Any audiophiles here? - Only marginally more socially acceptable than pedophillia!

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Internet Brain Rot said:
What headphones did you have before, and what did you like/dislike about them (comfort, sound, build, etc)? At lot is mostly subjective, so knowing your perspective will help people make better recommendations.
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I have beyerdynamic custom studio. I liked how they were basically indestructible, very light, didn't imprint my hairline. However, I felt they were very flat. The Sennheiser HD 599 I am using now have a much more noticeable bassline. They feel comfy but they let in all ambient noise in the room so I can't use them for everyday stuff because I need an impenetrable autism cube that no outside world leaks into.

I don't know audio terms. Soundwise, I want to hear things as they are meant to be heard but the total lack of bass is disappointing.
 
Null said:
I have beyerdynamic custom studio. I liked how they were basically indestructible, very light, didn't imprint my hairline. However, I felt they were very flat. The Sennheiser HD 599 I am using now have a much more noticeable bassline. They feel comfy but they let in all ambient noise in the room so I can't use them for everyday stuff because I need an impenetrable autism cube that no outside world leaks into.

I don't know audio terms. Soundwise, I want to hear things as they are meant to be heard but the total lack of bass is disappointing.
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Those Audio-Technica ones that every streamer seems to use are the king of price/performance.
 
Null said:
I have beyerdynamic custom studio. I liked how they were basically indestructible, very light, didn't imprint my hairline. However, I felt they were very flat. The Sennheiser HD 599 I am using now have a much more noticeable bassline. They feel comfy but they let in all ambient noise in the room so I can't use them for everyday stuff because I need an impenetrable autism cube that no outside world leaks into.

I don't know audio terms. Soundwise, I want to hear things as they are meant to be heard but the total lack of bass is disappointing.
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The HD599's seem to have a neutral/Harman Target Curve sound profile, which is basically meant to fit the theoretical curve of human hearing.
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They let the sound in because they are open backs, a metric fuckton of 80's music was mastered on AKG open backs, back when AKG was Austrian and wasn't a slave to Samsung, and that's generally how you get clearer audio, but you lose the bass as the bass frequencies just escape rather than getting focused into your ear. However, as you've said, you'd prefer closed backs, which the DT700 Pro X's are. They're also 48 ohms so they should run out of anything.

Though their sound profile is vastly different, you can try and EQ'ing them to see if you can improve them. The standard for that on Windows is Peace Equalizer, where you have what's called AutoEQ. This allows you to do headphone equalization based on measurements in databases, and it basically mathematically "flattens" the sound. With some tools you can profile it to a Harman Target Curve if you want to.

Die-hard audiophiles will tell you that EQ'ing is a sin, however it's basically a free hack to improve your sound, so you can give it a try.
 
Slav Power said:
AKG was Austrian and wasn't a slave to Samsung
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Speaking of AKG, I have the Austrian Audio (founded by former pre Samsung AKG audio engineers or they left short after the take over I forget) Hi-X55 (closed back) and Hi-X65 (open back), I enjoy them, they tend to be as some have put it "brutally honest", I was about to suggest the 55 but I am not sure if it would have the bass Null wanted, along with being closer to the upper end of Null's budget.
 
Null said:
ok i went with the krauts and got a beyerdynamic, a dt pro 700 x
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So you had monitoring/studio headphones, which are meant to not emphasize the low ends like consumer headphones do, so you can hear the "mix" accurately, for studio/recording purposes. They are not really lacking bass, they're just not boosting it. That's why they sound flat to the average person.
You now baught DT Pro 700 x. These too, are headphones for monitoring/mixing. Meaning they will most likely have the same "problem". Your Sennheisers sounded better to you, because they are meant for your average consumer and therefor boosting the low end.
Just in case you didn't know that already.

That being said, the DT Pro 700 x is promoted as being more flexible and with fuller sound. So maybe it works out.
 
I got some TRUTHEAR x Crinacle Zero:RED iems. They're pretty nice. Gets pretty loud. No distortion or anything. And I just connected them directly to my phone. So its nice they work without a dedicate amp.

I did pickup a iRiver H320 off ebay recently too. I got some SD cards and am gonna mod it for 2tb of storage using an iFlash Quad. Still waiting for a replacement battery to come in the mail.

I also binged some dankpods. God help me, i'm spiraling into the world of headphones. I just wanted to replace my old Sony over neck headphones.
 
