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The Audio Board's Recommended Gear

SSL
1 hour ago, SSL said:

 

The non-pro (premium) version has lighter headcamp and slightly different hardware. Same sound. The different impedences are different impedences. The "semi-closed" variant is the DT 880 and it has less bass and slightly less treble than the DT 990.

So for your typical person who can't notice mild differences would saving money on the 32 OHM DT 990's be worth it over the slightly pricier 250 OHM variant along with the possibility of probably having to get an AMP?

 

 

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5 minutes ago, DarkBlade2117 said:

So for your typical person who can't notice mild differences would saving money on the 32 OHM DT 990's be worth it over the slightly pricier 250 OHM variant along with the possibility of probably having to get an AMP?

 

Probably no need for an amp either way (not an acronym, short for amplifier). Get whichever is cheapest.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Do you think the Audio Technica ATH-M40x should be added to the $100-$300 range?  I have them and am in love with them.  They are really comfortable even after long periods of usage, are high quality, are tuned flat, and are really nice overall.  Good for gaming too.

 

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1 hour ago, ArduinoBen said:

Do you think the Audio Technica ATH-M40x should be added to the $100-$300 range?  I have them and am in love with them.  They are really comfortable even after long periods of usage, are high quality, are tuned flat, and are really nice overall.  Good for gaming too.

 

 

they are already in the 50-100$ range, which is the price range you see them in, when you look at the US. ;) 

Before you buy amp and dac.  My thoughts on the M50x  Ultimate Ears Reference monitor review I might have a thing for audio...

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4 hours ago, Dackzy said:

they are already in the 50-100$ range, which is the price range you see them in, when you look at the US. ;) 

Yeah it's not usual to see them for insane prices elsewhere, starting at $200 and going up from there - well well above what would be just a straight currency conversion ಠ_ಠ

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3 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

Yeah it's not usual to see them for insane prices elsewhere, starting at $200 and going up from there - well well above what would be just a straight currency conversion ಠ_ಠ

Would everything else cost more in that case, though?

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Just now, Kloaked said:

Would everything else cost more in that case, though?

As much as anyone in Canada will complain about how pricing has been for the last ~2 - 2.5 years now, they will also tell you that at least, while higher than we'd like, the pricing is still "fair".  Ie, if it costs $X in the US, it will cost $X*<exchange rate> in Canada.  Well, usually... not with the m50xs though.  Those are often literally double the US price for some very strange reason that I cannot fathom.

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Just a suggestion since this seems to be a semi-popular topic: bluetooth headphone/in-ear suggestions?

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12 minutes ago, Kloaked said:

Just a suggestion since this seems to be a semi-popular topic: bluetooth headphone/in-ear suggestions?

 

As always, people can post suggestions in this thread, along with a breakdown of why it's a good recommendation (e.g. "crisp highs and good bass" is not a sufficiently good reason). In-ears in general and bluethooth crap in particular is not on my radar, so I cannot provide suggestions on that score myself. Note that @KaminKevCrew basically provided the whole IEM section, which I just edited for readability.

 

What this boils down to is if I, SSL, trust the source. This does not necessarily mean that they have to agree with what I might think, but they do have to know what they are talking about. Case in point, compare "Z reviews" to "noaudiophile". Similar in style, vastly different in substance.

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22 hours ago, SSL said:

 

As always, people can post suggestions in this thread, along with a breakdown of why it's a good recommendation (e.g. "crisp highs and good bass" is not a sufficiently good reason). In-ears in general and bluethooth crap in particular is not on my radar, so I cannot provide suggestions on that score myself. Note that @KaminKevCrew basically provided the whole IEM section, which I just edited for readability.

 

What this boils down to is if I, SSL, trust the source. This does not necessarily mean that they have to agree with what I might think, but they do have to know what they are talking about. Case in point, compare "Z reviews" to "noaudiophile". Similar in style, vastly different in substance.

