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 » The Lounge » Audiophiles, come at me

Audiophiles, come at me

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Dropped Da Soap
Chewy
6 posters

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1Audiophiles, come at me Empty Audiophiles, come at me 2012-08-27, 19:38

Chewy

Chewy

I was thinking about getting a new pair of headphones and was wondering if you had any input on good one's.

I'm not going to likely be doing much mixing, but I do love high quality music so I was thinking about going into the $500 range.

First of all, here's the soundcard I plan on getting: http://www.amazon.com/PCI-Express-XONAR-ESSENCE-STX-90-YAA0C0-0UAN00Z/dp/B001OV789U/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pdT1_nS_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=15JLCQ6TTTNI8&coliid=I33A2K0PKQDIY7
Apparantly the PCI one is a tiny bit better due to some jitter clock, but I don't know what that is. And PCI-E means better chances of it working in a newer mobo in the future and that it will be another slot away from my wifi adapter. Thoughts?

As for headphones, I'm not sure what good ones would be in this range so I'd like to hear some suggestions. Requirements are that they need to be over the ear studio style, and have a long cable(I'm sure most of these caliber do). I've heard good things about Sennheiser and Ultrasone.


And lastly, do you guys know of any shops where I can sample headphones this good? There's a place around here that has <$300 ones but that's the best I can find.

2Audiophiles, come at me Empty Re: Audiophiles, come at me 2012-08-27, 20:14

Dropped Da Soap

Dropped Da Soap

Chewy wrote:I was thinking about getting a new pair of headphones and was wondering if you had any input on good one's.

I'm not going to likely be doing much mixing, but I do love high quality music so I was thinking about going into the $500 range.


Audiophiles, come at me Se4m7o

3Audiophiles, come at me Empty Re: Audiophiles, come at me 2012-08-27, 20:25

Chewy

Chewy

$500 isn't even high-high end bro.

4Audiophiles, come at me Empty Re: Audiophiles, come at me 2012-08-27, 20:35

Dropped Da Soap

Dropped Da Soap

10 bucks is too expensive for me man....

5Audiophiles, come at me Empty Re: Audiophiles, come at me 2012-08-27, 20:51

HydrasBreath ♜

HydrasBreath ♜

card looks good I guess...I didn't see any specs for sample rate and bit depth though? And yeah PCI-e is probably the better way to go. Regular PCI is considered a legacy connection. Kinda like VGA...it's on the way out.

as for headphones...damn that's a big budget. I don't think I would know much about anything THAT high end. I have a pair of audio-technica M50's which cost me around 150-200$ I think and they are supposed to be some of the best cans in that price range but yeah I would look into seinheiser...that's a very well respected brand in the pro audio world. Never heard of that other brand but again I haven't really seriously looked at anything this high end...especially for audio listening purposes.

A little word of warning though: studio monitor type headphones even if they are super accurate might not necessarily sound the best when listening to music. They are so accurate because they have an extremely flat frequency response but most music is mixed for play on speakers that hype up certain frequencies. So I would say just be careful to look at the frequency response and range of the cans you're gonna get.

super flat response and the biggest frequency range might not be what you'll want. Accuracy doesn't necessarily equal better sound. On the contrary it could reveal unpleasant rumble/distortion in the low end or harshness in the high end that wouldn't be there on speakers that can't reproduce the extreme low/high ends of our hearing spectrum.

6Audiophiles, come at me Empty Re: Audiophiles, come at me 2012-08-27, 21:00

Chewy

Chewy

Sample rate: 192KHz, bit-depth: 24 bit(I think). Here's the newegg link with more specs: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829132010

Let me know if you know of anything better... not sure if it's necessary for my needs or not but my budget is flexible.

Thanks for the advice on the headphones though...I am used to using flat headphones with a large frequency range and I love the sound, but I'll definitely have to try before I buy. I just came back from Best Buy since they have some ~$300 sets, but their audio samples are of such bad quality that it's completely pointless.

7Audiophiles, come at me Empty Re: Audiophiles, come at me 2012-08-27, 21:19

Shinma

Shinma

I've said it before, go Sennheiser if you're looking for some good headphones. Get some Astros if you need a good headset with a mic.

