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You think the HD558s are MORE uncomfortable than plether pads? That's a rare opinion right there. Yeah, I keep writing these silly parody reviews trying to impress upon people that it's not as big of a difference as they think. I actually have a review I've gotta write up soon concerning a certain pair of headphones and that notion. One of these days I'll stop being lazy and just do it.

you could kick that sample rate up as high as it will go, but it's not gonna change much besides the noise level and the dynamic range about 1% on average

1. Yes. They completely surround mine, but no idea how big your dumbo flaps are. They do touch my ears, but it's not uncomfortable. 2. Yes, it affects the bass response a hell of a lot. If you like a "natural" bass sound with a lot of "bloom" (that's very low frequency response), you'll like this headphone. It's a normal Beyer V shaped sound signature. Lots of highs, lots of lows, less mids. 3. It's one of the better "soundstaged" headphones I know which is why I recommend it so much for people who want dual game/music headphones. Everything sounds very well placed as the drivers are well angled. If soundstage is really the most important thing to you, the AKG K7 is a better option. 4. They ARE plethor pads, but they have a breathable mesh lining on the bottom which makes them very comfortable over even long periods of time, but I still get sweaty in the summer. 5. thatsnazzyiphoneguy is convinced it sounds terrible. I'm convinced it sounds like a Beyerdynamic headphone, only more advanced and with 21st century drivers. Trust me or him, I don't care. Between these and the Sennheiser HD558s for what you want? If gaming is more important than audio, the Sennheisers. They have better pads for longer sessions. If audio, then the Beyers. Up to you, they're both good headphones. I'd just look for a replacement cable for the HD558s because the one it comes with is incredibly unruly. I got my COPs on Ebay.

http://www.head-fi.org/t/737642/fulla-by-schiit-news-photos-thoughts-impressions-etc/210#post_11107225 it's even worse than that, some of the early units have the wrong part installed in the DAC.

no directly. More of a note about Linus mentioning driver over-excursion in his quote in a funny way.

http://www.planetdj.com/i--B1500DPRO >State-of-the-art 1400-Watt Class-D amplifier with comprehensive over-excursion, thermal and clip limit protection NOW, BIG subs and tweeters have a feature called over-excursion protection to keep the woofer from "bottoming out" or damaging the driver when it's pushed too hard. This is handled with an electrical circuit, not a "port".

Ah! Another glorious member of the Beyerdynamic Master Race. Good show, I say!

If you have old CDs or LPs, look up EAC and make some 100% flac rips otherwise forget about it.

are your phone and your laptop outputting at the same perceived volume? It's your built-in laptop audio, correct?

Oh don't worry about *BAAAAH*man he's finally degenerated to expressing himself only in image macros *ahem* As for your question, get them if you want them but it's not a big difference except in bass response if it's a 701 or 702 you've got.

It's a bit bigger. I don't even have to extend the M50 headband at all.

sounds like something isn't grounded. Bad trace? Poor design? Missing a standoff ... maybe?

It appears we agree in our conclusion but not in our testing methodology. You say: listen and believe. I say: trust, but verify. It's pretty much that simple. It's more than about sound quality. If the audio engineer doesn't measure and a reviewer or audio engineer doesn't verify a piece of equipment is performing how it should you may be simply convincing yourself that for instance a clipping amplifier is better than your old one. A very mysterious and dangerous world to live in, stumbling around in the dark bumping into all the things a good test would illuminate.

The argument for Objectivity is not merely a scientific basis (although it's a good place to start by grounding yourself in good methodology and testing for obvious problems), but also a consumerist argument. Say you really like beer. A pretty basic tenant of microeconomics would say that for your demands to be fulfilled you'd want to consume as much beer as possible in order to fulfill your desire for beer. However, you can only drink so much beer before the risks (mainly, forgetting where you are, waking up with some chick you don't know, or passing out in a gutter) start to outweigh the benefits. So the question that you, as a consumer, must answer is how much is the NEXT bottle of beer worth to your happiness, and does that increase in personal happiness make sense given the cost. Put another, way, for each beer you consume, you get less happiness from the next beer, and eventually, less. So for audio, you want the best listening experience possible. You see this newfangled amplifier/DAC contraption that your favorite charlatan audio company is releasing on Head-Fi. It's around $1500. You already own a pair of decent headphones and you plug them into your onboard audio card on your computer. It's OK, and you don't notice any obvious flaws, but you think that audio company's product would look great on your desk and according to everyone on the forum sound AMAZING and "synergy" great with a $1000 pair of headphones. So your question as a consumer is pretty simple if you cut through all the nonsense, does this audio setup you'd like to buy sound $2500 better than the one you have now? So, you could measure. Let's say it measures much better. You might even be able to tell the difference between the two setups (headphones and AMP/DACs) in a blind test if you try really hard. However, isn't the fact you have to do ALL that just to prove to YOURSELF that it's better make it seem a bit unlikely that your audio experience will really improve $2500 more? I know this comes as something hard to swallow for dyed-in-the-wool audiophiles who will spare no expense to get the BEST sound, but perhaps your biases are not your friend in cases that do not involve bears in the woods and cliffs.