I'm not much of one for bluetooth audio, but I have owned both the Jaybirds X1 and X2, both of which might be worth adding to the recommended gear.

 

Short blurb about them: decent quality in the low end, and quite a bit of it. I find them good for hip hop, and particularly enjoyable to use when working out. They have enough isolation that they block out the noise you'd want them to, but if someone needs your attention, or you're out for a run, you'd still be able to tell that someone is yelling at you/you're being honked at. Mids are somewhat recessed, due to the prominence of the low end. Highs are present, though nothing spectacular by any means.

 

The bluetooth quality obviously makes the music sound a bit compressed, though to be honest, you won't notice it if you're working out (which was my main use case with both.) signal quality was quite good, as I never had any drop outs with my HTC M7 (for the first gen bluebuds X) and my Galaxy S7 (for my X2s) The X3s are likely a similar story, though I haven't tried those yet.

 

The cable managing clip things that come with the bluebuds for behind the neck cable management are a pain to get right, but stay set pretty well once you've got them where you want them.

 

Battery life is also pretty much second to none. More often than not, I would charge them simply because I figured I should, and I was thinking about it. I rarely got the low battery warning (note: I'm prone to simply charging things when I think they should be charged, not necessarily because I'm getting low battery warnings.)

 

Other than that, I can't really comment on bluetooth stuff, as I pretty much actively avoid it. 

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Is there a reason the HD8 DJ's weren't listed?

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14 minutes ago, CharminUltraStrong said:

Is there a reason the HD8 DJ's weren't listed?

 

V-moda M100 is too similar for nearly $100 less.

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Just now, SSL said:

 

V-moda M100 is too similar for nearly $100 less.

Would you consider changing it?  HD8 DJ's sound and feel much better in my opinion.  The cables are SHITE but sound much nicer, very punch, sharp-ISH highs and very in your face(probably due to the clamping force).  They're built like a tank, you'd have to run them over with one to break them but that's one gripe I have with them.  The head band is dreadful, after around 2 hours of listening or more, it digs.

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Just now, CharminUltraStrong said:

Would you consider changing it?  HD8 DJ's sound and feel much better in my opinion.  The cables are SHITE but sound much nicer, very punch, sharp-ISH highs and very in your face(probably due to the clamping force).  They're built like a tank, you'd have to run them over with one to break them but that's one gripe I have with them.  The head band is dreadful, after around 2 hours of listening or more, it digs.

 

How do the HD8DJ sound better?

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1 hour ago, SSL said:

 

How do the HD8DJ sound better?

Bass is punchier, in my opinion. The treble leaves a bit to be desired but it's defined I'll say that much. The sound is pretty clean, very warm of course but not a muddled mess.  The Vmoda's sounded a bit muddier, sure some sharp bass but the highs get lost in my opinion. Preference goes to HD8 DJ, that extra $100 goes a long way but they've gotten cheap since I bought them.  I purchased mine at $300 but you can snag them for $250 and under if your timing is right.

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Also the pad quality is quite nice, as close to real leather as you'll get with this protein stuff.  The velour pads for mine fell apart, they came unglued from the mounts.  My cables rubber sheathing on either end slips off and the non-coiled cable stopped working after a while.

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22 hours ago, CharminUltraStrong said:

Bass is punchier, in my opinion. The treble leaves a bit to be desired but it's defined I'll say that much. The sound is pretty clean, very warm of course but not a muddled mess.  The Vmoda's sounded a bit muddier, sure some sharp bass but the highs get lost in my opinion. Preference goes to HD8 DJ, that extra $100 goes a long way but they've gotten cheap since I bought them.  I purchased mine at $300 but you can snag them for $250 and under if your timing is right.

 

This is good. Any differences worth mentioning in the midrange? So, vocals, piano, cello, etc.

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On 3/10/2017 at 1:23 AM, SSL said:

 

This is good. Any differences worth mentioning in the midrange? So, vocals, piano, cello, etc.

