Headphones

Started by Bonehelm, June 10, 2007, 02:50:21 PM

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Quote from: stingo on August 14, 2015, 06:15:08 AM
Headphone amps, esp for portable headphones - worth it?

Only if the portable headphones you're using require more power to drive them.

Todd




I've tired of my Beyer T1/Woo setup.  It is too plebian.  The new incarnation of the Sennheiser Orpheus looks most enticing as an upgrade.  It even comes with its own marble encased amp.  Only $55,000.00.  The holidays are just around the corner.
The universe is change; life is opinion. - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

People would rather believe than know - E.O. Wilson

Propaganda death ensemble - Tom Araya

71 dB

Quote from: Todd on November 08, 2015, 08:17:46 AM



I've tired of my Beyer T1/Woo setup.  It is too plebian.  The new incarnation of the Sennheiser Orpheus looks most enticing as an upgrade.  It even comes with its own marble encased amp.  Only $55,000.00.  The holidays are just around the corner.

Hah, $55k gets you even two-level crossfeed.  :)
Spatial distortion is a serious problem deteriorating headphone listening.
Crossfeeders reduce spatial distortion and make the sound more natural
and less tiresome in headphone listening.

My Sound Cloud page <-- NEW Jan. 2024 "Harpeggiator"

Holden

I suppose that this is taking the law of diminishing returns to the nth degree. .......they do look nice though.
Cheers

Holden

Pretorious

This seems like the perfect place to ask this: I'm looking for closed headphones that'll be good for, obviously, classical. Does anyone have any good recommendations? My budget is $400-500. Right now, I'm looking at the Beyerdynamic DT 770s, but am uncertain as reviews seem kind of mixed with regards to classical music. I do run through an amp or receiver so I can EQ if necessary.

Currently, I'm using a pair of AKG K701s and am very happy with their sound and their comfort. I'm not specifically looking for a closed headphone that sounds similar to that, but that's more for reference sakes.
"Tis said, that art is long, and life but fleeting:—Nay; life is long, and brief the span of art; If e're her breath vouchsafes with gods a meeting, A moment's favor 'tis of which we've had a part." -Beethoven - Conversation Book, March 1820

https://codeandcoda.wordpress.com

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#865
Quote from: esMussSein on November 09, 2015, 05:27:46 PM
This seems like the perfect place to ask this: I'm looking for closed headphones that'll be good for, obviously, classical. Does anyone have any good recommendations? My budget is $400-500. Right now, I'm looking at the Beyerdynamic DT 770s, but am uncertain as reviews seem kind of mixed with regards to classical music. I do run through an amp or receiver so I can EQ if necessary.

Currently, I'm using a pair of AKG K701s and am very happy with their sound and their comfort. I'm not specifically looking for a closed headphone that sounds similar to that, but that's more for reference sakes.

Is there any particular reason why you're looking for closed-back headphones, especially since the AKG K701s you own are open-back? The best pair of closed-backs that I've ever heard are these Audio-Technica MSR7GM SonicPros:

[asin]B00PEUBIKM[/asin]

And here's a link to these headphones' specifications:

http://www.audio-technica.com/cms/headphones/38ef8b91d4f4d4f6/index.html

You may need to wait for someone else here who actually likes the sound of closed-backs before listening to me. ;)

Pretorious

I'm looking for closed-backs because I need some isolation, and to prevent sound leaking out into the environment. These Audio-Technicas look like a good headphone, but I am willing to entertain more suggestions before making a decision. Thanks for the recommendation, nonetheless.
"Tis said, that art is long, and life but fleeting:—Nay; life is long, and brief the span of art; If e're her breath vouchsafes with gods a meeting, A moment's favor 'tis of which we've had a part." -Beethoven - Conversation Book, March 1820

https://codeandcoda.wordpress.com

Holden

Try these Shure SRH1540

They may be slightly out of your price range (a couple of dollars) and Amazon has them for $499

Cheers

Holden

Mirror Image

Quote from: esMussSein on November 10, 2015, 10:07:01 AM
I'm looking for closed-backs because I need some isolation, and to prevent sound leaking out into the environment. These Audio-Technicas look like a good headphone, but I am willing to entertain more suggestions before making a decision. Thanks for the recommendation, nonetheless.

The only reason I can suggest this Audio-Technica model is because my dad owns a pair of these and I've heard them for myself, but, yes, it's best to continue to look around.

