Sennheiser HD 449s

[I/O]

What's you guy's opinions on these. I find that they need to be tuned for every song you listen to and are prone to cliping. When tuned properly they sound pretty good but they are super super finnicky. Is it just me or am I on point ?

[Sors]

The headphones can't be prone to poping, if anything is your soundcard that is making this pop.

[SSL]

Tuned? You don't "tune" a headphone.

[ShearMe]

Maybe don't turn anything on your EQ above the 0dB line? That's where most people start having problems....

[I/O]

Maybe don't turn anything on your EQ above the 0dB line? That's where most people start having problems....

A general rule of thumb is that good speakers don't need to be EQed.

[I/O]

Tuned? You don't "tune" a headphone.

When I say tuned I mean the EQ. I have found that the to achieve a balanced sound on the HD 449s it is best to turn all the EQs down all the way on the sound card I am using at leased. Really want to get a Xonar Essence STX but perhaps a dedicated AMP is the way to go but I rather have everything in mt computer.

[I/O]

The headphones can't be prone to poping, if anything is your soundcard that is making this pop.

No it's a decent sound card Asus Xonar DGX. I meant to say cliping though not poping.

[SSL]

When I say tuned I mean the EQ.

 

They have basically no treble above 3kHz or so, is that what you're talking about? Sounds mostly like you just don't like the sound signature.

 

No it's a decent sound card Asus Xonar DGX. I meant to say cliping though not poping.

 

Those headphones should cause that card to clip. Either you're going overboard withe the EQ, you have badly mastered music, or the card is defective.

[I/O]

They have basically no treble above 3kHz or so, is that what you're talking about? Sounds mostly like you just don't like the sound signature.

Ya I am more of a klipsch guy myself but they do sound great for some music and pretty shit for other music. The treble and mids are very good IMO but the bass is pretty weak even though it is tight and very accurate IMO. These are my first good pair of phones though I did have err dare I say it LOL the Beats Solo at one point and I thought they sounded pretty dam good even though everyone seems to rip on them hard LOL. My freind had the Bose QC IIs and IMO they were amazing. I want the Klipsch Image One Headphone to be honest.

Those headphones should cause that card to clip. Either you're going overboard withe the EQ, you have badly mastered music, or the card is defective.

You seem like you know what you are talking about and now we are getting somewhere so thanx. So in toher words the cliping is a good sign cause it means the headphones are sensitive and high quality and comand a high quality audio file and AMP/DAC ? Also what sound card do you recomend to me for high quality sound ?

[SSL]

You seem like you know what you are talking about and now we are getting somewhere so thanx. So in toher words the cliping is a good sign cause it means the headphones are sensitive and high quality and comand a high quality audio file and AMP/DAC ? Also what sound card do you recomend to me for high quality sound ?

 

No, I'm saying that it probably isn't the headphones that are CAUSING the clipping. Without any other information to go on, I just listed some possibilities of what that cause might be.

[creatip123]

Ya I am more of a klipsch guy myself but they do sound great for some music and pretty shit for other music. The treble and mids are very good IMO but the bass is pretty weak even though it is tight and very accurate IMO. These are my first good pair of phones though I did have err dare I say it LOL the Beats Solo at one point and I thought they sounded pretty dam good even though everyone seems to rip on them hard LOL. My freind had the Bose QC IIs and IMO they were amazing. I want the Klipsch Image One Headphone to be honest.

You seem like you know what you are talking about and now we are getting somewhere so thanx. So in toher words the cliping is a good sign cause it means the headphones are sensitive and high quality and comand a high quality audio file and AMP/DAC ? Also what sound card do you recomend to me for high quality sound ?

 

Clipping, distortion, noises, humm, hisses, etc, are all abnormalities. Of course they're not a good sign. Although some people actually going for mild distortions such as in the case of tube devices. 

[I/O]

No, I'm saying that it probably isn't the headphones that are CAUSING the clipping. Without any other information to go on, I just listed some possibilities of what that cause might be.

It seems like the headphones are weak and can't run high volumes and when the bass starts hitting hard in some tracks it starts to clip. For a $180 dollar pair of headphones I am not really impressed at this. Oh and I have the EQ on my sound card turned all the way down.

[creatip123]

It seems like the headphones are weak and can't run high volumes and when the bass starts hitting hard in some tracks it starts to clip. For a $180 dollar pair of headphones I am not really impressed at this. Oh and I have the EQ on my sound card turned all the way down.

 

That's the source device, the sound card, not the headphone. 

[I/O]

That's the source device, the sound card, not the headphone. 

So you are saying that if I invest in a higher end sound card I will be in musical bliss ? Edit ... the sound card I am runnig does have a dedicated headphone amp so they sould be drivin properly though I have to put the sound card on ... "Exiter Mode or for >64ohms headsets" even though they are 32ohms

[creatip123]

So you are saying that if I invest in a higher end sound card I will be in musical bliss ? Edit ... the sound card I am runnig does have a dedicated headphone amp so they sould be drivin properly though I have to put the sound card on ... "Exiter Mode or for >64ohms headsets" even though they are 32ohms

 

The DG series is nothing special, but should do the job well for most cases. Considering HD449 is 32 ohms 114dB, it should be fine with the DG. If it's not fine, then there are possibilities that something is wrong.

 

For starter, the general rule of thumb is to set the loudness gain as low as possible. The higher the gain, the worse the sound will be, although as to how much worse, that depends on individual cases. With HD449's data rating, you shouldn't need to set the headphone amp of the DGX to 64ohms. 32 ohms should be fine. 

 

Try plugging it to a different source, like onboard audio, mobile phone, portable media player, etc. If it sounds abnormal regardless of the sources, then the unit is defected. Keep in mind, abnormal is not the same as 'sounds bad', because sounds bad is subjective. What sounds good for me might sounds bad for others. For example, the $1400 Beyerdynamic T1 sounds bad to me, because I don't like the sound signature. 

[SSL]

I agree with what's being said here, the 449 is trivially easy to drive. While not basshead cans, my pair certainly do not clip from any source at my disposal.

[I/O]

For starter, the general rule of thumb is to set the loudness gain as low as possible. The higher the gain, the worse the sound will be, although as to how much worse, that depends on individual cases. With HD449's data rating, you shouldn't need to set the headphone amp of the DGX to 64ohms. 32 ohms should be fine. 

I understand this but the problem is that when the gain is set to 32ohms the headphones have a weak sound to them and volume is way way to low.

Try plugging it to a different source, like onboard audio, mobile phone, portable media player, etc. . 

Onboard audio yuck. My board is supposed to have a built in headphone amp but I see no option anywhere for it and it sounds weak and you can here the eletrical noises when nothing is playing LOL. Ill try another source though.