Piano is very exciting to listen to!  The best way I could describe it is, the definition of the highs with the tight bass makes it so that you can feel every press and thud of a piano key.  Cello is interesting, you don't here every stroke across the strings but it sort of melts together if that makes sense.  I liken cello/violin to honey on these cans, flows together very smoothly and vocals can be a mixed bag.  Depending on what you listen to vocals can be lively or lost.  So, for example, songs like The Ecstasy of Gold with female vocals are sharp even among the instruments prevalent in the midrange.  Trying a few rap songs, the lyrics in, for example, "The Blacker the Berry" by Kendrick Lamar his vocals can be lost.  I'm unsure if this is due to mixing or the midrange because some of his tracks can have BIZARRE vocals where sometimes the way his voice sounds(a little rumbly) is accentuated and other times it's not.  In other songs like "Change" by J. Cole, his vocals are quite crisp and sharp no give.  Piano songs that sound great, Bluestone Alley(Congfei Wei), Primavera(Ludovico Einaudi), Sleeping Lotus(Joep Beving).  I'm not a connoisseur of Cello music but Yo-yo Ma tracks sound good as well as Frederic Chopin(Sonata in G minor? Can't remember the opus).  These headphones were made for DJ's so it's a given that any EDM music sounds great, kicks, claps, etc. very excited sounding and the bass, amazingly, does not overpower!  Deadmau5, Porter Robinson, Seven Lions these are all great sounding on the HD8's.  J. Cole, Kendrick Lamar, Childish Gambino, Chance the Rapper.  The Beatles(mixed bag, depends on how good the mix was), AC/DC,  Richie Valens etc.  Prince, Michael Jackson, Bruno Mars(surprisingly good music), The Time/Morris Day(How could you not listen to Jungle Love on bass cans?) etc.  These are tuned for music listening, not producing but I've heard good things about the 6 Mix cans.  The V-Moda cans lack the precise tone, punch and overall clarity and are yards away from being the HD8's.

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I feel like there should be more said about the HD650 in the recommendation, just because of how good it is.

n0ah1897, on 05 Mar 2014 - 2:08 PM, said:  "Computers are like girls. It's whats in the inside that matters.  I don't know about you, but I like my girls like I like my cases. Just as beautiful on the inside as the outside."

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31 minutes ago, spwath said:

I feel like there should be more said about the HD650 in the recommendation, just because of how good it is.

 

At some point I'll get around to posting my remarks on the headphone - since a number of us now have an HD 650 I may just make a HD 650 thread and link to that.

 

@CharminUltraStrong I'll add the HD8DJ to the pinned post when I have a chance. Your comments have given me a good idea of how it sounds relative to the M100.

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22 hours ago, SSL said:

-snip-

Alright, sweet.

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Added HD8DJ, and by extension the HD7DJ which is so cheap these days (~$110!!??) that I'm not sure why more people aren't talking about it. Measurements show that these headphones are very similar in sound.

 

Expanded the blurb for HD600 and 650 very slightly; don't want to overhype these headphones as while uncommonly good, their sound signature is not for everyone.

 

Edit - interesting, HD7 doesn't show up on the Sennheiser website. Maybe they realized they were undercutting the HD8 too much and discontinued it.

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11 hours ago, SSL said:

[...] that I'm not sure why more people aren't talking about it. [...]

Could be that no one had actually bothered to try them, simply seeing "DJ" in the name and moving on :P 

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On ‎3‎/‎19‎/‎2017 at 1:28 AM, SSL said:

Added HD8DJ, and by extension the HD7DJ which is so cheap these days (~$110!!??) that I'm not sure why more people aren't talking about it. Measurements show that these headphones are very similar in sound.

You tried either of them?

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1 minute ago, Kloaked said:

You tried either of them?

 

Not me. Added based on IF measurements and @CharminUltraStrong's description. Though I am entertaining getting the HD8DJ to take "on the go" as they say.

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