Ok Sup Forums...

Ok Sup Forums, over the past week or so I've been learning about audio stuff since I want really improve my music listening experience.

Right now I'm thinking of getting sennheiser hd 650 headphones, paired with the bottlehead crack + speedball amp, possibly trying out a different tube. I've heard telefunken e82cc's sound great and apparently really cut through this so called "sennheiser viel", but I'm not sure.

I haven't decided on DAC to go with, but I've heard the ODAC on it's own is a good way to go, but I'm not sure and haven't read too much on it.

Anyway, I was wondering if any of you had some advice on this. Am I heading in the right direction? Will this combo sound too smooth and relaxed? Or will it work just right as some people have said? Any other suggestion would be great, and general audio equipment discussion would be good too.

One more thing, would this setup (without the DAC) be acceptable with vinyl? Or would it be overly warm, and a better choice to pick a more neutral headphone and amp, or is it just a better idea to listen to vinyl through speakers.

Thanks.

Sounds like you've been reading a bunch of horseshit about tubes, amplifier "pairing" and the DAC+amp+headphones audiophile dogma.

>Sennheiser veil
A complete joke. In HD 650 this is the result of a specific kind of frequency response, the broad hump in the midbass making the sound warm and "veiled" in some respect. Similar response is found from nearly every HD 5xx -series and HD 600/650 headphones. The response is different from model to model and poor damping can emphasize it. This is a frequency response issue and you fix it with EQ.

>OTL headphone amps
High output impedance is the antithesis of a quality amplifier. It causes uneven voltage division on the load side and wastes power at the output. With Bottlehead Crack the HD 650 will sound increasingly veiled due to the 120 Ohm output impedance resulting in poor damping on the load side and with the impedance swing of the HD 650, that'll just make the midbass even louder.

>tube rolling
Worthless. Most of the time it does absolutely nothing and the only reason to switch tubes is replace worn ones. It's easy to imagine differences however.

>DAC to go with it
Stop worrying about the converter as you have one already and it isn't tied to the headphone response. If there's a problem, replace it.

>Am I heading in the right direction?
No. Find out what you want first. If you truly think getting an amplifier which is nonlinear by design is a good idea that's up to you. If you want best performance for the money, you wont be getting a triode amplifier.

>Will this combo sound too smooth and relaxed?
That's perception and subjective, in general yes that's probably how the HD 650's response sounds like.

>vinyl
Why not? I mean how does the format relate to what kind of equipment you use to listen to your audio?

Also, there's a headphone general.

Order the Sennheiser 6XX from Massdrop when it goes live.

Also, you're reading into too much shit when you don't even own anything. All of those descriptions are extremes, and when you finally get your hand on more than one thing you're going to be extremely underwhelmed.

I have a NuPrime headphone amp ($649) and a NuPrime DAC ($749) which I've used on my Final Audio Heaven VI earbuds ($600), my KEF M500, and my AKG Q701 ($300), and almost everytime I prefer to listen to music on my iPhone 6S because all of the nicest audio gear you can afford isn't worth shit if you can still hear electronic noise. Only the Q701 was worth amplifying because that fucker is power hungry.

Don't waste your money if you can't discern anything.

thank's for the replies guys. I'm pretty new to this, but yeah, I'm sensing a bit bullshit and since I'm a beginner I can't really tell what to make of it.

I've got to find some place to actually try some gear out.

So what's a good amplifier to drive the HD650s?

Just remember that the HD 600/650 are fully open-backed headphones. Don't plan on owning them if you are around other people whatsoever, because they will hear everything. I basically never wore my Q701 in my college days. The KEF M500 gets my full overall recommendation though as they're comfortable as fuck, have an awesome neutral sound signature, and the earpads are incredibly comfortable considering that they're on-ears on not over-ears..

>I basically never wore my Q701 in my college days
Honestly this isn't an issue unless you're trying to listen to nigger rap or EDM or similar at stupid volume levels.

Just listening to normal music around people and there shouldn't be THAT much sound leakage.

A lot of stuff. They aren't hard to drive. Magni or O2 for example.

Yeah I was a bit hesitant about the open backed thing, but really I only listen to music at home so it should be fine. But still something to consider.

Just buy hd25s mate. That's what pretty much all of us use at work. Relax.

Uh, no. Below-average listening levels are very clearly audible. And my friends aren't exactly acute listeners.

Isn't it better to get a good quality stereo system? I always find using headphones tiring. I'm sure you could get a decent amp and a pair of speakers for the price of all the stuff you guys mention.

>magni
>made by Schiit Audio
Come on!

It's a nice amplifier.

Would I need a DAC with it?

Depends on your source. Unless you're using something with a dedicated Line Out (not exactly the same function as headphone out), then there's a chance you'll just be amplifying twice, which makes any audio issues even more apparent.

Just for clarification, any headphone port means that the audio has gone through a DAC and an amp.
A line out port means the audio has only gone through a DAC and would benefit from an external amp to control the audio.
A soundcard is layman terms for DAC and amp.

So you're telling me tube amps are bullshit and solid state is the way to go?

No. It's like wine. There are differences between types, but it's all subtle and you shouldn't trust any opinion but your own.

shit, fair enough

No you don't need a damn DAC with headphones, amplifiers, loudspeakers or anything. You need it to do the necessary DA-conversion to play back digitally stored media. As it is a necessity with digital audio, there is a DAC in your computer already. Headphones or amplifiers don't set some kind of requirements for the converter. This should be obvious given how you(?) asked about using the headphones with vinyl. No conversion being done there.

To answer whether you need a discrete unit to replace what you have now depends on if there's some noise or interference coming out of your system which you want gone or if you need some extra features which people mean when they talk about DACs such as more input and output options.

Tubes aren't bullshit. Using triodes is a way to amplify a signal and they can do it well. Not all tube or solid state designs are made equal. Both can be terrible, both can be designed to be nonlinear. Some want to pay for that. If you want a quality tube amplifier which does not color the sound you'll have to pay more for it compared to a solid state design. There's a common misconception that tube amplifiers are "warm sounding" or have some inherent audible differences to solid state which simply isn't true if both types of amplifiers are competently designed.

that wasn't op by the way

>120 ohm output
>poor damping on the load side
Please tell me you're just high and don't actually stand by this electric meme