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Dr. Fishopolis posted:They're definitely still endgame solid state, nothing else measures like them with that much power. Neat. So like, you get a THX amp and something like a Darkvoice and you basically have all of the bases covered without getting into "stupid amounts of money to spend on headphone poo poo" territory right? Like maybe you decide to get weird down the road and add a set of electrostatics to your
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Aug 9, 2020 16:38
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Yeah, pretty much. Obviously you can go crazy with tube amps, there's still a corner of the world where people are listening to HD600s through Bottlehead Cracks and will never, ever change their setup because they have achieved their final satori you definitely don't need anything other than a THX in solid state land. I'm perfectly happy with my topping stack tbh, but I also don't bother with balanced cables.
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Aug 9, 2020 16:46
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Dr. Fishopolis posted:Yeah, pretty much. Obviously you can go crazy with tube amps, there's still a corner of the world where people are listening to HD600s through Bottlehead Cracks and will never, ever change their setup because they have achieved their final satori Not to mention rolling the tubes themselves. Dudes spending hundreds of dollars on tubes, putting them all in little felt-lined drawers and cupboards. Posting about it on forums more forgotten and blighted than this one..... Anyway, what are the good recommendations for reasonably great tube amps these days? I haven't really looked since a few years ago. Last I saw people really liked the Darkvoice for entry level/most people, the (new revised) Vali was still disappointing, the Valhalla was decent but not really very "tubey" so like what's the point besides the fact that it's probably the best looking tube amp under a grand?...and some people really loved the Elekit integrated amp kits, but now that's really getting into a whole other group of ballparks on price and capability and the fact that you have to solder them yourself. Like, assume you've got a good enough SS amp. You want a tube amp to complement it and mix things up a bit. You want it to sound good, obviously, so no crazy distortion, but you don't want it to sound so similar to SS that there's no point. What's the best tube amp for somebody that wants a "tubey" tube amp?
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Aug 9, 2020 17:08
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Depends what headphones you're using. Something about the sennheisers impedance with an OTL tube amp makes it a famous combo for a reason, but planars and a lot of harman-tuned phones don't get as much benefit.
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Aug 9, 2020 17:12
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Dr. Fishopolis posted:Haven't heard the B20 but I'd aim a little higher if I wanted that driver, the Sivga model seems like a better compromise. Permanent cables suck rear end. You just sold me on LCD2-Cs. My HE4XX weren’t bass monsters but it was leaps and bounds above anything I have owned before. Thanks for the heads up on the attached cable. Didn’t even think to check for that. You get to a certain price range and just kind of assume it’s a given. Anyone looking to sell their LCD2-Cs? 
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Aug 9, 2020 17:38
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I could still use "okay" budget DACs sold either in Finland, or in well-known (reliable) German online stores to recommend to people. Real volume control definitely a plus.
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Aug 9, 2020 17:48
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I'm looking for a replacement for my busted Sony WH-H900N headset. I tried a pair of Jabra Elite 75t wireless earbuds that I liked, but they don't have a way to rewind or fast-forward media. You can only go to the start of the track (or the previous track if you're at the start) or go to the next track. Is there some foolproof way to tell if a pair of wireless headphones (over-ear or earbuds) has this particular capability before buying them?
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Aug 9, 2020 18:57
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endlessmonotony posted:I could still use "okay" budget DACs sold either in Finland, or in well-known (reliable) German online stores to recommend to people. Schiit Modi 3. volume control doesn’t really exist on standalone DACs, since they’re generally made to feed into a preamp or integrated amp. It would be like putting a volume control on a CD player or cassette recorder or game console. DAC volume control would either need to be some sort of analog gain dealie or a knob that controls the system volume from your computer...but that doesn’t make sense because you’re sending a digital signal. Do you actually want a DAC, or do you want a DAC/pre? Do you want a preamp/amplifier with built in digital inputs? What is this DAC that you want to recommend going to be feeding?
