Beatz by skezzer. The Proper good audio thread. Headphones, amps, dacs, etc. - The Bear and Badger

kestla

Minkymu wrote:

kestla wrote:

The Sony xm4s can be bagged for a decent price these days, as they've been available for a couple of years. I think they're still widely considered one of the best buds on the market. The noise cancelling is particularly impressive, and actually better than my overear xm3s.

Any way ive decided on the replacement buds, Bowers and Wilkins P17s2 in white. Sexy AF, built like tanks and they sound incredible. dear tho

Have always liked B&W, ever since my first pair of much loved P5s. Will have to find somewhere to sample the in-ears.

Blue Swirl

Beats Studio Buds are working out OK so far. Compared to the Beats Flex I had before, it's like every band I love just hired a bassist.

Minkymu

So i pulled the trigger on the black variant of the Bowers and Wilkins Pi7 S2's. Should be with me by 10pm Saturday.

First proper listen due then. I'm gased.

Minkymu

I was going to get a tidal hi res audio subscription to go with these, but apparently apple musics lossless is as good if not better, and thats already included in my apple music sub.

Bowers and Wilkins have a spotify playlist designed just to show these off, so i might start there.

The Daddy

Yeah I did some side by side with tidal vs Apple vs FLAC, Apple sounded as good as the FLAC stuff, tidal sounded more compressed. Some streaming services apparently use different masters so this can vary a bit.

The Daddy

(Was “fully unfolded” MQA tidal ftr)

Minkymu

The Daddy wrote:

Yeah I did some side by side with tidal vs Apple vs FLAC, Apple sounded as good as the FLAC stuff, tidal sounded more compressed. Some streaming services apparently use different masters so this can vary a bit.

This is along the lines of an article i saw, so its good to have it confirmed thank you.

Minkymu

the B&W' Pi7 S2's have turned up.

Very premium feel to them from the packaging to the buds themselves. Glad i went black version

The case looks nice, with a smooth flip to the lid hinge, but the case feels worryingly light. Oddly the case wont stand upright due to its rounded bottom and usb c location there.

The buds themselves are surprisingly bigger than i remember. locating a bit more uncomfortably in my right ear.

The sound stage is next level though. Lovely bass and very clear vocals.

i'm trying a 30 day free trial
of tidal hi fi plus to to give it a go.

Minkymu

turns out theres a knack to securing these properly. you put them in with the larger part of the case facing upwards then twist them back to lodge in the outer ear. Gives a really good passive seal, but you can definitely feel them in there. no way they are coming out though.

I tried some netflix with them and the audio sync is bang on, tried extaction as it has a very lively and bustling sound stage particularly the bridge scene. very impressed indeed.

my main bug bear so far is they border on impossible to get out of the case due to the bud case tops being round but flat, slippy plastic. pain

Minkymu

i actually like the sound of the master graded stuff on tidal

Pseudoscot

I got a really good deal on the Sony WMX 5's. Wow. Can't wait to try them on a plane as the noise cancelling is epic. Thanks for the recommendation.

Minkymu

the WMX5s are fantastic tbf

Minkymu

kestla

They look lovely mate. Typical B&W class as always.

Minkymu

interestingly no bluetooth device will play lossless audio, that requires a wired connection, so no point me having the top tidal sub at all. over bluetooth no cans or buds with play lossless. the best you can get is AAC?

So i don't get why these sound so much better

Minkymu

im also pretty sure i managed atmos on netflix.

the difference in sound quality must literally be the quality of the internal components

The Daddy

Aptx adaptive is pretty much hi-res, I think they support that. LDAC is pretty good but seems to be only Sony using that.

Minkymu

yeah these support aptx but apple phones dont supprt that format currently

Minkymu

so my iphone 14 is limiting these buds full potential

b0r1s

Yep you’re ideally gonna need a DAC and a set of wired cans to get lossless out of any service. As for why they sound great there’s still gonna be the quality of the drivers etc. going from normal AirPods to AirPod pros was a big uplift in quality for me and they obviously don’t do lossless either.

Atmos is different though it’s just separation of the sound into discrete channels, not necessarily better quality. I’ve not tried Atmos in AirPods but have tried Apple’s spatial audio on Dolby content and it does sound great.

Blue Swirl

My Beat Studio Buds have been performing admirably. But as it always is with tech, there's a new version. The imaginatively named Beats Studio Buds+ are coming this May, and have a couple of new colour variations joining the lineup.

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Ebony (which seems to be a misnomer, but hey ho)

If I didn't already have the red ones, I'd be saving up for the transparent ones, because as we all know, transparent stuff is just cooler.

Minkymu

Much to my mrs annoyance i have decided to pursue hi res audio listening.

Apple music, Tidal and Qobuz all offer hi res streaming, soon to be joined by spotify.

My issue is all my headphones ( including my awesome sounding bowers and wilkins ) are all wireless bluetooth, which due to bandwidth restrictions cannot do full hd audio.

So im left with no choice but to purchase wired headphones and a dac.

My dac of choice is the lightning equipped Fiio K1 ( a very reasonable £63 and tiny with it) and my earbuds of choice are the shure aoinic 3 with memory foam caps. shure make in ear monitors with replacement mx connected cables. without a dac the are impressive but with a dac they apparently open up hires tracks massively.

i will post my impressions once ive got it all set up

MyNameIsKrisG

After collecting them for over 30 years, I think the time has finally come to say goodbye to my CD collection.

Before that however, I'd like to ask for recommendations on Wireless speakers. Must support LDAC and preferably have Google Assistant and Apple Music integration.

I'm looking at a pair of Sonos Era 100s right now. Only Alexa though, so not 100% perfect for me.

Thanks

Moot_Geeza

Don't do it Kris. Horde forever. That's my plan.

Moot_Geeza

Haven't bought a new one for years so at least the collection isn't getting any bigger.

MyNameIsKrisG

I still buy them, but only to rip the FLAC to a memory stick and make sure the artist gets paid - they never make it into an actual CD Player. The collection has gone down from several hundred to about 150 over the years, and those are the ones I've been fighting to keep. You have to face the facts in the end that they are simply sitting in a box, taking up space, with no actual purpose.

Moot_Geeza

These are facts I will never face.

The Daddy

I music magpied all my CDs a few years back when we moved house. Spent the last couple of years trying to remember what I had and building up a decent FLAC collection.

Went down a similar rabbit hole to minky, gradually been adding bits, got a nice portable player, some fancy iems and a cool A&K semi-portable amp that I can hook up to my record player. Pretty happy with it all right now, managed to stop shopping for upgrades and whatnot.

Minkymu

A&K are pure sex too.

However the AK mobile DAC was £200 so its a maybe later purchase, see how i get on with the Fiio first

MyNameIsKrisG

For fun I just downloaded Music Magpie and scanned a few CDs.

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