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tehpope said:
I did pickup a iRiver H320 off ebay recently too.
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Did you get the iRiver specifically to use Rockbox?
tehpope said:
God help me, i'm spiraling into the world of headphones. I just wanna to replace my old Sony over neck headphones.
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I fell down the hole for a while, all it took was 90 days of in-patient rehab and I'm back on track.
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Had a few small relapses over the years but I'm feeling good about it this time.
 
tehpope said:
Yes. I forgot to mention that.
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A few years ago a Chinese company (AGPtek, unfortunate name lol) contacted the Rockbox devs through their forum and said they wanted to fill the gap left by the Sanza Clip. They were asking for recommended specs & chipsets. One of the Rockbox devs worked with them to port it to the device. AGPtek sold it for about 6 months, maybe. It was like $60 and it had bluetooth with APT-X, something the clip did not.
I was following along in the forums so I grabbed one the day it was released. A few months later, I left it at a BBQ and it was gone. When I tried to replace it, I couldn't find one. The one big downside was the battery time (like 7-8 hours). I have a better featured PMP now that is smaller and has a (tiny) touch screen, and it will play for at least 12 hours, but no Rockbox.
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RIP the only Rockbox device officially supported by the manufacturer
:semperfidelis:
 
Been using Audeze LCD-2 for my headphones, and ibasso dx170 for my music player, pretty happy with both, outside ibasso using android which is poor for battery life and worse ui than other players I've had in the past. Been after a AMP, but no idea which one or if it is truly worth it.
 
Product Placement said:
Been after a AMP, but no idea which one or if it is truly worth it.
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I haven't touched either of those products, what follows is my opinion after skimming reviews. Also, the iBasso seems awesome and I will set an eBay alert for it, and buy one, if it comes up for cheap.

It depends how hard the headphones are to drive, with your combo, I'm guessing no. It seems like a pretty good setup, the iBasso head-fi reviews are overwhelmingly positive. The Audeze are well reviewed too. I have a couple low-end portable amps, I don't notice any difference with IEM's, but with my 250 ohm Sennheisers I did. A good amp is supposed to be fairly neutral so it should just make it louder and not change things too much, unless you're discussing a tube amp. This article aligns with my limited experience in amplifiers.

One of my amps has a USB-DAC and using it makes a noticeable difference over the headphone jack in laptops. It would not have been worth it (to me) if I couldn't use it as a DAC. But your iBasso can also be used for USB-DAC functionality. Looking at the audeze specs, its only 70 ohms and the iBasso has a good dual chipset with a bespoke amplifier circuit (rather than built-into the chipset like most low-end, or mid-range portables):
The DX300 stood its ground with 4x Cirrus CS43198, and now we have the DX170 with 2x CS43131 chips. Hey, half is better than nothing, right? Both the CS43198 and the CS43131 are Cirrus Logic’s flagship DAC chips, and both share just about the same specs and features. However, the main difference between the two is that the CS43198 is a DAC only chip, while the CS43131 has the addition of a built-in amplifier. iBasso decided to implement an “exclusive OPAMP+BUF amplification after the CS43131”.
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I have a set of cheap 64 ohm Samson reference headphones that I occasionally plug into a playstation controller. Some games are way too quiet so I'll use a portable headphone amp, but even the tiny wolfson DAC player I mentioned in previous posts, drives them fine.

Whether an amp is worth the money is (obviously) a personal values judgement. Back when I dabbled in it, I stuck right close to the budget end of the hobby, mostly chinesium IEM's etc, where the cost/value proposition is more pronounced. That combo is getting up towards mid-range zone and the iBasso seems like a solid device. It may not be worthwhile (for you) to invest anymore. IMO if it's loud enough once you have your EQ sorted, don't bother. If you just wanna buy gear and you live in the city, go audition some headphones with your iBasso, maybe you will find something that interests you. I've lost my will to consoom, but if I had somewhere near me that sold audiophile gear I'd like try a bunch of different enthusiast brand headphones.
 
Yeah no audiophile place near, me, took ages to pick the Audeze LCD-2 closed back, but been really happy with them, had a Oppo pm-3 before and sizable upgrade over them.

iBasso does sound great, just be warned on the battery life being around 8 hours for me. The inbuilt music app is good, but anything outside there is a bit of a mess.
 
I currently use AKG K712 Pro's and they're great for what I like to listen to, switch on/off with Hifiman HE-X4s sometimes. Granted been using my Koss Porta Pro's with yaxi pads while on the go and they are simply spectacular for being about $50 or so after the yaxi pads.
Looking at getting into my endgame of headphones with either the Sennheiser HD800s (next step from K712) or try Hifiman Arya or HE1000V2s. I'm considering Focals, but I hear they had some QC issues as of late.
 
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