The past few weeks I was dabbling in some audio equipment. I know that atbglenn and jmpaul320 have really nice gear too.
I visited an audio shop today that had many hundreds of earphones and headphones on display.
I’ve been looking into the Sony XBA-H3, which uses a hybrid of the traditional dynamic coil driver and balanced armatures.
The MSRP is $399 here, but I can find them for around $300 second hand but unopened and $250 used. The mids and highs are very crisp, but the bass is also very respectable thanks to the dynamic driver. Any experiences with these pair of earbuds?
Some eye-candy:
14 grand tube amp:
1.2 grand AKG K3003i earbuds:
Some DAC’s:
It was an amazing experience, and nothing beats a brick and mortar shop when it comes to audio gear.
If you're going to spend that amount (a lot for some) then I wouldn't recommend the Sonys.
I love my Shures, I have the SE215, SE425 and SE535. Each of them are so unique, yet all of them have that beautiful lusciously smooth characteristically-Shure mid.
I'd recommend the 425s for your budget for s(h)ure. Neutral, yet musical.
But unless you're planning on using them on-stage or on-the move, it's best if you stay away from IEMs as there are better for the money.
I've spent a few grand on flashlights, but it completely pales in comparison to the audio gear I have.
DSD: Honestly, I don't see it as much use and will probably only lead to more hardware conflicts, decoding issues and so on and so forth down the line. And then you get slew rate problems with hardware leading to more loss, etc.
Bit-depth: I'm all for increasing bit depth. Especially with the pro-audio live gear really going full digital, the greater the bit depth, the more dynamic range, headroom and lower noise floor possible. All resulting in increased flexibility and all very critical.
Sampling frequency: I am a pretty strong believer in ultrasonic frequencies at least up to the second or third harmonic of our upper limit. It's just the way sound works. Letting caps, tweeters and super tweeters ring freely at harmonics should increase the fidelity of the sound produced. The best audio signal you're going to get is limited by the weakest link in the signal chain, no point making it weak at the very start.
You search a portable IEM ? I don’t like them I only use big headphones and studio speakers
Beware this world is only based on scam with absolutely CRAZY price while you can’t tell the difference in blind testing. Any decent cheap device sound as good as the most stupidly expensive gear
Yes but it makes no difference at all in the sound because almost all songs are in CD format 16bits/44100hz, it can even sound worst because the signal is resampled. Studio use 24bits/96khz because its easier to works on sound (like using a bigger screen for pictures).
Wow, neat gear. Would be cool to experience that. Of course it would be a major tease! Being I likely can’t afford the cheapest thing in the building. :bigsmile:
14K amp! Thats roughly 1500 C8’s (Huge Group Buy!), assuming they don’t get lost in Singapore!
Not sure if you've realised, but CDs that contain music as a a product consumers actually purchase are pretty much disappearing. I haven't bought a CD in well over 10 years.
On top of that, even if the end product is only 16-bit 44.1KHz, you don't want to be losing signal as you go along through your chain.
Just because it's sampled at the same rate, does not mean that you aren't losing any data process-to-process.
Down-sampling to 16-bit 44.1Khz at the very very end is somewhat justified using dithering. read about it here.
And the end product is not always studio created music. The Midas console I run is 96KHz and they have been for at least half a decade now. When you run over 70kW of amps, you want to make sure that you aren't putting rubbish into them.
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Beware this world is only based on scam with absolutely CRAZY price while you can't tell the difference in blind testing. Any decent cheap device sound as good as the most stupidly expensive gear
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To each their own. If you really are satisfied with the stuff that doesn't come as expensive, then I really am happy for you and your wallet. Just make sure you don't here one of these.
IEMs have their use, in fact I would use them more than anything else since I'm on the move and on stage a lot.
But yes, it is acoustically difficult to reproduce inside the ear what normally comes from outside.
Of-course but compressed music is still in CD format.
Do you mean I need a $2000 USB cable to avoid this ? Digital is digital.
Interesting article but its for converting studio audio to consumer product.