Papy Oli

Over the last few years, i have been very well served by an HD650, a DT880 600 ohm and more recently an AKG702. About 6 weeks ago, I bought a Little Dot MKII Tube amp and have been tube rolling with great results on the former two HP, particularly for acoustic music and rock and chamber/piano.

Despite its praises for classical music, I have been holding back on trying the HD800 since its launch, ignorance being bliss, and could hardly justify the price as well anyway.

With the arrival of the updated new Sennheiser HD800S in the last month, a local high-end reseller has been offering their last new HD800 Old model at quite a reduced price which made give it a go.
Went in for a demo this morning, with my own headphone amp (solid state) and threw all i had at their burnt-in pair for nearly 2 hours: Mahler2/Boulez Live, Mahler 4/Reiner, Mahler 6/Abbado, Mahler 5/Tennstedt Live, Bullit OST, Summerly/Spem in Alium (one of my brightest CD), Savall/Istanbul, Jack Johnson's Brushfire fairytales, Clapton Unplugged, Gould 81 Goldberg, Massive Attack/Mezzanine, Chris Rea's Dancing down the stony road...etc...

What a superb piece of kit...no bloated bass, nothing like the treble harshness i had read about (and that had held me back too), superb separation, soundstage, clarity, impact....the general clarity on orchestral works, and boy, that timpani on the M2...and that Oud, again, on the Savall. 8)

Spent the last 20 minutes of the demo also trying a just-out-of-the-box HD800S, feeling a bit more sturdy than the HD800 maybe, better quality pads as well, but I didn't hear anything in there justifying the extra 400 quids for the newer model.

Well, The HD800 has been on my head at home for the last 2 hours  0:)... I gasped at Janos Starker's Cello Suites, I closed my eyes for a long while drifting to Dufay's O Gemma Lux, I chilled to Communique... and now I am grooving to Thriller...still off my solid state Slee Ultra Linear...bring on the tubes tomorrow.

Holy smokes...what a day... Never mind the unlistened-to boxsets... I have to go through all my classical collection from scratch again...with new ears and pleasure !

Olivier

Mookalafalas

Quote from: Papy Oli on January 09, 2016, 12:31:13 PM
Over the last few years, i have been very well served by an HD650, a DT880 600 ohm and more recently an AKG702. About 6 weeks ago, I bought a Little Dot MKII Tube amp and have been tube rolling with great results on the former two HP, particularly for acoustic music and rock and chamber/piano.

Despite its praises for classical music, I have been holding back on trying the HD800 since its launch, ignorance being bliss, and could hardly justify the price as well anyway.

With the arrival of the updated new Sennheiser HD800S in the last month, a local high-end reseller has been offering their last new HD800 Old model at quite a reduced price which made give it a go.
Went in for a demo this morning, with my own headphone amp (solid state) and threw all i had at their burnt-in pair for nearly 2 hours: Mahler2/Boulez Live, Mahler 4/Reiner, Mahler 6/Abbado, Mahler 5/Tennstedt Live, Bullit OST, Summerly/Spem in Alium (one of my brightest CD), Savall/Istanbul, Jack Johnson's Brushfire fairytales, Clapton Unplugged, Gould 81 Goldberg, Massive Attack/Mezzanine, Chris Rea's Dancing down the stony road...etc...

What a superb piece of kit...no bloated bass, nothing like the treble harshness i had read about (and that had held me back too), superb separation, soundstage, clarity, impact....the general clarity on orchestral works, and boy, that timpani on the M2...and that Oud, again, on the Savall. 8)

Spent the last 20 minutes of the demo also trying a just-out-of-the-box HD800S, feeling a bit more sturdy than the HD800 maybe, better quality pads as well, but I didn't hear anything in there justifying the extra 400 quids for the newer model.

Well, The HD800 has been on my head at home for the last 2 hours  0:)... I gasped at Janos Starker's Cello Suites, I closed my eyes for a long while drifting to Dufay's O Gemma Lux, I chilled to Communique... and now I am grooving to Thriller...still off my solid state Slee Ultra Linear...bring on the tubes tomorrow.

Holy smokes...what a day... Never mind the unlistened-to boxsets... I have to go through all my classical collection from scratch again...with new ears and pleasure !



Nice haul! I envy you.  I had the HD800's little brother, the 700, in my basket for a while (it is now 1/2 its original price), but instead ordered these when they were on sale (hifiman 400i).