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Aug 9, 2020 19:25
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The geshelli enog dacs have gain control and are cheap and good, I dunno about shipping to Finland though. e: actually if you really need that volume control and don't care about the fact that its "line level" outputs barely hit 1v, there's this? Dr. Fishopolis fucked around with this message at 22:35 on Aug 9, 2020 |
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Aug 9, 2020 22:32
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I'm really looking for a DAC/headphone amp combo with minimal setup, to be clearer. I guess just saying "DAC" in the "Let's Talk Headphones" thread was too subtle. There's a reason I put in that shipping restriction. Comboomer you're not really being helpful since you don't have any evidence they are available from a source I can recommend. EDIT: Third party sellers on Amazon do not count as "reliable". EDIT2: To be even clearer, something that shows up as an audio device in Windows and plugs in via USB. endlessmonotony fucked around with this message at 01:16 on Aug 10, 2020 |
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Aug 10, 2020 01:08
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endlessmonotony posted:I'm really looking for a DAC/headphone amp combo with minimal setup, to be clearer. There's a reason I put in that shipping restriction. I’m not sure I understand. I don’t have evidence that Schiit Audio is a reputable company?  They don’t sell on Amazon, as far as I know. In the US you buy direct from them. They have a European distributor. I think you can find it on their website. Maybe you can buy straight from their site like you can in a few other countries, idk. They’re certainly at least as reputable as FiiO or SMSL, etc—and those companies do ship on Amazon. I’ll stop wasting both of our time, though.
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Aug 10, 2020 01:18
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Ok Comboomer posted:idk. Yes that's the problem. Ok Comboomer posted:I’ll stop wasting both of our time, though. I think it's for the best.
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Aug 10, 2020 01:41
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wow what the hell
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Aug 10, 2020 02:13
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Dr. Fishopolis posted:wow what the hell All of Schiit's distributors in Europe serving my area are at best "a hassle" with sites that are either massively out of stock or just awful quality. Schiit having a good reputation does not extend to their resellers. Fulfilled by Amazon on very reliable brands can be fine but the only two stores where I've had reliable, competent experiences with the shipping are Thomann and Amazon Germany. European shipping was a nightmare with front doors 15 kilometers wide before the pandemic, and now it's... it's something. Schiit's also not quite the level of budget I'm looking for - at least not with their European pricing. To be clear what I'm looking for is an easy way to upgrade folks away from motherboard audio for their headphones, especially solutions that can handle pretty much any set with minimal knowledge necessary. The volume control is a big plus but not strictly necessary. endlessmonotony fucked around with this message at 02:38 on Aug 10, 2020 |
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Aug 10, 2020 02:36
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a: chill the gently caress out b: what exactly are you trying to do? you need (i presume) a bunch of dac/amps for some reason in finland, great, what headphones for what purpose
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Aug 10, 2020 03:03
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endlessmonotony posted:All of Schiit's distributors in Europe serving my area are at best "a hassle" with sites that are either massively out of stock or just awful quality. Schiit having a good reputation does not extend to their resellers. You haven't given a budget, you haven't given any kind of example about what headphones you want to use (yes, this matters a lot) and you're being an rear end.
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Aug 10, 2020 03:05
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The headphones are generally circumaural or supra-aural, mid-range Sennheisers or AKG's. Occasional Beyerdynamic. A PortaPro or two. The audio is whatever audio is on the computer, music quality generally being a priority. Budget range is two-digit in Euro. Lower better. I am perfectly calm, though I do understand tone is difficult to read from text. It's just that I can't recommend a store I can't vouch for being able to deal with the circumstances in my region, and thus advice about distributors where I am not confident they won't make shipping/warranty a major hassle isn't very useful to me.