8Audiophiles, come at me Empty Re: Audiophiles, come at me 2012-08-27, 21:24

HydrasBreath ♜

HydrasBreath ♜

Chewy wrote:Sample rate: 192KHz, bit-depth: 24 bit(I think). Here's the newegg link with more specs: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829132010

Let me know if you know of anything better... not sure if it's necessary for my needs or not but my budget is flexible.

Thanks for the advice on the headphones though...I am used to using flat headphones with a large frequency range and I love the sound, but I'll definitely have to try before I buy. I just came back from Best Buy since they have some ~$300 sets, but their audio samples are of such bad quality that it's completely pointless.

if the card is 192kHz/24-bit sound then you probably won't find any better. That's high quality studio caliber audio as long as the AD/DA converters aren't complete crap but I'm sure they're fine if the card is decent. Honestly we can't even tell the difference between anything higher than 96kHz but as long as it's 24-bit you should be good. Just read reviews I guess. I don't know a whole lot about audiophile cards that aren't for recording purposes like mine so I don't really have any suggestions. If you wanted a home studio setup it would be a different story haha.

Rolling Eyes yeah if they're using 128kbs mp3 or something it kind of defeats the purpose of trying out 300+$ headphones.

If there's a major music store near you (guitar center, long and mcquade or something equivalent) they would probably have a home recording/studio section and would probably carry some pretty high end headphones you could try out. The staff also may or may not be knowledgeable enough to give you some recommendations. I've heard some pretty bad/hilarious stories about guitar center employees though so maybe be wary if you go there...they can be quite the randies I hear. Razz

Ah ok well if you're used to flat response headphones then it shouldn't be a prob then as long as they didn't botch the mixing job on music you're listening to. I know with my M50's some stuff is almost unlistenable because of the obvious low end clipping and muddy mess in the bass frequencies.

9Audiophiles, come at me Empty Re: Audiophiles, come at me 2012-08-27, 22:09

Chewy

Chewy

Shinma wrote:I've said it before, go Sennheiser if you're looking for some good headphones. Get some Astros if you need a good headset with a mic.
Yeah I've heard a lot of good stuff about Sennheisers. Plus they have headphones in just about every price range, like from $20-1500.

HydrasBreath wrote:
Chewy wrote:Sample rate: 192KHz, bit-depth: 24 bit(I think). Here's the newegg link with more specs: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829132010

Let me know if you know of anything better... not sure if it's necessary for my needs or not but my budget is flexible.

Thanks for the advice on the headphones though...I am used to using flat headphones with a large frequency range and I love the sound, but I'll definitely have to try before I buy. I just came back from Best Buy since they have some ~$300 sets, but their audio samples are of such bad quality that it's completely pointless.

if the card is 192kHz/24-bit sound then you probably won't find any better. That's high quality studio caliber audio as long as the AD/DA converters aren't complete crap but I'm sure they're fine if the card is decent. Honestly we can't even tell the difference between anything higher than 96kHz but as long as it's 24-bit you should be good. Just read reviews I guess. I don't know a whole lot about audiophile cards that aren't for recording purposes like mine so I don't really have any suggestions. If you wanted a home studio setup it would be a different story haha.

Rolling Eyes yeah if they're using 128kbs mp3 or something it kind of defeats the purpose of trying out 300+$ headphones.

If there's a major music store near you (guitar center, long and mcquade or something equivalent) they would probably have a home recording/studio section and would probably carry some pretty high end headphones you could try out. The staff also may or may not be knowledgeable enough to give you some recommendations. I've heard some pretty bad/hilarious stories about guitar center employees though so maybe be wary if you go there...they can be quite the randies I hear. Razz

Ah ok well if you're used to flat response headphones then it shouldn't be a prob then as long as they didn't botch the mixing job on music you're listening to. I know with my M50's some stuff is almost unlistenable because of the obvious low end clipping and muddy mess in the bass frequencies.

It would be a stretch to say the Best Buy samples are 128kbps. You could hear static in them.


