Mine are betterā¦
And donāt bother asking how a $30,000 power cable can make your system sound better when the juice has already gone down a couple hundred miles of unshielded wire/transformers from the power station to your wall outletā¦ your puny minds couldnāt possibly wunderstandā¦ unless you have a PhD (Piled higher and Deeper) in BogoPhysics.
Real audiophiles have their own molten salt reactor for that.
I had two more visits to the shop, and I was able to try out the Shure SE425, SE535, Sony XBA-H3, and legendary Sennheiser HD800.
I was using the iRiver Astell & Kern AK120 for the player with some sample tracks from HDTracks.
After listening around a while, I was disappointed with the muffled highs of the SE425, compared to the other three earphones and headphones. The H3 sounded quite nice with strong bass and sharp highs, but no smooth mids like the SE535. It also didnāt feel too comfortable in my ear as the Shures.
The SE535 was amazing, with a very smooth frequency response across the entire spectrum to my ears, and everything sounded very precise and natural. The H3 did have more pop though, but I wasnāt satisfied with itās bulky size and awkward fit. The SE535 on the other hand, had an incredibly snug fit. Only if I could get the H3ās sound and the SE535ās comfort in one packageā¦ 
The HD800, was a completely different piece of gear, and it did seem a little big for my head. It sounded amazing though, with extreme clarity and great lows and mids. Some may feel that it sounds too bright though. This was my first experience with open headphones, and it was instantly obvious to others which music I was listening to. It retails for $1,800 here, but I think at that price point, Iād have to be a true audiophile to purchase that kind of equipment.
Thanks for your advice Ramblings!
Sorotantaz, I tried out some Westone earphones but wasnāt satisfied with them, as they also had muffled highs like the SE425. They didnāt carry any Logitech UEās unfortunately, but I hear the UE900ās are pretty good.
My laptop headphone output has bad crosstalk and squeals whenever the CPU is taxed, which I donāt appreciate. My current portable player is the Nexus 4, but I may get the Fiio X5 when I get a good pair of earphones. The Astell and Kern series is out of my budget, haha.
Like most things, you get what you pay for. But there is a point in quality where minor gains are insanely expensive. Many of the gains are purely on paper and impossible hear/see or whatever the objective is. But while you cant hear lower frequencies, you can feel themā¦ and that is part of the audio experience IMO.
This is my gear. I know it's not the ultimate, but it suites me fine.
PrimaLuna Prologue 2 Integrated Tube Amp w/ internal phono pre-amp (40 watts per channel)
Music Hall MMF 2.1 Turntable w/ Shure M97x Cartridge
Cambridge Audio Azur 640C MK2 CD Player
Old Kenwood KT7001 Tuner I bought new in 1973
B&W 603 S3 Loudspeakers Bi-Wired with Kimber Kable (I forget the model#)
Spare Tube Collection (some new production, mostly NOS)
Brickwall Filter (8R)
Headphone Gear
Woo Audio WA6 tube Headphone Amp
Schiit Audio Asgard Headphone Amp
BeyerDynamics 770 Pro (250 ohm) Headphones
Denon D2000 Headphones
Sony MDR-V6 Headphones
Sennheiser PX100 Headphones
Cambridge Audio Azur 550C CD Player (feeding the Woo)
Schiit Audio Modi DAC (Not shown, connected to Mac Mini feeding the Asgard)
Not that expensive if you only use one headphone,avoid useless gears, want the best audio quality and keep it for a lifetime. Of-course you can get 80% of this sound for 10 times less money !
Its still commonly use, every studio and musician use them to distort the sound, adding a analogue like warm sound. Its also use in electronic where transistors canāt replace them, for example in radars.
Tubes have a different sound but come with many disadvantages.
One of my other concerns that it would get stolen.
I can engrave my name on it, but once it is in someone elseās hands, you pretty much canāt do anything about it.
Install a tiny sim card, some circuitry, a short barrel, a bullet and firing mechanism. It cant miss.
Yup, and audio shops love your money. A long time ago I saw a Rodrigues cartoon where the salesman is talking to āMr. Smithā to whom a week past he had sold an ultimate $43,000 stereo system. he was inquiring if he was interested in an upgrade.
To each their own, just donāt spend your savings or the house budget money.
i just recently started to get interested in upgrading my audio gear.
my musical taste: http://last.fm/user/moe-lee
(metal/hardcore, some post-rock, johnny cash/other calm music, etc)
iāve bought some used stuff lately to try out, maybe someone is interested in my brief comments:
Shure srh840 (closed cans. iād like some more bass, but i appreciate the clarity in high and mids)
creative aurvana live! 2 (i like them! probably semi-closed cans. a bit dark, but iāve heard new things in the lower regions that i havenāt heard before in songs! very comfortable)
beyerdynamic dt 880 (250 ohm) (received in the mail today, my first serious open headphones. havenāt listened to them much yet. extremely comfortable!)
sennheiser ie60 (will probably receive them tomorrow. IEM)
Fiio E17 (DAC/headphone amp. iāve tested it a bit vs computer headphone out, and got better clarity and detail, so iām quite happy!)
