500$ Audiophile setup

[ImGodz]

I've been looking around for the past 2 weeks at what would be the best setup I can make with 500 canadian dollars and I am so lost with all the choices out there. 

I would really appreciate if an audiophile could help me build a little beginner setup. For information I currently have a pair of M50x. I was going to order the HD 6XX,

but I realised that I would need to pay a ridiculus amount of money to import them.

Thanks!

[geo3]

What all do you need it to do? 

[ImGodz]

Just now, geo3 said:

What all do you need it to do? 

I make music, I listen to a lot of high resolution stuff too, and I will use them to play and watch youtube, but I don't care if the sound is not perfect for games or youtube.

I would love to have a large soundstage, but I listen mostly to electronic music so I don't know what to chose between open or close back, since with open I think I loose bass.

[dizmo]

I'm pretty sure "audiophile" requires a much larger budget

Sound is, apart from what some of the enthusiasts will scream at you, a personal thing. Some like more bass, some like more of a reference sound.

You'd need to figure out more what you want, need, and then go from there.

If you're making music, I'd assume you'd want more of a reference sound, but I'm not entirely sure.

 

Why do you think you'd have to pay a lot to import those? There's no duty on headphones.

[geo3]

I meant what features do you need to have. Will you be running just headphones on it, speakers, a sub, surround? What are your sourcing from? PC USB, a Bluetooth source, TV, hometheater receiver? Do you need to be able to handle optical and coaxial digital? Do you need mic input, if so what kind, gaming headset or something professional with XLR. 

[ImGodz]

Sorry if I offend the audiophile community with my budget and ignorance, I'm trying to learn, but it's hard haha.

Basically, I want a reference sound, yes I will be running only headphones and I will only use them on my pc, I plug my current headphones at the back in 3.5mm jack.

[ImGodz]

30 minutes ago, dizmo said:

Why do you think you'd have to pay a lot to import those? There's no duty on headphones.

I've read on the Drop forum that people are paying a big costums fee when they receive there packages.

[geo3]

25 minutes ago, ImGodz said:

Sorry if I offend the audiophile community with my budget and ignorance, I'm trying to learn, but it's hard haha.

Basically, I want a reference sound, yes I will be running only headphones and I will only use them on my pc, I plug my current headphones at the back in 3.5mm jack.

I would say get something like HD600 or AKG K712 and an iFi Zen dac. 

[dizmo]

32 minutes ago, ImGodz said:

Sorry if I offend the audiophile community with my budget and ignorance, I'm trying to learn, but it's hard haha.

Basically, I want a reference sound, yes I will be running only headphones and I will only use them on my pc, I plug my current headphones at the back in 3.5mm jack.

Haha, I wouldn't apologize, a lot of audiophiles are stuck up cunts.

You'd want to list your motherboard, some have amps, some don't. It'll change what headphones will work for you.

23 minutes ago, ImGodz said:

I've read on the Drop forum that people are paying a big costums fee when they receive there packages.

Duty rates vary item to item, but headphones have no duty rate associated with them.

[ImGodz]

1 minute ago, dizmo said:

Haha, I wouldn't apologize, a lot of audiophiles are stuck up cunts.

You'd want to list your motherboard, some have amps, some don't. It'll change what headphones will work for you.

Duty rates vary item to item, but headphones have no duty rate associated with them.

Haha, my motherboard is an Asus Z270-a. Thanks to let me know there is no duty rates for headphones!

[ImGodz]

9 minutes ago, geo3 said:

I would say get something like HD600 or AKG K712 and an iFi Zen dac. 

Thanks for the recommandations! But bot of the pairs are 520$, so I can't buy the dac, maybe I could buy the headphones and buy the dac later if I go with thoses.

[geo3]

40 minutes ago, ImGodz said:

Thanks for the recommandations! But bot of the pairs are 520$, so I can't buy the dac, maybe I could buy the headphones and buy the dac later if I go with thoses.

That's way too much. What seller are you looking at them on? They should both be between $300 to $400. 