But yeah Guitar Center doesn't seem to really go past the $200 range but I'll have to stop by and see how they are. I'm guessing if I'm not mixing it's not even going to be necessary to go into the $500 range but I'd like to try some... damn internet killed the in store high end audio places though...



10Audiophiles, come at me Empty Re: Audiophiles, come at me 2012-08-27, 22:12

Guest


Guest

Shinma wrote:I've said it before, go Sennheiser if you're looking for some good headphones. Get some Astros if you need a good headset with a mic.

Woot I rock Sennheiser headset

11Audiophiles, come at me Empty Re: Audiophiles, come at me 2012-08-27, 22:56

Chewy

Chewy

Man, one thing that sucks about this soundcard is that I'm gonna have to undo all the cables to get to one of the molexes to plug it in.... fuckers tied it up near the bottom so it's not gonna reach. So the nice and neat wiring job that my computer has is about to be ruined and probably start rubbing against the fan.

12Audiophiles, come at me Empty Re: Audiophiles, come at me 2012-08-27, 22:59

HydrasBreath ♜

HydrasBreath ♜

yeah 500$ bucks might be overkill for your application but if you can somehow manage to get your hands on some to try out then for sure check em out. I'd recomend something from sennheiser or the audio-technica M50's in the 200$ price range.

13Audiophiles, come at me Empty Re: Audiophiles, come at me 2012-08-27, 23:01

Guest


Guest

http://www.amazon.com/Sennheiser-HD-280-Pro-Headphones/dp/B000065BPB/ref=sr_1_5?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1346116355&sr=1-5&keywords=Sennheiser

These are kinda budget, but its what I use. Quite awesome for the price.

14Audiophiles, come at me Empty Re: Audiophiles, come at me 2012-08-27, 23:03

Chewy

Chewy

I think I've heard good stuff about audio-technica too.

The thing is my MDR-V6's can already compete with headphones in the $150 range(they have better frequency range than a $200 pair of Sennheisers) so I'm looking for a significant bump up.

One thing I didn't like about the Sennheisers that I tried is that they seemed to squeeze the shit out of your head. I'm guessing that goes away with use though.

15Audiophiles, come at me Empty Re: Audiophiles, come at me 2012-08-27, 23:10

HydrasBreath ♜

HydrasBreath ♜

yeah audio-technica are also quite a respectable brand.

The M50's are supposed to offer exceptional bang for your buck (at least when I got them a few years ago). The sound quality is great, they are pretty comfortable, they have pretty flat response and a broad range.

I haven't had any troubles with them so I'd definitely recommend them if you're looking in that price range.

but try a few out and see what you like.

16Audiophiles, come at me Empty Re: Audiophiles, come at me 2012-08-27, 23:19

Chewy

Chewy

I wish I could find a place where I could test these out: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826106358

They seem to be the most popular in the $500 range.

17Audiophiles, come at me Empty Re: Audiophiles, come at me 2012-08-27, 23:24

StormEye

StormEye

I blame at least 70% of my extra expenses this year on SeC.

18Audiophiles, come at me Empty Re: Audiophiles, come at me 2012-08-27, 23:30

Guest


Guest

For high end recommendations try head-fi.org. The community there is very much on top of things in that spectrum and what is the best for your music tastes and needs.

http://www.head-fi.org/

19Audiophiles, come at me Empty Re: Audiophiles, come at me 2012-08-27, 23:32

Guest


Guest

StormEye wrote:I blame at least 70% of my extra expenses this year on SeC.

Very Happy

20Audiophiles, come at me Empty Re: Audiophiles, come at me 2012-08-27, 23:39

StormEye

StormEye

Was so tempting to right them off as business expenses, on tax return, but I am too good of a citizen to do so...

21Audiophiles, come at me Empty Re: Audiophiles, come at me 2012-08-27, 23:41

Guest


Guest

Ill be upgrading once I get work

I OC'd my 580 last night , and this thing rips. Nice and stable , and the temps have remained the same.

22Audiophiles, come at me Empty Re: Audiophiles, come at me 2012-08-27, 23:45

StormEye

StormEye

My crappy card has artifacts/glitches even without OC...

Down Clock?

