High End Audiophile thread

That is cool, if the weight won't bother you....I think that i could deal with them also, maybe just for not real long sessions.

I agree, the HD650 can be worn for days, no problem at all.

You can get the lcd's with different types of ear pads....some say the leather is pretty hot....others have no problem.

I can't wait to hear your impressions if you get them

I hear you...comfort is a big thing with me also.

I was actually looking to get the Hifiman HE560i...one of the main reasons why was because of the comfort.

I had my money all saved up, but was worried about the shaky launch of the headphone...I can just see some revisions happening to them....so I figured I would wait.

So I kind of branched off and tried the HD800.....so glad I did.

I have sold my HD650 & RS1i to fund my new dac....going to give the HD800 what they need to really shine...at least I hope so.

Once I get everything complete, I may try to get a used pair of RS1i back , as my 2nd can.

The T90 is also a great can, I would love to hear one.....how much does those weigh ?

They do look very comfortable.....I also bet they sound incredible with tubes.

 

To me there lighter a tad then the DT880 premium 600's but they suppose to be 425 g. Yea they do sound incredible with the bifrost uber and the LD MK2 2.0 with the 6H30PI power tube's and the 6J1P-BH. I was very lucky to get a hold of the 2.0 which supports the 6H30PI from the factory.

 

Yeah, congrats...that is a very nice set-up

 

New dac has arrived!







I will post my thoughts later, as I have only had it for a few hours.

 

Vinyl vs CD: Which One Sounds Better? Your thoughts? I agree with these guys. I had the same recording on the different media, and had one sound better then the other. It really does depends on how it is mastered.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hh-23EUP-s8&feature=em-subs_digest

 

Havent heard vinyl in quite a while (10 years?), but I do remember it clearly as my preference back then. That was on a friends system with a Linn Sondek turntable and Acoustic Energy speakers, and man was I floored. But cant say vinyl as a rule, you would need a top notch turntable and expensive tonearms/cartridges to if it were to rival todays best digital sources (DVD audio on decent DACs and transports).

 

It has less to do with what digital sources can do, and more to do with how the tracks were mastered. Vinyl tends to sound better for older tracks for the reasons stated in the video, sadly once the CD phase hit in we ran into all sorts of problems, resulting in the messy sounding crap we have today. Regardless, something mastered with a digital format in mind should sound better assuming it's done correctly.

 

Yeah, even for modern recordings the vinyl more often than not ends up being created from a different "master" than the CD.

It's annoying when a homemade digital version of the vinyl sounds better than the retail CD, even seeing cases where the high res digital version suffers from the same issues as the CD.

 

IBC 2014 Amsterdam is going on and Genelec has released 8320, 8320 and 7350.

http://www.genelec.com/ibc2014press/

I'm interested in that 7350, or the 60-size subwoofer with DSP. I dont think that RoomEQ from my Yamaha AMP would do that low freqs, so it kinda needs to have calibration features...

 

Mastering of course plays a part but I found the playback gear on both analog and digital sides play a big part also. I have heard some great gear on both sides of the fence playing the same track and I generally notice a difference in...well the space, as it sounds like it was recorded in a different location.

Throw in the fact that CD tech is/was a big mess as far as most audiophiles(hate that word) are concerned.
Some do prefer old analog tech to play their music, suggesting it sounds better, but for what reasons? Generally it is because of the way analog gear distorts when driven hard, it is pleasing to the ears for most.

To each their own I guess, both mediums and playback systems have their pros and cons.
We may be on the brink of a brave new world now that some new music is being recorded in higher resolution digital which gets us past many of the issues with CD like that damn compression and limiting AKA the loudness war heard on modern CD's

Different strokes for different folks I guess.

To note, I think I am about to rebuild my system, not sure what with yet.

 

I'm also about to rebuild my system and not sure what to get.

About that old stuff sounding better... Not related to CD topic but now that there are more channels on TV and people are making more content with less money, usually that can be noticed on the audio which is not very well done. People these days just dont care about the audio, cut a hole in paper roll, put phone there and call it a day, then go outside to listen music with friends. Do final editing/mastering with bad gear and results might not be what you wanted.

 

That's one of the biggest problems with streaming video IMO, is that audio bitrates get squeezed so hard.

A lot of streamed stuff is verging on unlistenable, with really obvious compression artefacts. Giving another 128k to the audio bandwidth would make a huge difference, and yet barely dent the video quality. What's not to like?

Same with digital radio which I listen to in the car; when the radio station plays a lossy MP3 then re-encodes it for broadcast at 128k AAC some seriously bad things happen

 

Digital radio tends to be catered to what they expect the listeners to care about.

Pop and talk stations tend to be overly compressed to the point some are as low 64k AAC while others like classical BBC radio stations are 320k.

I do agree on the the streaming video thing though, while 1080p Netflix is nowhere near BluRay quality i can still live with it and sometimes be very impressed that it's live streaming, but 64k stereo or 192 5.1 audio is just so far beneath BluRay that i end up spending an excessive amount of time trying to artificially improve it.

Personally i doubt i would see the difference if they chopped a few hundred kb off the video bit rate, and used it for the audio.

 

Finally was able to buy a Peachtree Audio X1 usb to spdif convertor which uses xmos, now every time should be perfect when i do receive it. Now i won't have to deal with this issue driven VIA codec that I was using with it glitchly optical usage.

Edit: It works much better then my onboard audio and it supports DSD music format because of the xmos chip. Best device I bought, I using coaxial as thats the best connection on my bifrost uber.

 

I just Got my new pair of headphones the Hifiman HE-500 from ebay and it came with new earpads and a Furtech or whatever it called cable. Got it for like $467.

 

Nice cans!

 

Well that's a great price, as the He-500 absolutely rock when it comes to Gaming!

 

I started this higher end (not exactly high end) adventure about a couple of months back. Due to the many used cans and ampdac combos sold here, I decided to get my nose wet by buying an Audio Technica ATH-AD700X to go with a Phoebus Solo I'd gotten.

I'd already gotten a HD555 from years back, while I found the AD700X to be airy, good soundstage but lacking in the bass department (which I'd expected), I wasn't wowed by what I'd heard.

After a couple of days of wanking off mentally on what to get, I'd decided to NOT take baby steps and to man up, so I went and got a used Senn HD800, also got a brand iFi Micro iDSD a day or so after getting the HD800. Needless to say, I wasn't impressed with how my Phoebus Solo sounded with the HD800, hence the Micro iDSD. I also decided to get an Audeze LCD2.2 non-Fazor and a Fostex HPA4 ampdac combo.



Also bought a Beyerdynamic Dt990/600 Ohms and a HiFiman HE400i (returned the latter due to some physical defects on one cup, kept the DT990 though.


I decided to end my headphones fetish by buying three cans at one go...


Now that my headphones purchases are behind me, I'm looking for one more DSD capable ampdac combo (DSD playback capability is important to me as I have gotten about 1.4TB of DSD64 tracks), I may eventually end up with another Fostex HPA4. I'm still in the process of trying to get more DSD songs.....but will settle for CD WAV or FLAC rips.

I've set up two of my rigs with the two ampdac combos I'd gotten, as soon as I've gotten the last ampdac combo for my HTPC rig, I'll take pics of them and post. Oh yeah, I'd posted most of the pics here in the Headphone talk thread...:nerd:

 

That is some audio porn right there mate. I feel so left out. I'm thinking I will buy some Sennheisers and either Philips X1 or X2 in the next couple of months just to add to my collection.

Maybe even Beats




























^ JK ^

 

I got my Asgard 2 =D

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