Fiio E6 (cheap cheap cheap headphone amp. AB-tested it comared to my phone and my ipod, and could hear an improvement over the phone output. so i use it when listening from my phone)
logitech ultimate ears 6000 (bought new on a sale 10 days ago, didnāt like, will return for a refund. might have a bad pair perhaps, since i donāt understand most reviews at all. i like them except for the sound thoughā¦)
bought defective ones cheaply and changed 3,5mm jack, hoping to sell for a small profit:
Sennheiser PX 100-II (a good alternative to koss porta pro, a bit confused about the fit though)
Urban Ears plattan (might look a bit fancy, but where are the mid and high frequencies??)
i have an ipod classic, koss porta pro (popular for a reason, good bass and good price), LG quadbeat 2 (accessory to my LG G2 phone, sounds actually good! is lacking a bit sub-bass and overall clarity compared to more expensive gear), sennheiser cx300 (iāve liked them quite a bit, havenāt compared to the newer stuff iāve bought though), RHA MA350 (a huge bargain! sounds great for the price i paid), creative EP630 (repaired them once, but need to fix the cable again. sounded good 7 years ago, not sure if theyāve aged with dignity), nocs 200 (liked the sound 6 years ago, repaired once. but now i think i miss some mids and treble)ā¦
hopefully iāll be able to find my beyerdynamic dt100 that i seem to have lost half a year ago. better clarity than my older stuff, but i did miss some bassā¦
i hope i donāt feel like buying even more expensive gear sometime soon!
While you guys are here, can anyone recommend a good over the ear headphone and/or earbuds for movie watching, edm and orchestral? Since this is a budget forum, lets go in the 50-100 price range please. Everyone at my school has beats or souls, but there must be better value for the money. right?
EDM and orchestral are not quite similar.
Most over-ears that have the presentation and staging for orchestral need to be driven by an amp, and capable portable ones don't come cheap.
Buds which have the punch/growl of EDM normally cost quite a bit.
Is there a reason why you don't want in-ears?
I'd suggest Sennheiser IE8s (the old, old flagships) as the perfect (non-budget limited) choice for you. Wonderfully spacious and smooth for almost all classical and orchestral, deep and punch for EDM. Muffled and stifling for rock though, which is a good thing you don't mainly listen to.
A dynamic driver IEM will have the punch for your EDM but a balanced armature will have the finesse and detail for orchestral.
Check this thread out.
I have nothing against in ears, I just wanted to open up a few options. You lost me at armatures. I will read the thread link you gave me, much obliged.
Wish I could afford naimā¦
Nice setup atbglenn.
Why ? Because black aluminium blocks with green lights looks cool ? That all it does.
What is edm ? Headphones are weak for soundstage but the denon D2000 is great for movie it sound like a home theater setup with subwoofer-like bloated bass and V shape audio. Over your budget but worth it.
Thanks! I've been into stereo equipment since the late 60's. Owned just about every brand you could imagine. From Macintosh, Conrad Johnson, Audio Research, Linn Sondek, Dynaco, AR, KLH, etc, etc. Too many to mention. I even worked in a high end stereo store for a few years back in the 70's. I'm not nearly as crazy as I use to be with audio equipment these days. Plus my hearing isn't as good as it use to be when I was young. Shit happens
Have you tried professional active monitor ? It blow away āhifiā speakers for such a small price and no need to worry about the amp.
Almost nothing follows a strict cost equals quality relation, certainly audio is FAR from that. Even in the low end of cost there are surprisingly good items, and much of the high cost is not high quality.
Two most important things are speakers and source material. I have Klipsch Forte speakers and Quad ESL63ās with a dipole subwoofer, and spend a good amount of free time and money hunting down recordings with the best mastering.
High bit rate is pure virtual snake oil, nobody reliably can detect the difference between 128k bit and anything higher. I rip to 320k vbr. but usually keep source in whatever the best available format is.
Hydrogenaudio for hardware and encoding discussion, HydrogenAudio
Steve Hoffman for best versions discussion, and loonie audiophile hardware. Music Corner | Steve Hoffman Music Forums
And the room acoustic ! Something that almost every audiophiles forgot is that the sound entirely depend of the room. Acoustic foam is a must if you want to get serious.
Its as important as reflectors for flashlights!
Not really snake oil because the effect is very real and can be measured, the worst thing is re-encoding multiple time with lousy codecs, it destroy the music, that is why using lossless is important for storage and future generations.
Funny thing is that on some recordings I prefer 128k because it sort of āsoftenā the sound (cutting of the highest frequencies and masking errors in recordings).