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

Facewon

Updating because I wanna ask about more stuff.

Will add other links later.

Remember kids:

g.man wrote:

Beats are piss tier ear cancer.

Brooks wrote:

Always worth a look at Inner Fidelity's curve archive entry for a possible purch. Not a substitute for a proper demo but can narrow down choices if you're shit out of luck for a good showroom (and most will be).

Skezzer, in a dm asks....

Never mind, we can do it here.
1. Intended use (home/work/portable/all three),
2. preferred sound signature (bass heavy, balanced, bright/treble happy, dark, warm etc),
3. preferred style (on ear, over ear, in ear)
4. Music (am guessing a lot of stuff)
5. Budget.

1. Mainly laptop at home, games, music and YouTube/nba league pass.

2. Balanced and warm. For music. Dynamic with guns and sound effects without giving me a headache with pew pew pew.

3. Big comfy sound proofy fuckers.

4. Hip hop/all. Rarely super heavy these days. Check AOTY thread.

5. $150 voucher, Coles myer, so limits where I can purchase. Depends what else I get for Xmas. Will go to aus$300 if cash is solid.

Facewon

Happy to add text to op if this becomes the go to headphones thread. Someone do a write up about gaming ones too.

Brooks

"Balanced and warm" would seem to be contradictory.

Facewon

Are they. Balanced I took to be between bass and heavy treble. I'll grant that in proper terms warm probably leans bass, am I right?

Brooks

Warm = (lower)-mids bump typically. The opposite of scooped.

Facewon

Ok, let's call it medium rare.

Brooks

Unfortunately your miserable budget cramps your options. Gonna just say try the 250-ohm Beyer 770s because that's at least got decent sub extension and it's one of the most popular closed cans in studio use afaik, isolates well too.

Gremill

The best headphones are obviously Beats by Dr Dre, I don’t know why you’ve bothered starting a thread.

Skerret

Finally, it exists.

Beyer DT770 is a good shout for the money, venerable. Beyers do tend towards bright/treble happy so I'd listen to get a feel first. Store DJ has em though it's the 80Ohm version https://www.storedj.com.au/beyerdynamic-dt770-pro-closed-studio-headphones-80ohms

Audio Technica MSR7 are worth a look for sound signature if you're pushing the 300 mark.

My shout is the Sennheiser HD569. Big, comfy, closed, certainly warm but not excessively, a bit veiled in Sennheiser fashion but handy if you have a sensitivity to spiky treble. You can get those at Addicted To Audio in Kew among other places https://addictedtoaudio.com.au/collections/headphones/products/sennheiser-hd569-closed-back-headphones

The MSR7 (and likely the Senns) you can find in JB for a trial, but I'd buy the MSR7s from Amazon.

Skerret

Regardless, try before you buy if at all possible. You can pop into A2A and give em a price range and preferred sound and they'll pick out a few likely choices. You can settle in and sample all the cans you want, nice way to spend an afternoon.

Also Shure might be worth a go though I'm not a fan.

Skerret

Ooh possibly also Audio Technica A500X. Maybe.

Also A2A have the MSR7 at $278 https://addictedtoaudio.com.au/collections/headphones/products/audio-technica-ath-msr7-premium-headphones

Skerret

Wait what the hell am I talking about, you have a Coles Myer voucher. Who do they have in their stable? Ummm you'd likely find the Senns and maybe the ATs at Myer, doubtful on the Beyers though.

Diluted Dante

Do you think these are worth the price or not? Thinking might be a bit much, but then a guess you can't put a price on quality.

GurtTractor

These are actually seriously pretty good for the money, surprisingly pleasant to listen to, even compared to some really high end cans I have - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Venture-Electronics-MONK-Plus-Earbud-Transparent/dp/B074DB949K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1513958385&sr=8-1&keywords=ve+monk

Moot_Geeza

For everyday headphones in constant use, the AKG K550's are probably one of my best ever purchases (any category). I paid £99, which is ridiculous for how much use I've had out of them at work. They lack bass compared to other snazzy cans, but everything else outperforms the price by miles and they can be worn all day in full comfort with pretty much zero sound leakage. Nothing gets in or out. I'd immediately buy them again if they ever broke. I run them from a FiioX5mkII, with an E12A portable amp - designed for IEMs, oddly enough - 4db bass boost on (most of the time), almost everything in 16 or 24 bit FLAC after hours and hours of reconverting. They're dazzling for the mostly acoustic country shit I pump through them for hours on end, and perform admirably with hip hop and rock.

