Hcor.net Forum Index -> Music -> headphones Goto page Previous  1, 2       View previous topic :: View next topic  Posted: Fri Dec 24, 2004 9:16 pm Toshi Kingpin   Joined: Sep 6, 2002 Posts: 2074 Location: seattle the Inbred wrote: has anyone ever needed a headphone amp? when i was looking for headphones, i was stuck between the SR60 and SR80. i saw a lot of reviews saying the 80s really needed the help of an amp for most portable players. i was mainly using an MD player, so opted for the SR60s. and what does "ohm" stand for? yeah, that bugged me about the reviews of the 580 and 600. it's easy to get caught up in snobbishness and say "you NEED a $1000 headphone amp and aftermarket cable set to get good sound out of these cans". very similar to the recording world, where i was almost compelled into dropping a huge wad on mics and mic preamps (mostly used for recording myself) before settling with a basic, functional system which probably is better than the acoustics of my "recording venues", that is, rooms of my apartment and my parents' house. i went with a shure sm57 + m-audio audio buddy preamp just for the record. cheap. looked down upon by the audiophiles. whatever. altho i still would like a royer r-121 ribbon mic note that i'm not saying that good preamps and headphone amps aren't measurably better, or that they aren't required for optimum performance. i'm just saying that in this world it's all too easy to say that something is necessary and everything less than that is junk, when 90% performance may well be more than adequate for the situation. ohm is a unit of resistance. volts over amps. Posted: Fri Dec 24, 2004 9:24 pm proglife Kingpin   Joined: Sep 11, 2002 Posts: 2113 Location: Annapolis, MD I'd say I'm mildy snobby. I can't stand bad sound, but I'm a firm believer in diminishing returns. Lucky for me, the headphone jack on my NAD C320BEE is a perfect match for my Senns. I still think they sound better than the Grados or Etys out of my iPod. Inbred, I've had the 60's, 80's and 125's. None of them were disappointing with the iPod, but the 580's sound exactly what I want my audio playback to sound like. I would REALLY like to hear them through a decent tube amp, but I typically only use my headphones when I'm sitting in the living room and my roomates are watching shitty TV. I do still want a Jolida 502b for my room. Posted: Sat Dec 25, 2004 1:28 am narlus Dog House   Joined: Sep 8, 2002 Posts: 1413 Location: 53.4° N 6.2° W so tosh, what'd they run you? the 580s are on ebay for $125. good deal? _________________ Yuppie wrote: Flames make everything faster, stronger, and better. Posted: Sat Dec 25, 2004 1:41 am proglife Kingpin   Joined: Sep 11, 2002 Posts: 2113 Location: Annapolis, MD ^ Just an aside, I'm [b]totally comfortable buying of Head-Fi. It's a great site. Posted: Sat Dec 25, 2004 1:43 am Toshi Kingpin   Joined: Sep 6, 2002 Posts: 2074 Location: seattle narlus wrote: so tosh, what'd they run you? the 580s are on ebay for $125. good deal? $190 shipped was the result. $125 for 580s sounds like a good deal, since they run $200 from headphone.com (headphones.com is another, lamer site). Posted: Sat Dec 25, 2004 3:01 am the Inbred All-City   Joined: Sep 27, 2002 Posts: 1077 Location: austin threads like these end up making me wish i had $20,000 to drop on a home system. i might start looking for some of those 580s. how portable are they? that's one thing i really, really like about the Grados, they lay flat in my bag. i wouldn't mind having them outside my bag, but i don't want to be advertising that i'm carrying some high dollar headphones. also, do the Sennheisers seem to magnify outside noise like my Grados do? i don't really understand that, but it seems as if noise i'm trying to drown out ends up being magnified whenever i put on my headphones. Toshi, i know you listen to a lot of classical, which says to me you're into a lot of different music types....so do you listen to drum corps? i'm interested in how the Sennheisers will handle big hits that combine pretty much all sound frequencies. you guys got me all anxious about these headphones. damn y'all. Posted: Sat Dec 25, 2004 3:06 am Toshi Kingpin   Joined: Sep 6, 2002 Posts: 2074 Location: seattle i don't listen to drum corps, but i can bust out my chase and stan kenton recordings with the lead trumpet screaming away... heh. about grado wrt portability my former roommate says this about his 60s: Quote: I have the Grado SR-60, and I'm still happy with it. Still producing good sound, no noticeable degradation. The worst thing about them is really the bulk and the shape – it's pretty hard to stash them in a backpack in a safe way. They work well with the iPod, but there are a few difficulties due to sensitivity: (1) they bring out compression artifacts (though you rip at high bitrate, yah?) (2) you can hear when the hard drive spins up (3) _charging_ the unit is often audible. Easy fix there, don't plug it in while using. Oh there's one more issue, which you may remember: They're the exact opposite of isolating headphones. You can hear everything around you, everyone else can hear your music. Not totally ideal for library situations, though if you keep the volume down it's fine. Posted: Sat Dec 25, 2004 9:38 am proglife Kingpin   Joined: Sep 11, 2002 Posts: 2113 Location: Annapolis, MD I wouldn't get the 580's if you're loooking for portability, Inbred. You'd look a bit silly walking around with those on. Posted: Tue Jan 04, 2005 3:24 am Toshi Kingpin   Joined: Sep 6, 2002 Posts: 2074 Location: seattle so the hd600s are resting against my ears now. they're pretty comfortable, and not as big as i feared. they also don't block any ambient noise, so i can hear the fans on my computer annoyingly well. good thing i was planning on replacing them anyway with quieter ones. as far as their sound goes, i haven't noticed a huge leap from my v6s yet, listening to classical (sonatas and partitas for solo violin). two nice things that i have noticed are that the soundstage is wider than the somewhat inside-your-skull sounding v6s, and they don't sound harsh even while maintaining the brightness of the violin, which is mic'ed closely enough in this recording to hear lots of growl from the strings and even the breaths of the performer. the v6s are about as clear but maybe a bit more harsh. maybe not. switching to mahler 5 (played by the boston symphony) the sound difference becomes much more apparent. the bass on the sennheisers lacks a bit of punch, and the mix sounds different: despite the lack of punch the lower frequencies (i'd say 200 hz and below) seem more pronounced and extremely high frequencies sound a bit attenuated. this can be heard in the sound of the trumpet section: boston is an all-monette group, a make of trumpet that has a TON of high frequency overtones in its sound, so usually the trumpet cuts right through the mix. with the sennheisers the trumpets sound more subdued, which is a nice and musical effect, but not what i'm accustomed to hearing from this recording. overall i like the sennheiser sound. it's wider and less brittle feeling than that of the sony v6s. on the other hand, the sonys definitely kick a bit better on the low frequencies, even with symphonies, and then there's the whole deal with the different balance between sections as per the above. Re: headphones Posted: Sat Feb 26, 2005 12:35 am sinister All-City   Joined: Oct 8, 2002 Posts: 760 Location: bev. mass, usa i didnt read anything but the title, so here i go... -sennheiser px-200 (good/cheap sealed cans) -grado sr60 for ipod, sr80 for anything else -etymotic for inear style buds and the higher end models of these companies are amazing if u have the $. i, personally, would stick to these 3 companies. _________________ i am not Bill