23Audiophiles, come at me Empty Re: Audiophiles, come at me 2012-08-27, 23:47

Guest


Guest

What brand again?

24Audiophiles, come at me Empty Re: Audiophiles, come at me 2012-08-27, 23:48

StormEye

StormEye

Inno3D

25Audiophiles, come at me Empty Re: Audiophiles, come at me 2012-08-27, 23:50

Guest


Guest

StormEye wrote:Inno3D

The only Inno3D amazon carries is a 630 lmao

Shouldnt you be getting your 680 this week?

Also noob question about overclocking

Should I apply at startup in MSI afterburner? Or set it every time I boot?

26Audiophiles, come at me Empty Re: Audiophiles, come at me 2012-08-27, 23:54

StormEye

StormEye

Doesn't really matter.

The only thing that matters is if you overclock to an insane amount, and the system refuses to recover correctly after restart, but then there is work around for that too.

So choose whatever.

Also, starting from 600 series, you will most likely use your brand's GPU boost software, so Afterburner is no longer necessary.

Mine SHOULD have arrived last Friday, and it is RESCHEDULED for this Friday, so I SHOULD receive it then...

Audiophiles, come at me 0201048222-21-44

27Audiophiles, come at me Empty Re: Audiophiles, come at me 2012-08-27, 23:59

Guest


Guest

Nice hopefully it comes this week.

I didnt overclock it to much. Just enough where I saw a nice performance boost.

Ive always heard overclocking on startup is bad, but I was never sure.

28Audiophiles, come at me Empty Re: Audiophiles, come at me 2012-08-28, 08:34

HydrasBreath ♜

HydrasBreath ♜

Chewy wrote:I wish I could find a place where I could test these out: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826106358

They seem to be the most popular in the $500 range.


sweet mother of tits...that's some insane frequency range.

29Audiophiles, come at me Empty Re: Audiophiles, come at me 2012-08-28, 08:48

Chewy

Chewy

HydrasBreath wrote:
Chewy wrote:I wish I could find a place where I could test these out: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826106358

They seem to be the most popular in the $500 range.


sweet mother of tits...that's some insane frequency range.

Yeah that seems to go unnecessarily high...

My current set still seems to beat everything on the low's with 5Hz.

30Audiophiles, come at me Empty Re: Audiophiles, come at me 2012-08-28, 11:58

HydrasBreath ♜

HydrasBreath ♜

well 5Hz is pretty much unnecessary/inaudible anyways since the generally accepted hearing range for humans is 20hz-20kHz with some variation depending on the individual.

You can make extreme sub bass frequencies audible but you need a stupid amount of power to amplify them enough to hear. I'm talking like 10,000W. And the SPL level of these waves would be equally stupid...I don't imagine it would be good to be exposed to them.

31Audiophiles, come at me Empty Re: Audiophiles, come at me 2012-08-28, 13:09

Chewy

Chewy

Ah, I see. So anything as low as 20Hz is good then.

I've decided against the soundcard though. The guys at head-fi have made it apparant that buying a USB DA Converter/Amp would be a much better decision at about the same price if not cheaper.


32Audiophiles, come at me Empty Re: Audiophiles, come at me 2012-08-28, 14:07

HydrasBreath ♜

HydrasBreath ♜

Chewy wrote:Ah, I see. So anything as low as 20Hz is good then.

I've decided against the soundcard though. The guys at head-fi have made it apparant that buying a USB DA Converter/Amp would be a much better decision at about the same price if not cheaper.



yeah around 15-20 hz for the low end of your range should be plenty low enough.

People who know what they are doing when mixing generally high pass filter most things below 100Hz anyways except maybe for the kick drum (most of it's "thump" usually sits somewhere around 60-90Hz). Having alot of harmonic content below ~100Hz just muddies up mixes and eats up your headroom for no reason.

You probably won't find much going on down there to begin with in commercially available music. (might depend what style of music though).