Yeah, that's what the Magni needed, MORE POWER. *COUGH*. At least the pricier one has a gain switch this time around.

http://www.head-fi.org/t/627277/headphones-arent-getting-loud-enough General statement, but If you read head-fi long enough you'll come to understand just how many people have REAL hearing damage from listening to music WAY too loud. Buy anything you want, but don't hurt your ears. Please.

I plug my T1 into my Note 3 all the time. Works. Not TERRIBLY loud, but keep in mind I'm not advocating hearing damage either.

You won't need an amp for the HD558. Your onboard will work fine.

AKG K240 or Sennheiser HD558 would make sense.

They are very uncomfortable, but I personally like the way mine sound.

Some people like them and others don't like them. You'll want to see if prolonged wear of any on the ear headphone is comfortable for you, first of all. The Grados are a very good value but lack lower bass response.

The last review I made was mostly a joke, so I’m going to do a serious review this time. I swear. This tiny little USB oddity is the Geek Out 720. Linus made a video about the Geek Out 450, but this is the more powerful 720. The model numbers come from the output wattage of each device. Now Geek Out is a product of Light Harmonic, a pretty well-known audio maker in the hi-fi/audiophile community. So when they began a Kickstarter to create a USB AMP/DAC that only used USB power and could play everything up to DSD, Head-fi of course lost their collective minds. I can’t even begin talking about this device without explaining Kickstarter to all those people living under a rock since 2009, but Kickstarter is a “crowd funding” platform in where people can throw money at various “projects”, including everything from hoverboards to potato salad. As you’ve probably already guessed, I’m a pretty skeptical person, and I’ll tell you right now I’m NOT a venture capitalist. That profession is not for the strongly purse-stringed or poorly financed, and I, my friends, am both. So It goes without saying I’m not exactly all about the new throw your money at strangers (sometimes MONTHLY) model of funding creative people and hoping you get your contribution rewards. So please read this review with the prior knowledge my bias against anything “crowd funded” is quite strong. The Geek Out features a 24bit/192kbps DAC and a 32bit/6.144MHz DSD DAC that is connected to an amplifier that features two separate headphone outputs. One has a .47 Ohms output impedance and the other has a 47 Ohm output impedance and thus doubles as a line out. On the side are two … buttons, but we’ll get to those later when I rant about the software. The case has a high quality feel and everything holds together solidly. For a device with this many features it’s certainly crammed into a very small and transportable container. Cramming, of course, will increase the heat output, and this device feels hot like a toaster after being plugged in for about 10 minutes. Included are an extension cable and a little carry pouch. It was easy enough to throw it into my laptop bag with all my other cables and doodads for my weekly travels. Now let’s shift to the important part that I wanted to talk about. The firmware. This is one reason why I haven’t written a review on this item until now. It simply did not work. Well, let me rephrase that. The volume control was outright dangerous to your hearing. This device in order to be fancy and new uses the UAC2 standard audio driver in Windows, Mac, and Linux. That’s a perfectly acceptable notion in Mac and Linux since the standard is fully implemented, but in Windows there is a bit of competition between the MASTER of the computer’s volume and the MASTER of the device’s volume. The resulting Windows driver bug makes it so anytime the volume on the GO720 is adjusted after a re-plug it’s re-set to MAX on the device side since the windows master volume takes over. At least that was LH’s story about the bug, as they explained on their forums. I’m sorry to say this sort of thing is simply unacceptable at any rate. (I never tried the DSD feature because DSD is stupid.) The good news is if you’re considering a device like this is that the problems have all been fixed. Or rather, the feature to control volume on the device has been removed in the latest firmware along with the “3D awesomefier” feature. The volume up and down buttons now only change the DAC roll off instead. So as long as you don’t mind installing drivers and upgrading the firmware, which I honestly found very easy, the device will become quite functional. My recommendation therefore is simple. If you like hassles and firmware upgrades on super-hot running devices, I’d give this little item a shot. Other than that I might have to tack it up along with all the other poorly managed and unfinished projects that have come out of Kickstarter in the last few years. Honestly, my advice on Kickstarter is much simpler to begin with – Never Once.

wait, which games? Did you check the windows sound mixer to see if you had you game audio turned down?

If you had just said that it wouldn't be silly and incorrect.