At home I use my Massdrop specials - the Fostex TX-00s *high fives Skerret and Shabby*, with a Schiit MODI/MODI Uber DAC/AMP combo.

Getting stoned on the doorstep, then settling in the recliner to a bit of Guy Clark and a snooze is my version of winning.

Facewon

I assume mentioning gaming headphones will give someone a fit?

Escape

If you give Skez a fit he can carve you a homemade stand. The Whittler, they call him; his people.

Brooks

Facewon wrote:

I assume mentioning gaming headphones will give someone a fit?

I found the DT770s fine for this, ample detail.

Skerret

Audio Technica AD900X also excellent for this. Gaming headphones are rather overpriced, low quality bass boosted cans with funky exteriors. If you want one with a mic Beyer do the MMX300 which is basically a DT770 with a mic or the AT ADG1X which is an AD700X with mic, but they're twice the price of the micless original sooooo

@Gurt I've not heard the Monks but they seem pretty well established as THE budget earbud.

Skerret

Diluted Dante wrote:

Do you think these are worth the price or not? Thinking might be a bit much, but then a guess you can't put a price on quality.

Build your own Dante, coathanger, some paper cups and you're there.

Skerret

Brooks wrote:

Facewon wrote:

I assume mentioning gaming headphones will give someone a fit?

I found the DT770s fine for this, ample detail.

Did you try the HD800Ss with any game noise? Fancy they'd be handy in competitive FPS

Skerret

Escape wrote:

If you give Skez a fit he can carve you a homemade stand. The Whittler, they call him; his people.

I'll whittle you.

@Face lemme know how you go.

Brooks

Skerret wrote:

I assume mentioning gaming headphones will give someone a fit?

I found the DT770s fine for this, ample detail.

Did you try the HD800Ss with any game noise? Fancy they'd be handy in competitive FPS

Some. Nothing location-critical yet though.

GurtTractor

I've been using my HD600s with my motherboard's onboard audio (rear IO jack) using the Creative SBX 7.1 virtual surround software that is supplied from the mobo manufacturer's site. Only for games where I'm going to need that kind of audio positioning, other times I use my little Cambridge Audio Dacmagic XS for normal stereo. The quality of my mobo's audio out is actually pretty solid, no real issues with noise or frequency response.

I was using Razer Surround, but after some audio latency testing I think SBX is just a little quicker. The sound for both is really good, Razer's sounds just a little more natural I think, less echo and ringing. SBX can be a bit boxy, but still is really impressive, Titanfall 2 using it was a blast. If the game doesn't happen to have it's own virtual surround solution (like Overwatch's Dolby Atmos implementation), then I highly recommend using some kind of 7.1 emulation, a pretty massive competitive advantage in something like PUBG..

If anyone has SBX provided for their system and wants to try it, give me a shout, because it's a real faff to set up correctly. There's a specific order you need to set things, and it's really not obvious.

GurtTractor

There's a bunch on the 'tube but I've found this one to be the most useful for checking how far behind the audio is on different devices -

Skerret

I toyed with getting a Creative X7 but I'm not playing enough games to make it worthwhile. That plus AD900X would be good. Using a DSS2 at the moment.

Skerret

HD600 are great, I have HD650 (the Massdrop version) and they both scale really well with better gear, so it would be worth having a listen to them out of some pricier amps to see(hear).

Incidentally anyone looking for a very good set of open home phones, Massdrop have the HD6XX (Senn, USD$199) and the HE4XX (HiFiMan USD$169). Both steals.

Skerret

High five Moot!

GurtTractor

Yeah they've been selling a ton of those HD 6XX's over the last few months, and the HD 58X now too. Not sure how the 580's compare against the others but I'm sure they must be an excellent choice for a midrange pair at that price. I almost went and ordered the 6XX's before I had a sanity check, the 600's are more suited for my music production and mixing usage anyway I think. I'll probably just skip the 650 and go for the new HD 660S in a year or two anyway.

Lord_Griff

I got some OIC1000s by Kellers. They blow everything out of the water with their proprietary Bass/Treble mutual cancellation algorithm. These things measure neurological response to frequencies, strip out everything you can't hear or your brain can't process, and then focuses all the processing on everything else.

Revelatory.

Zzzzzzź

Skerret

Mm I'd be wary of the 660S, the response to them has not been terribly positive. Much confusion as to why Sennheiser have tuned them this way; I dunno if I'll listen given I have the 6XX and it suits me just fine.

Howdy, Stranger!

Categories