33Audiophiles, come at me Empty Re: Audiophiles, come at me 2012-08-28, 18:30

Chewy

Chewy

These one's have really caught my eye, and they seem to be highly praised at head-fi:
http://www.amazon.com/HiFiMAN-HE-400-Planar-Efficiency-Headphones/dp/B007ZG32I4/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1346189377&sr=1-1&keywords=he-400

I really need to try out an open set though, it sounds like it would be good but I've only tried closed.

34Audiophiles, come at me Empty Re: Audiophiles, come at me 2012-08-29, 03:08

HydrasBreath ♜

HydrasBreath ♜

Yeah I don't know I've never tried open back cans either since in a studio/recording environment you want closed back to try and block outside noise as much as possible and also so your headphones don't bleed sound into the microphone.

35Audiophiles, come at me Empty Re: Audiophiles, come at me 2012-08-29, 05:44

StormEye

StormEye

I was about to go to computer shopping centre and just impulse buy, yet again, Xonar Essense STX after work (in about 1.5 hours later), but I was able to stop myself this time. Maybe it could be just waste of money, so might as well ask for opinion here first

Currently I have X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion, so is there much benefit I would be getting by purchasing Xonar?

I'm pretty sure I will be gaining something, but just not sure how much of benefit I will get.

36Audiophiles, come at me Empty Re: Audiophiles, come at me 2012-08-29, 07:14

HydrasBreath ♜

HydrasBreath ♜

well in my very little research that I've done on PC soundcards I have heard that ASUS is supposed to be better than soundblaster.

I'm in no way a sound card expert though unless the cards are geared towards recording.

from the specs it appears that the xonar is just a smidge better but I'm not sure if it would be worth the upgrade. It has better sample rate and signal to noise ratio but I've heard humans can't perceive a difference in sample rates above 96kHz anyways. I don't have a 192kHz capable card though so I haven't tested this myself.

And the difference in signal to noise ratio is fairly negligible at the levels these cards are dealing with. If you find you're not satisfied with the SNR of your current card then yeah maybe the Xonar will help but with your current card at -109dB you shouldn't be hearing any noise unless you're just listening to dead silence. Even then it should be extremely faint.

Ultimately its up to you but I would say unless you're having some issues/are unsatisfied with your current card then just save your money and stick with what you've got.

The ASUS wouldn't really be worth the cost of upgrading unless it has a feature that your current card doesn't that you just can't live without.

37Audiophiles, come at me Empty Re: Audiophiles, come at me 2012-08-29, 08:27

StormEye

StormEye

Roger.

Yay, fancy dinner does not have to be sacrificed.

38Audiophiles, come at me Empty Re: Audiophiles, come at me 2012-08-29, 08:43

Chewy

Chewy

Looking by the price that would look to be a downgrade lol.


Really though DAC's are cheap to make now, they're gonna be great in most every soundcard. If you don't need an AMP, there's likely no need to switch to an essence. If you DO need an amp, it would be more logical to just buy a FiiO E11 for like $50.

A lot of audiophiles exaggerate the shit about the need for amps though... Damn near convinced me to buy a $200 one until some guy came in and explained pretty clearly that bitches be crazy.

39Audiophiles, come at me Empty Re: Audiophiles, come at me 2012-08-29, 10:00

Keyser Söze

Keyser Söze

Any headset in the 500 range is going to be killer.

But look for a frequency response graph instead of reading simple and misguiding frequency response range specs. The flatter, the better.

Also, look into E-MU sound cards. I don't know what their current models are, but I can vouch for the e-MU 1616 as well as it's forefather.

40Audiophiles, come at me Empty Re: Audiophiles, come at me 2012-08-29, 18:15

Chewy

Chewy

Yeah the frequency response range on the HE-400 is pretty damn flat, except for the end which is pretty much the case for every pair of headphones.

Can't really find any E-MU's available except one on Amazon which only has OK reviews. I think I'm gonna stick with the highly praised STX since it's good for gaming too.

Gonna pull the trigger on ordering the HE-400's today though. They've got a return policy that lets me return them if I don't like them, but everyone seems to be in love with these things.