[dizmo]

1 hour ago, ImGodz said:

Haha, my motherboard is an Asus Z270-a. Thanks to let me know there is no duty rates for headphones!

Ehhhh I'd look at an external amp, or amp & dac. If you're getting anything higher ohm, at least. 32ohm would be fine.

1 hour ago, ImGodz said:

Thanks for the recommandations! But bot of the pairs are 520$, so I can't buy the dac, maybe I could buy the headphones and buy the dac later if I go with thoses.

Long & McQuade has them for $399. Honestly though, if you're on a tight budget just wait for Black Friday.

26 minutes ago, geo3 said:

That's way too much. What seller are you looking at them on? They should both be between $300 to $400. 

Canada.

[ImGodz]

Allright I really appreciate your help guys! Thanks for leading me in the right way!

[rice guru]

for $500 canadaian my personal picks for your personal use case to look at. are the dt 880 600 ohm https://www.avshop.ca/sound-amp-pa-audio/headphones/over-ear-headphones/beyerdynamic-dt-880-premium-edition-600-ohms

and a monoprice liquid spark but both seem to be a little over priced in canada due to the current situation in stock. 

 her is a good wide sounding headphone as a good alternative to the 880 600 ohm  https://www.amazon.ca/HIFIMAN-HE400i-2020-Version-Professional/dp/B08BC5CM9N/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=he400i&qid=1604453217&sr=8-4 which will give you enouigh budget for a discrete dac like the topping d10 or smsl m100, and pair it with an amp like the easily available already mentiond monoprice liquid spark. 

[The Flying Sloth]

If you're making music as you say it may pay to check out Audio Interfaces as another option since they can allow for use of XLR mics in recording and still provide high quality output.

[ImGodz]

On 11/3/2020 at 8:30 PM, rice guru said:

for $500 canadaian my personal picks for your personal use case to look at. are the dt 880 600 ohm https://www.avshop.ca/sound-amp-pa-audio/headphones/over-ear-headphones/beyerdynamic-dt-880-premium-edition-600-ohms

and a monoprice liquid spark but both seem to be a little over priced in canada due to the current situation in stock. 

 her is a good wide sounding headphone as a good alternative to the 880 600 ohm  https://www.amazon.ca/HIFIMAN-HE400i-2020-Version-Professional/dp/B08BC5CM9N/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=he400i&qid=1604453217&sr=8-4 which will give you enouigh budget for a discrete dac like the topping d10 or smsl m100, and pair it with an amp like the easily available already mentiond monoprice liquid spark. 

I have an old amp that my dad gave me, it's an amp for a surround sound speakers setup, I have manage to connect it to my pc and I plugged in my M50x, do you think I could run the dt 880 on this? The only problem is that there is a constante hissing noise that is comming from the amp I think. I also think there is a dac inside the amp because the sound is different, there is more base and less highs by default, but I can change those settings on the amp.

[rice guru]

3 hours ago, ImGodz said:

I have an old amp that my dad gave me, it's an amp for a surround sound speakers setup, I have manage to connect it to my pc and I plugged in my M50x, do you think I could run the dt 880 on this? The only problem is that there is a constante hissing noise that is comming from the amp I think. I also think there is a dac inside the amp because the sound is different, there is more base and less highs by default, but I can change those settings on the amp.

 Im not sure the m50x is a headphone thats really easy to run . the only way to really find out if its enough is if you plug in the headphones turn it up and see if it gets loud or not. a dac is a device that converts digital signals to analog. a higher impedance headphone can help with hissing as they tend to be less sensitive to such things but again we never know until you plug it in. 

[ImGodz]

1 hour ago, rice guru said:

 Im not sure the m50x is a headphone thats really easy to run . the only way to really find out if its enough is if you plug in the headphones turn it up and see if it gets loud or not. a dac is a device that converts digital signals to analog. a higher impedance headphone can help with hissing as they tend to be less sensitive to such things but again we never know until you plug it in. 