[asin]B00MULH672[/asin]
It's all good...

Holden

The consensus of opinion on Headfi is that the HD800 is a fantastic HP that responds to the type and power of amp you try it with. Apparently what sounds fantastic initially can be significantly improved with the correct amp pairing. 

Enjoy!!!!!!
Cheers

Holden

Papy Oli

Quote from: Mookalafalas on January 09, 2016, 06:45:10 PM
Nice haul! I envy you.  I had the HD800's little brother, the 700, in my basket for a while (it is now 1/2 its original price), but instead ordered these when they were on sale (hifiman 400i).


I did ponder the HD700 as well for a long while but it appeared even more divisive than the HD800...all in the tastes really, eventually.

5 days on, the strong impressions remain. The details and sound stage are just amazing...and I have hardly got to the classical CD's !!
I am not going to part with the other HP though, because the HD800 is indeed very unforgiving. Average or poor quality recordings do stand out and rapidly grate. They will still need my alternative HP.

I haven't tried any hifimans...how do you find them ?

Quote from: Holden on January 10, 2016, 08:49:27 AM
The consensus of opinion on Headfi is that the HD800 is a fantastic HP that responds to the type and power of amp you try it with. Apparently what sounds fantastic initially can be significantly improved with the correct amp pairing. 

Enjoy!!!!!!

I switch between the solid state and the tube amp couple of times each evening... Solid state has the edge on smoothness and compensating warmth for now, but to be fair, most of my driver tubes, like the HD800 are hardly burnt in either.

Enjoying it all the same until then  8) Although i am going through head-fi threads on HD800/And combos... you know...for info  ;D
Olivier

jlaurson

Quote from: Papy Oli on January 09, 2016, 12:31:13 PM
Over the last few years, i have been very well served by an HD650, a DT880 600 ohm and more recently an AKG702. About 6 weeks ago, I bought a Little Dot MKII Tube amp and have been tube rolling with great results on the former two HP, particularly for acoustic music and rock and chamber/piano.

Despite its praises for classical music, I have been holding back on trying the HD800 since its launch, ignorance being bliss, and could hardly justify the price as well anyway.

With the arrival of the updated new Sennheiser HD800S in the last month, a local high-end reseller has been offering their last new HD800 Old model at quite a reduced price which made give it a go.
Went in for a demo this morning, with my own headphone amp (solid state) and threw all i had at their burnt-in pair for nearly 2 hours: Mahler2/Boulez Live, Mahler 4/Reiner, Mahler 6/Abbado, Mahler 5/Tennstedt Live, Bullit OST, Summerly/Spem in Alium (one of my brightest CD), Savall/Istanbul, Jack Johnson's Brushfire fairytales, Clapton Unplugged, Gould 81 Goldberg, Massive Attack/Mezzanine, Chris Rea's Dancing down the stony road...etc...

What a superb piece of kit...no bloated bass, nothing like the treble harshness i had read about (and that had held me back too), superb separation, soundstage, clarity, impact....the general clarity on orchestral works, and boy, that timpani on the M2...and that Oud, again, on the Savall. 8)

Spent the last 20 minutes of the demo also trying a just-out-of-the-box HD800S, feeling a bit more sturdy than the HD800 maybe, better quality pads as well, but I didn't hear anything in there justifying the extra 400 quids for the newer model.

Well, The HD800 has been on my head at home for the last 2 hours  0:)... I gasped at Janos Starker's Cello Suites, I closed my eyes for a long while drifting to Dufay's O Gemma Lux, I chilled to Communique... and now I am grooving to Thriller...still off my solid state Slee Ultra Linear...bring on the tubes tomorrow.

Holy smokes...what a day... Never mind the unlistened-to boxsets... I have to go through all my classical collection from scratch again...with new ears and pleasure !



Welcome to the club! :-)

My switch was from HD580, with a custom-built tube amp for the latter (with which the 580 sound good, real' good)... but when I first heard the HD800 I was floored. Saved for almost two years, closed my eyes, and went for it... and never looked back, partly because I have this ridiculous look on my face, with the eyes rolled back and a touch of drool coming from one corner of the mouth.

Papy Oli

Quote from: jlaurson on January 13, 2016, 01:02:11 PM
Welcome to the club! :-)

My switch was from HD580, with a custom-built tube amp for the latter (with which the 580 sound good, real' good)... but when I first heard the HD800 I was floored. Saved for almost two years, closed my eyes, and went for it... and never looked back, partly because I have this ridiculous look on my face, with the eyes rolled back and a touch of drool coming from one corner of the mouth.