41Audiophiles, come at me Empty Re: Audiophiles, come at me 2012-08-29, 18:15

Guest


Guest

Holy hell Greg has returned

42Audiophiles, come at me Empty Re: Audiophiles, come at me 2012-08-29, 19:59

Chewy

Chewy

Just ordered the HE-400's and the Essence STX. Should ordered yesterday as Amazon ran out of stock and I'm impatient so I ordered the one from another Amazon vendor for $15 more.

Got $3 off per gallon of gas buying the giftcards though. So if I fill up right when my tank is completely empty that will save me like $50.

I'll give you guys a 3 word review once I get them.

43Audiophiles, come at me Empty Re: Audiophiles, come at me 2012-08-29, 20:34

Guest


Guest

< jealous

Three whole words?

Ill stand by anxiously waiting your riveting review, man.

44Audiophiles, come at me Empty Re: Audiophiles, come at me 2012-08-30, 04:40

HydrasBreath ♜

HydrasBreath ♜

Chewy wrote:Just ordered the HE-400's and the Essence STX. Should ordered yesterday as Amazon ran out of stock and I'm impatient so I ordered the one from another Amazon vendor for $15 more.

Got $3 off per gallon of gas buying the giftcards though. So if I fill up right when my tank is completely empty that will save me like $50.

I'll give you guys a 3 word review once I get them.

I thought you weren't going to go with the Xonar?

45Audiophiles, come at me Empty Re: Audiophiles, come at me 2012-08-30, 08:38

Chewy

Chewy

Changed my mind.

Disadvantage of getting an external DAC + Amp means there is no surround sound. And I really don't need a good AMP for these cans as they have 35 Ohm impedance(half of the headphones I'm using right now with no amp). Plus if I really wanted to I could always get an amp later, DAC on the Xonar is fantastic though so I wouldn't need one with a DAC.

People on head-fi just go crazy with the amps and shit because they love spending money. Despite what half of them say you don't need a super nice amp for low impedance headphones.

46Audiophiles, come at me Empty Re: Audiophiles, come at me 2012-08-30, 10:02

HydrasBreath ♜

HydrasBreath ♜

yeah you need to watch yourself when dealing with audiophile level stuff...there's alot of snake oil and half truths and some self-proclaimed "audiophiles" propagate the marketing hype like parrots because they want to justify the money they are spending.

Some of them think you need 200$ monster speaker cables when in reality in a double blind test there's no discernible difference between those and a more economical 30$ set.

They claim they can really hear the difference though and the difference is "night and day" to their discerning ears.

It's good to educate yourself in the science of sound and electricity/electromagnetism when entering the audiophile world.

47Audiophiles, come at me Empty Re: Audiophiles, come at me 2012-08-30, 13:47

Chewy

Chewy

Unfortunately I'm clueless when it comes to electricity, that shit just all goes over my head for some reason, so I have to take other people's word for it. I got a C- in a class where the professor said you just needed to do something to pass, and that's only because he got in trouble for passing people with 0% before.

48Audiophiles, come at me Empty Re: Audiophiles, come at me 2012-08-31, 08:37

Chewy

Chewy

So I should be getting these tomorrow. No clue when the soundcard is coming in, but that means I'll be able to compare and contrast them with and without it.

But now that I've done more research I should have got the Beats Pro. According to their website they use the power of SCIENCE to turn poor quality audio files into lossless files:
Beats Pro headphones sound so good because they put back the quality lost in modern-day file compression. That means you’re really hearing music the way it was originally heard by the artist in the studio.

49Audiophiles, come at me Empty Re: Audiophiles, come at me 2012-08-31, 08:50

HydrasBreath ♜

HydrasBreath ♜

haha wow...I just don't even...Dr Dre headphones are quite crap for the 300$ price tag. Nothing but marketing hype. I bet my AT M50s blow them out of the water.

50Audiophiles, come at me Empty Re: Audiophiles, come at me 2012-09-01, 12:27

Chewy

Chewy

Just got them in a few minutes ago Very Happy


I've only listened to half a song so far (Aubergine of the Sun by Ott), and I'm blown away by these things. Fucking incredible sound, exactly what I was looking for. Definitely worth it.

These things are big though man, I can see them in my peripheral vision when I wear them. Pretty comfortable overall though, definitely more comfortable than the clamping Senn's I've tried.

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