h264

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.

ok then what am I missing? My phone sounds WAAY better than my pc. I can tell when a good audio file comes on. How can I tell good vs bad? Or are there specific files i should look for? 

Just trying to maximize the arm and leg I had to sell to get these things lol

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

Huh?

I'm asking, should I buy the hd600 and sell my k7xx once I get them.

Oh don't worry about *BAAAAH*man he's finally degenerated to expressing himself only in image macros

*ahem*

@h264, is the M50 headband larger than the DT series? I don't know how having a head this big is possible, but whatever.

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

Audio is far too quiet and crackly.

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

How constructive.

 

 

It sounds like we're on the same page then? It's all about how much your experience improves (which is why I said measurements don't mean jack to me). If your experience doesn't noticeably improve then what's the point? How much said improvement is worth is entirely up to the individual which is why I said in my original post that if he wasn't dissatisfied with his current audio quality it might not be worth the hassle and money for him. I am an oldschool audiophile so obviously I am willing to cash out a little more for a better experience. That is, again, an experience that I think is better, not an experience someone else tells me is better or god forbid measuring equipment tells me is better.

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.

But why would you remove bias? You are not looking to please anyone but yourself.

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.

In some ways it's harder to power the low impedance headphones correctly.

Also, your original post was that most PC's can even "handle it". I've plugged my HD800s everywhere. Some sources have bad noise floor and other problems but that occurs for every headphone/earphone. Also, often it is brought up that the hardest to drive headphone on the market today has an impedance of below 100ohms. Especially your statement telling him not to even think about DT990s. They have different version with different impedances. On top of that I wouldn't really have qualms even running the 600 ohm version on my onboard. If one is worried they can just pick the 250 or lower.

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. 

thanks. i won't take the K240 cus it's look super wierd for me. and if i take the HD 558 i need an amp right ? does the fiio E10K enough to power that ?

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

thanks for sharing.. iam an open minded person. that's going on my note. if iam not taking grado, any suggestion for alternative ? please must under $150

AKG K240 or Sennheiser HD558 would make sense.

I'm going on record and saying Grados suck. Only get them when you're experienced enough to know what you want - never as your first serious headphone.

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

can anyone have tips about moving from over the ear closed headphone to on ear open headphone ?? i want to buy the grado sr80e.. i need to know somethings about them.

how long is the cable ? is it worth it ? how durable is it ( if you use it only when using a PC only, never go outside ) ?

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.

My windows volume is set at 100% but I find it to be too quiet in some games but its plenty loud with youtube etc (I have to set youtube to 5-10%, 100% is deafening but at max volume in a lot of games its like 1% in youtube), I tried some program called Letasoft sound booster and as soon as I set it above 100% it crackles a ton and makes it sound like its going to break the headphones. This is with a pair of HD650s and a regular mobo

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

 All I said was that I don't think people who have no experience with this range of headphones are particularly qualified to give advice on them. Like myself; I haven't listened to any of these super high end cans so the best I can do it repeat second hand information.

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

How many people on this forum have bought and used a range of $1000+ headphones to be able to bring good experience to the table? If it was more than 10 in the community I would be surprised. If more than two of those actually saw and replied to this post I would again be surprised.

 

You are the first although have you got a range of $1000 cans?

I do. Ask me anything.  Tesla T1 and LCD-2 here.  Long story short, headphones that expensive are only worth it to reply to silly posts like this.

Oh boy I love me some conspiracy theories

try the latest driver from realtek audio's website, not your motherboard manufacturer.  I had the same issue with my Ethernet port.

its good, how are u mang?

It's all good

out with one overpriced audio company, in with another

 

 

Oh well, I'd rather see them using bose.

 

hi @h264 

howzit?

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/nfl-bans-players-from-wearing-beats-by-dre-headphones-during-interviews-171611924.html

The NFL has struck a new deal with Bose and will no longer allow players to wear the incredibly popular headphones during interviews.  Fines will be issued if this rule is breached.