Allright well thank you, I sent my amp to a local shop so they will check it out, and he told me that my headphones output is something standard, so it will run them, but I don't know if he is aware that there is headphones with 600 ohms of impedance. Well I am ordering the Dt 880 right now, so hopefully my amp will run them haha! If not I will buy the amp you recommended me. Thanks again!

[Hezzz]

Hello Imgodz,  I can tell you how to do a high end sounding PC audio system for under 500 bucks.  I have only glanced through the above posts but from what I gathered you would have come to the conclusion that for this amount of money you will need to build a headphone system.   You would need about 1000-1500 more cash to build a speaker system that could come close to audiohpile quality.

 

First some advise, at this point don't spend more than 40-100 dollars for your beginning headphones.  There are 3 or 4 full coverage headphones in this price range that are nearly as good as the ones in the 300-500 dollar price range.  And your money will be better spent on a good headphone amplifier.

 

What you need.

1) old, but not too old PC.  Hopefully, you have one around or can get an old one from a friend or the office surplus or the school district auction site.  You can get a refurbished office PC with Intel Quad core and at least 8 gig of ram for 100 dollars on Newegg.  Like a Dell Optiplex 7010. You can get a good enough one for about 50 dollars at the Public Surplus site.

 

2)  To get audiophile sound quality the PC must be dedicated to playing music only.  Every application and background process that you are running will degrade the sound.  The only applications that I have found that does not degrade the sound too much is to have a large file of high resolution photos that you like to look at.  You can use a free Opensource program like Nomacs image lounge to watch beautiful scenic pictures while listening to music.  Or better yet just use your other PC.  Running any kind of application that uses the internet will really degrade the sound.  But sometimes you will want to listen to You tube video.  That's OK,  you just won't get the highest quality sound during those sessions,  but they can be good enough to be enjoyable.

 

3) You can use Linux or Windows.  My method uses Windows.  You want an oversized tower case that will cool well so you don't use many fans. You want no more than the CPU fan and maybe one other fan running at low RPM.  Best if the PC has a low end GPU but it will work with integrated graphics.

 

4)  OK,  first,  Headphone amp.  There are probably many choices.  You will probably need to spend about 200-300 bucks to get a good one.  I use an Emotiva A-100 but I think these are discontiued.  Schiit makes some good ones in this price range.  The Schiit tube amp that is 350 bucks looks really good to me.

 

5)  Either Topping D30 or Topping E30 DAC.  These are USB DAC's that can do high resolution digital and DSD.  These are probably the best soundings DACs in the 120-150 dollar price range. 

 

6) research building an Audio PC on the internet.  there are many sites that give you advise.  If you know about computers you are miles ahead in this department.

 

7)  for the best sound quality with windows you will need to use Foobar2000 with DSD upsampling. These are free opensource applicaitons.  Search this on internet.  you need a large hard drive or NVME SSD on the PC to store the music.  Don't play music from the same HDD or SSD that the OS is installed on.  You can,  but it is slightly less good sounding. 

 

8)  rip your redbook CD's to 88kHz FLAC using Foobar and 32 bit floating point.  Also select the add dither option as this will make the 16 bit source perform more like an 18 bit signal.  And store these files on the music HDD or SSD for playback. Don't be tempted to rip them to 96kHz or you will loose dynamics. 

 

9) So when you get Foobar setup correctly you will be playing back your 88kHz FLAC files and upsampling them to DSD 128 or DSD 256 or DSD 512.  These sound great,  but they also sound great just played back as PCM in Foobar from the upsampled FLACs.

 

 

 

 

[Hezzz]

If you can find a used on of these they are great and can also drive speakers.

 

Headphone recommendations.  Sampson SR850 about 40-50 bucks.  .png.jpg

[LogicalDrm]

On 11/6/2021 at 5:20 AM, Hezzz said:

If you can find a used on of these they are great and can also drive speakers.

 

Headphone recommendations.  Sampson SR850 about 40-50 bucks.  .png.jpg

OP of this thread haven't been here since last December. Please be mindful when replying to older threads.

 

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