as one can expect in the price range... |
bigweinerdon
11.21.25 | apple airpods gang |
smaugman
11.21.25 | I wonder why no other brands are able to match Sennheiser momentum 4's battery time of 60 hours, seems like every brand can only do half of that |
Beardog
11.21.25 | Got those earbuds too, quite a nice pair. Although I am not that familiar with all the brands, when I did some back-to-back testing the Sennheiser's sounded best, and being able to create your own EQ-profile makes them even better. |
smaugman
11.21.25 | I've had very many issues with momentum 4 which culminated in me permanently swapping them for bowers and wilkins px7 S3 yesterday. the sound is great but i wish i could forget about charging, did it like once a week before |
Josh D.
11.21.25 | I traded in an old laptop to Best Buy not too long ago. They gave me a little over $200, which really surprised me. It's in gift card form, not cash, so I used it to get AirPods 4 because my 1st gen ones, although still working for sound, are quite old, were used in the gym a lot, and couldn't be used for calls anymore.
The new ones glitch constantly, calls have a tremolo style effect on them, sometimes music just stops, and I prefer the tapping over the clicking for actions. Wish I had saved the gift card for something else! |
budgie
11.21.25 | "i would have thought this thread would get more trafic than this
there have been some pretty lengthy headphones threads here before i think we've just run out of things to say on the topic |
bigweinerdon
11.21.25 | My airpods have lasted forever and I've sweat so much in them I thought they'd be waterlogged at this point. Great pair...reliable |