I use 24/96 to my USB/SPDIF converter then to my DAC using audiophile OCC cable and bit exact player. I think I can hear a difference between 16/44.1 but its so small that I think its placebo (like everything in audio), the sound is not even “better”, it seem to be cleaner with more soundstage but it seem to be more harsh & fatiguing to the ears.
Unlike most audiophile gimmicks I agree upsampling have a real effect on music but almost unnoticeable. Have you tried the new 32-bit 384 kHz ?
Since I received my Audeze LCD-2 I stop searching for other models, that happily stopped my hifi journey. Nothing worst than audiophile always searching and comparing buying new gear while forgetting the music.
You have all this high end equipment and still listen to compressed and lossy formats?
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Do you mean I need a $2000 USB cable to avoid this ? Digital is digital.
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No, though a theoretically perfectly conductive cable without capacitation or induction would help.
As you resample you always lose data. I think you mistook me for saying playback.
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Interesting article but its for converting studio audio to consumer product. I use 24/96 to my USB/SPDIF converter then to my DAC using audiophile OCC cable and bit exact player. I think I can hear a difference between 16/44.1 but its so small that I think its placebo (like everything in audio), the sound is not even "better", it seem to be cleaner with more soundstage but it seem to be more harsh & fatiguing to the ears. Unlike most audiophile gimmicks I agree upsampling have a real effect on music but almost unnoticeable. Have you tried the new 32-bit 384 kHz ?
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I don't know what kind of change you are looking for with an increase in sampling rate.
Upsampling uses mathematical models to project information that it thinks should be there. Why not have everything already there in the first place?
I haven't tried anything above 192 because I have no equipment capable. Even my stupidly expensive interface won't sample at anything over 192. I can't tell the difference between my 96 and by 192 recordings because frankly I'm not that good. I'm more concerned with getting sound out of the front of house.
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Since I received my Audeze LCD-2 I stop searching for other models, that happily stopped my hifi journey. Nothing worst than audiophile always searching and comparing buying new gear while forgetting the music.
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Then absolutely good for you. A friend lent me his rig for a few session. Needless to say, I'm glad my mother used to be a physio because my neck wasn't quite right after that.
Obviously ! I don’t care all about these BS theories because the human ears are incredibly unreliable and way too limited to detect it, everything is placebo. Real test is double blind testing, everything else is false. No one can tell apart lossy 320kbs (even recent 128kbs) vs any other digital format !
It’s called Analog and to over sample means to listen more than once.
No BS conversion rates, bit count, dithering, etc.
Real music made by real people, without computers,…………… what a concept.
And my wife wonders why I ignore here pleas to “Get rid of some of your albums”
My only regret is not buying more of the Half Speed master records when I worked at a record store. I have Pink Floyd “Wish you were here” and the sound is incredible. Nothing digital has ever had the openness and sound stage as this.
I also feel blessed too have bought and kept about 5 really good phono cartridges from back in the day. The selection available nowadays is not as good.
Yummy, thanks Gurthang. When I was a little kid in the early ’70s, my dad gave me a bunch of engineering books that gave all the example circuits using vacuum tubes, and I remember taking apart everything in the house to scavenge tubes from. Who would’ve thought all these years later that anyone would even know what a vacuum tube is, not to mention people still designing circuits around them.
My old lady said that I’ll be bankrupt if I get hooked on audiophilea. But I actually think an irresistible itch is already beginning to develop for bass subwoofers and gold wire cables!
This one thread already can show similar debates of any other audio forum
back to the earphone, for $300+ budget, you should consider westone, ultimate ears and etymotic research. You can the website for the type. I’m lean to etymotic sound character which is more analytical. ER4S or ER4P or PT can be superb choice but not everybody like it. I use only ER 6i the low end one.
This kind of earphone can be awesome if paired with decent headamp. But to avoid debate, always know the limit when we listening music from portable setup unless you use the earphone for studio monitoring purpose attach to hi end studio equipment or home audio.