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Aug 10, 2020 03:16
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endlessmonotony posted:Budget range is two-digit in Euro. Lower better. Two-digit euro is a pretty low range. FiiO or a similar reputable chifi company is almost certainly the best option you’re going to get. I say this not knowing anything about what may or may not be available in Finnish stores, but European-made audio devices tend to come in price brackets much, much higher than two-digit euro. endlessmonotony posted:I am perfectly calm, though I do understand tone is difficult to read from text. It's just that I can't recommend a store I can't vouch for being able to deal with the circumstances in my region, and thus advice about distributors where I am not confident they won't make shipping/warranty a major hassle isn't very useful to me. Seems like a stretch to expect folks on a somewhat niche, English-language forum to know what sources would be easily available to someone in Finland, which makes your immediate dismissal without so much as a thanks for the attempt come across as a bit, well, “how dare you not know exactly what I’m looking for, despite me not providing any resources for you to find out!!”. Getting told about that a company has a European distributor is honestly about the best outcome you could ask for without providing exactly what you consider “reputable sources” that are available in Finland.
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Aug 10, 2020 03:28
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Arcsech posted:Two-digit euro is a pretty low range. FiiO or a similar reputable chifi company is almost certainly the best option you’re going to get. Yes, for that price range, I would think something from FiiO would be reasonable as well. And knowing their popularity/price range, any number of local shops may even have something in stock. Call me crazy, but I may understand the "chifi" problem to simply be that on average, if it isn't in local stock, delivery is a real bitch of a problem. We're talking "delivery = come to our nearest warehouse to pick it up" or even "wait a month for it to arrive from Shenzhen". I'm going to hazard a guess that front door delivery is a must, and seems to be quite the logistics nightmare for parts of Europe, especially now with la corona on the loose. I can sort of vouch for my FiiO Andes, which is an old model, budget device. Thing is, I never could tell the drat difference between the Andes and my onboard audio's line output turned up to a comparable volume level. Maybe I never did deserve these Sennheiser HD 580s. Hell, it's not even an issue at this point, since I'm now using a pair of HDR 180s that belonged to my dad, until two or three years after he stopped using them, and he figured I'd put them to better use than he did. Meanwhile, the only thing I've heard about Schiit amplifiers is that they didn't even think to implement a de-popping system on the startup cycle of the amplifier, so every time you turn the drat thing on, a fully amped *POP* is issued from whatever you have connected to them.
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Aug 10, 2020 03:38
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Arcsech posted:Two-digit euro is a pretty low range. FiiO or a similar reputable chifi company is almost certainly the best option you’re going to get. I do not need European-made, I need European-sold. And yes, where it was certainly unhelpfully ambiguous that I just said "DAC" instead of "USB DAC / headphone amp", I was clear about the shipping restriction, which is indeed rather tricky a problem and rather core to my issue here. If you don't know about availability and shipping in Europe, that's... fine. I'll know nobody knows from the lack of replies.
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Aug 10, 2020 03:38
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nobody owes you advice pal, take it down a notch.
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Aug 10, 2020 04:09
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Doesn't Topping make something relatively good and cheap? Might be available out there.
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Aug 10, 2020 04:21
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I have an odd, and very different question — I give zero fucks about woo-woo audiophile grade cables....but, I'll admit some of them actually look pretty cool. Is there any retailer / seller that's cracked the "will use the same wire as Monoprice stuff, but with some nice braiding / sweet color scheme" niche yet? Specifically looking for XLR to dual 3.5 mm for HE400i — something like this but curious if there are other colors / styles available. I guess I very intentionally want that Type-R sticker knowing full well it does gently caress all for my audio.
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Aug 10, 2020 05:23
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I just got my AKG K371s, and if I had to boil their sound down to one word, it would be "controlled". Not something where you immediately go "wow!", but very competent indeed, very clean. They deserve the praise they're getting. The tuning is not quite as v-shaped as my old Beyerdynamic DT-231s, but definitely more detailed. KozmoNaut fucked around with this message at 11:06 on Aug 10, 2020 |
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Aug 10, 2020 11:00
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ddogflex posted:I use mine most every time I'm out in public alone. I've tried a lot of true wireless, and they have the most appealing sounds signature to my ears. For reference, at home I tend to use Audeze LCD2C and LCD-i3 mostly. Thanks, this sounds promising
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Aug 10, 2020 13:28
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Speaking of amps/dacs. I got a Chord Mojo to test. My go to dac/amp is an Xduoo 05+ with a Muses02 opamp. Also have a Radstone ES100, Acmee MF01, and other various phones and such. My opinion is the xduoo slaughters the mojo and its not that close. Couple days ago I got the Xduoo TA-20, 2x 12AU7 tube headphone amp. The thing is just dripping with tube goo. Widest deepest stage Ive ever heard. Sweet!