Nice to know, Jens  ;D

Funnily enough, scroll back 5 years pretty much to the day within this thread and you will find our exchange on amps for HD650 and you were mentioning then having recently taken the plunge on the HD800 at the time ;)

Granted, slow decision making even by my standards...and with them on my head and smiling in a pretty similar fashion right now, I wonder why i didn't dare to take the plunge earlier.

In an additional effort of self-justification, I did the calculation that if I was smoking one pack of cigarettes a day (I am not my avatar  0:) ), I would spend the same amount of money within less than 6 months and have nothing to show for it... whereas the HD800 will probably give me 10+ years of enjoyment (which is what I have so far effortlessly on the HD650 as well). so yeah...  ;D

Maybe you are ripe for an upgrade to the HD800S...  >:D
Olivier

71 dB

On a Finnish forum one guy upgraded from Sennheiser HD 600 to HD 800. At first he was pleased. After two years he said HD 600 is actually better than HD 800. He went back to HD 600.

:o

Spatial distortion is a serious problem deteriorating headphone listening.
Crossfeeders reduce spatial distortion and make the sound more natural
and less tiresome in headphone listening.

My Sound Cloud page <-- NEW Jan. 2024 "Harpeggiator"

The new erato

Quote from: 71 dB on January 13, 2016, 11:27:19 PM
On a Finnish forum one guy upgraded from Sennheiser HD 600 to HD 800. At first he was pleased. After two years he said HD 600 is actually better than HD 800. He went back to HD 600.

:o
Some think the 800 are too analytical. They are reputed to be very sensitive to good amplification and require a good headphone amp. From what I hear the new 800S may be more "relaxed".

71 dB

Quote from: The new erato on January 13, 2016, 11:31:25 PM
Some think the 800 are too analytical. They are reputed to be very sensitive to good amplification and require a good headphone amp. From what I hear the new 800S may be more "relaxed".

Analytical as in precise? Isn't sound production supposed to be as precise as possible?

Relaxed = Low mechanical damping factor?

Yes, HD 800 needs good amplification (high and curvy impedance)
Spatial distortion is a serious problem deteriorating headphone listening.
Crossfeeders reduce spatial distortion and make the sound more natural
and less tiresome in headphone listening.

My Sound Cloud page <-- NEW Jan. 2024 "Harpeggiator"

The new erato

#878
Quote from: 71 dB on January 13, 2016, 11:39:40 PM
Analytical as in precise? Isn't sound production supposed to be as precise as possible?
One should suppose so, but precision isn't always unproblematic in regards to listening fatigue, comfort etc. There's a lot of "time smearing" happening to acoustic waves in concert halls and listening rooms that don't necessarily happen (or happen differently) with headphones . Not to mention low order harmonic distortion that makes many subjectively prefer tube amps, vinyl etc.  Now we're into subjective preferences, all I'm saying there are lots of reason that precision isn't always the ultimate goal. Including the fact that bad recordings and masterings often sound worse on analytic/precise equipment. There are recordings I think sound better on cheaper equipment than on my main rig, but good recordings always sounds better on it. 

jlaurson

Quote from: 71 dB on January 13, 2016, 11:27:19 PM
On a Finnish forum one guy upgraded from Sennheiser HD 600 to HD 800. At first he was pleased. After two years he said HD 600 is actually better than HD 800. He went back to HD 600.
Quote from: The new erato on January 13, 2016, 11:31:25 PM
Some think the 800 are too analytical. They are reputed to be very sensitive to good amplification and require a good headphone amp. From what I hear the new 800S may be more "relaxed".

Insane! Well, not insane... but really a strange preference. HD800 is hearing the music like on studio monitors... and on HD600 (or HD580, which I have, and which are reasonably similar) more like hearing the music on headphones, albeit in (ideally) warm and intense sound.

And I found my HD580 to be FAR more sensitive to good amplification. Indeed, with that purpose-built tube amp, they do sound kind of amazing. But it is still gaslight compared to the clarity and neutrality of the HD800 which I can plug straight into my amp, if necessary (with a +12 Trim). That's partly (though not wholly) explained by the considerably lower impedance of the HD800 compared to the HD580/600/650 family. (Ω300 vs. Ω600)