Re: headphones

Posted: Sat Feb 26, 2005 10:19 am

proglife Kingpin   Joined: Sep 11, 2002 Posts: 2113 Location: Annapolis, MD sinister wrote: i didnt read anything but the title, so here i go... -sennheiser px-200 (good/cheap sealed cans) -grado sr60 for ipod, sr80 for anything else -etymotic for inear style buds and the higher end models of these companies are amazing if u have the $. i, personally, would stick to these 3 companies. I'd really like to check out Beyerdynamics, too.

Re: headphones

Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2005 12:08 pm

sinister All-City   Joined: Oct 8, 2002 Posts: 760 Location: bev. mass, usa go to the best headphone forum: http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/index.php _________________ i am not Bill

Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2005 12:30 pm

monkeynaut Tagger   Joined: Mar 30, 2003 Posts: 48 Location: Boston, Ma/ Rochester, NY the Inbred wrote: Toshi, i know you listen to a lot of classical, which says to me you're into a lot of different music types....so do you listen to drum corps? i'm interested in how the Sennheisers will handle big hits that combine pretty much all sound frequencies. As you may have noticed, I'm not Toshi but I think that your question about Corps is not so much a headphone issue, but more of a source question. I am an avid follower of Field Bands and Drum Corps and I find that the recording quality is often subpar. The official releases from DCI, DCA and Bands of America are usually done with 3 or 4 stereo dynamic mic arrays on the front of the field. As such, I think there's a lot of noise from the pit percussion that muddles up the overall sound to begin with. However, if you're just listening to battery warm ups and things of that nature, I've found that it's really a matter of just EQing it right so the basses aren't too boomy, everything else tends to be recorded more or less properly. I know this didn't have much to do with headphones, but I figured I'd just throw my two cents in since I marched for four years and have done my fair share of audio engineering as well. I'm a dork, I know. If you've got a good source for clean, clear Corps recordings I'd love to know about it. Anywho, if you want any more info about cleaning up some less-than-fine recordings just drop me a line. I may be able to help you out. Be well! _________________ -Erich NU Racing We are the robots.

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