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Aug 10, 2020 16:24
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Chord products are "overpaid audiophile" class signifiers more than anything else.
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Aug 10, 2020 16:54
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Lowness 72 posted:Doesn't Topping make something relatively good and cheap? Might be available out there. Yeah they are easily available at Amazon Germany. Outside of his price range though, with the MX3 already being 130 €. Also, Fulfilled by.., which he doesn't want. Pro-Ject Head Box S would be slightly above the price range with 104 €: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B006SICA5Q/ No DAC though. Fiio K3 is the best bet at 103 €: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B07KR3RF4H/ But also Fulfilled by... Honestly at this price point with this wishes it's cheapest no-name stuff or adding another 50 €. KozmoNaut posted:I just got my AKG K371s, and if I had to boil their sound down to one word, it would be "controlled". Not something where you immediately go "wow!", but very competent indeed, very clean. They deserve the praise they're getting. Loved the sound, could not deal with everything being glued and not repairable at all and most of all the super microphonic cable connector always touching my clothes and making noise. It annoyed the hell out of me, which is a shame, the sound is really lovely and I am very fond of AKG since my good old and still in use K242 (Made in Austria). Decius fucked around with this message at 19:24 on Aug 10, 2020 |
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Aug 10, 2020 19:19
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Decius posted:Yeah they are easily available at Amazon Germany. Outside of his price range though, with the MX3 already being 130 €. Also, Fulfilled by.., which he doesn't want. Pro-Ject Head Box S would be slightly above the price range with 104 €: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B006SICA5Q/ No DAC though. It's looking like FiiO E10K Olympus 2 is pretty much in the optimal range. It's not great to have Amazon fulfilled instead of Amazon sold, but at least the Amazon seller is a German company which means they follow the rules on warranty and you get Amazon's shipping which at least works. Comedy option: Sound Blaster X G1.
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Aug 10, 2020 19:33
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movax posted:I have an odd, and very different question — I give zero fucks about woo-woo audiophile grade cables....but, I'll admit some of them actually look pretty cool. Anyone heard of Periapt Cables? I dig the braided look and it doesn't look half bad, and is not obscenely expensive vs. the labor of assembling it myself. The other comedy option I have been entertaining is Digi-Key'ing the connectors, and assembling the cables myself over a six-pack. Maybe I'll use some "space-grade" wiring from work from leftover missions / projects and re-sell it at some point as "space-grade headphone cables".
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Aug 11, 2020 02:59
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periapt is great, they're a rare zero-bullshit cable maker. honestly I love making cables, it's like being a high school a/v nerd all over again. nothing approaches having to wire up an 18 channel balanced snake oh christ that sucked e: i've been wearing my er2xrs recently and just drat. i also remember why I rotated them out, the cable's el crappo Dr. Fishopolis fucked around with this message at 05:03 on Aug 11, 2020 |
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Aug 11, 2020 04:51
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movax posted:I have an odd, and very different question — I give zero fucks about woo-woo audiophile grade cables....but, I'll admit some of them actually look pretty cool. I made my own. The silver ones are Van Damme guitar cable and Nakamichi plugs from eBay, and the blacks are from an old professional microphone cable with plugs I don't even remember where I got. Feels good man, and were no-solder and a fun project. They are not for headphones, but ebay will have all you need of braided cable, connectors and heatshrink. 
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Aug 11, 2020 12:45
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nah yknow what gently caress it i'm back in love with the etymotics, I can live with the cable. a pair of ER2XRs, the apple usb-c dac and a usb-a adapter if you need it will run you like $110, and I don't think you could possibly do better for the price. some number of people will not make it past the first week of Deep Insertion, but those who persevere will be rewarded in valhalla.
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Aug 12, 2020 18:07
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So i have a pair of Sennheiser HD280 Pro that is +10 old still running great as my daily use PC headphones. Replaced the ear pads with better ones and had to replace the top band cushion after a while. Daily uses include listening to music and movies and most importantly interview transcribing for my research where i have to spend alot of time listening to audio with alot of background noise and people with strange accents. Budget - $100~200 Source - PC Preferred Type of Headphone - over ear Preferred Tonal Balance - well rounded? i use it for a variety of things so. Past Headphones - Sennheiser HD280 Pro, Steelseries Siberia 800, Kz ATE Preferred Music - Lots of Vivaldi and American Folk these days. Was wondering if there is something new in the market that is as good as that. Wouldnt mind buying a DAC either if thats what would give me good results as long as it would be within my budget. I use a Steelseries wireless headset that i got from a friend for video games but that only gets used rarely and mostly just for the mic. I still cant believe that this headphone i bought in 2007 for 75$ is still one of my most cherished items. ughhhh fucked around with this message at 05:50 on Aug 13, 2020 |
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Aug 13, 2020 05:46
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I recently replaced my well-loved Beyerdynamic DT-231 Pros with the AKG K371s, and it sounds like those would fit your requirements. Tuning follows the Harman curve, so fairly neutral without being totally flat. Bass goes super deep without any boominess, mids and highs are nicely balanced. It's a really good all-rounder.
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Aug 13, 2020 06:30
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ughhhh posted:So i have a pair of Sennheiser HD280 Pro that is +10 old still running great as my daily use PC headphones. Replaced the ear pads with better ones and had to replace the top band cushion after a while. Daily uses include listening to music and movies and most importantly interview transcribing for my research where i have to spend alot of time listening to audio with alot of background noise and people with strange accents. K371 as noted is probably the 'best' closed back headphone in that price range, only the DT770 is really competitive and the K371 has a more balanced tuning, it's extremely well balanced and clean sounding for a closed back despite having an exaggerated sub-bass boost. In that price range the best sound quality you'll find is with Etymotic, and for your listening preferences the ER2SE would be perfect if you're down to adjust to a neutral tuning with basically flat bass as they have extreme clarity through the mid-range for hearing speech; otherwise, the much more popular ER2XR has a sub-bass boost that'll sound more in-line with most people's expectations while still being clearer than alternatives in the price range. As to DAC, just get a $9 Apple USB-C dongle.
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Aug 13, 2020 19:00
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For transcribing work if you need to focus on detail, yeah the etymotics are the way to go. BUT, they are not over-ear headphones by any stretch of the imagination, they get way up in your canals. waaaaaaaaay up in there. It feels normal after a week or two but it's a bit of a chore getting them in and out if you have to speak to someone. Get the ER2XR model and return it if for the SE if for some reason you think it has too much bass (you won't) DT770 pro 80 ohm would be my other choice, though the treble and general v-shape can get to some people. If you're in a quiet room and can use open backs, start with the 58X.
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Aug 13, 2020 22:31
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Thanks for the suggestions, gonna try out the 58X since i want to give Sennheiser another go, then if that doesn't work out, will try the DT770.
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Aug 13, 2020 23:26
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oh Yea if open backs work for your use case the 58X--and 6XX if the extra cost isn't much of a stretch--are basically the best deal in full size headphones and are greatly superior to the closed backs discussed; there are things they could do better, but nothing they do poorly or offensively, and have been a standard reference point for headphone quality for decades. Sennheiser just nailed the tonality with this series.
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Aug 14, 2020 00:49
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It's 2020, no one is leaving their homes and being in public or an office/library where someone could be in hearing distance of a open back headphone.
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Aug 14, 2020 00:52
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