/hpg/ - Headphone General

>Headphone purchase advice
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For sub-$50 headphones and IEMs, check out infographic in >Sup Forums wiki headphone FAQ:
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>Is it bad for your headphones to have them at full volume for extended periods of time?
Not unless you give them too much power and either fry the voice coil or run into driver excursion limits. Audibly loud volume isn't a good way to tell. Excursion limits will cause audible distortion and voice coil fries in an instant once its thermal limit is exceeded. Better check what manufacturer specifies as their maximum power limit and compare that to what your amp can deliver. 'Full power' varies a lot as do headphone power handling. If nothing has happened so far, you need not to worry. You aren't wearing them out.

As far as the real world is concerned, high-end audio lost its credibility during the 1980s, when it flatly refused to submit to the kind of basic honesty controls (double-blind testing, for example) that had legitimized every other serious scientific endeavor since Pascal. This refusal is a source of endless derisive amusement among rational people and of perpetual embarrassment for me.

>:thinking:
I've always seen high-end audio is the laughing stock of the industry.

is zeos actually married or is his "wife" just his cousin

reposting, so far I have HD600 and K612.

>Budget
~£200, flexible

>Location
England

>Source
Fiio x1, PC

>Type of headphone
Full size

>Open or closed
Closed, but could do open

>Comfort level
Would be willing to compromise for better sound

>Sound signature
Neutral, but willing to toy with others

I listen to a lot of ethereal, dreamy and ambient type stuff - I'd like music like youtube.com/watch?v=6KnYw4EwYGc to sound good

Thanks!

>wife OR cousin
>Not both

>Closed
>full size
>Comfortable
>willing to mess around with non-neutral
Why not the DT770?

He 350 owner. Actually living in a very hot place....
All pads sealed with glue last about a month. Are there any pads with no glue. I think i will just dye the foam to black for now.... :( (last pair: dekoni premium pleather)

You might like HD380 Pro.

I have that w/fulla2 to use at work, and HD600 w/schiitstack at home.

I have a great neutral solid state amp for every day, but I'm looking for something more fun in addition.

Some OTL tube amps like the Crack are tempting but I fear it wouldn't play well with my headphones outside of the HD650 (which I don't use much for music anyway) as the others are fairly low impedance. I may buy the HD800S one day, but still.

Something fun, that looks good, makes environmentalists cry, and has a low noise floor basically. Any ideas?

HD650 + high ammount of sub bass EQ

vs

DT990 + high ammount of negative treble EQ

I'm leaning towards the HD650 because it looks like it's much easier to simply raise the bass than to EQ everything else on the DT990. There's also the mids which as far as I know the HD650 is superior in that regard but I'd like other opinions

You'll get massive distortion if you EQ the low end on 650's up. The distortion is already audible without EQ.

What kind of headphones do I need for post-black? Or any other very atmospheric music you can get immersed in?
Please take a look at the example: youtube.com/watch?v=8EbYWynjhUs
Open, closed, bassy, neutral, v-shaped?
I just don't know what I'm supposed to be looking for.

>The distortion is already audible without EQ.

Open with good stage, neutral or slightly bright.

Wich headphones are better? Audio technica msr7 or beyerdynamic dt 800

I've read that bright causes the imperfection of recordings to come out and make listening tiresome.
Black metal in general is known for it's imperfect sound, boosting this aspect would probably help the atmosphere but might also make it unlistenable.
I guess open is kind of obvious if I want to get immersed though.

Metal.

Anything other than NEUTRAL will make it into a mush.

As always, open will sound better at the same cost.

I'd suggest just going with the known-good option: HD600.

>You'll get massive distortion if you EQ the low end on 650's up. The distortion is already audible without EQ.
What...

Have you made some breakthrough in distortion audibility research/testing or just talking out the ass based on some THD plots and weird ideas of EQ?

HD600 > HD650 in general.

You needn't believe me. Just google a bit, watch youtube reviews, you'll see what the consensus is.

But I've read that hd 600 is boring because it's too neutral. I don't even know anymore.

>Open, closed, bassy, neutral, v-shaped?
None of that has any relation to the genre or type of music you listen to. There is no tie-in or generalization to make here. It's all about your preference.

>I just don't know what I'm supposed to be looking for.
Go neutral or spend a lot of time researching and listening to headphones to form a solid opinion which could still be just that, neutral.

On average listeners tend to prefer something that is essentially neutral with low bass boost. You could do that with EQ or achieve any other sort of response with EQ afterwards if you are displeased with neutral. If your musical taste is limited to black metal, it almost uniformly lacks the lowest bass notes so you might basically get the same experience with a simply neutral pair without the often bass boost, too. But this is subjective enough that I can't tell you exactly what you like, just making an educated guess.

Yeah if I was mixing most black metal tracks I'd already be toning down the highs a lot. I see no reason why you'd want to emphasize that part even further but hey, maybe someone likes it.

As much as I hate the ideas people have about frequency response and "boring" or "fun", the idea that neutral equals boring is the most ridiculous out of them all. If you are listening to a piece of music that sound boring through equipment that doesn't alter it, doesn't that say more about the quality of the music rather than the gear which did exactly what it was supposed to?

is it true if you took apart a pair of skullcandies or beats it'll only amount to 16 bucks in mechanical parts?

Could probably say that about the majority of headphones which use plastic and metallic parts which are manufactured on an assembly line. Nothing inside headphones themselves really costs at lot.

>As much as I hate the ideas people have about frequency response and "boring" or "fun", the idea that neutral equals boring is the most ridiculous out of them all. If you are listening to a piece of music that sound boring through equipment that doesn't alter it, doesn't that say more about the quality of the music rather than the gear which did exactly what it was supposed to?
"Neutral" doesn't mean perfectly accurate or transparent. It's just a sound signature like any other (bassy, bright, etc.), which means the bass and treble levels don't deviate too far from the mids. That being said, HD 600 don't fit the description of neutral because they lack far more sub-bass than the bloated upper bass makes up for.

Is sub-bass audiophile territory?

Every frequency from 20 to 20k is audiophile territory

Accurate sound reproduction (aka hi-fi) is audiophile territory.

Sub-bass is below 20 though?

>hd 600 is boring because it's too neutral.
This is how people who have listened to neutral headphones for some 10 minutes usually react.

Those who *own* neutral headphones know better. Once used to actually hearing the music (and not the headphones), non-neutral headphones "coloring" is seen for what it is: Distortion.

> Sub-bass sounds are the deep, low- register pitched pitches approximately below 60 Hz and extending downward to include the lowest frequency humans can hear, typically 20 Hz

> dubious discussion

Ok sorry. What I was asking is, if 60 Hz and below is only heard by people who produce music or otherwise have trained their ears?

>Accurate sound reproduction
Neutral headphones/speakers.
Transparent amp/dac.
Lossless (such as FLAC) audio files.

Everything else (chink "bass boost" amps, bright/dark/bassy/vshaped/etc. headphones, mp3/aac music) is not accurate sound reproduction, but Lo-Fi garbage.

Spending any money on that is literally throwing it away.

It's easy as fuck to hear 50Hz, no need to train anything

Adult ears do 20Hz to 20KHz.

Anything lower might be felt, but not heard.

The higher frequencies sadly get increasingly attenuated with age.

Keep in mind a lot of shitty speakers/headphones do not go all the way down to 20Hz.

>"Neutral" doesn't mean perfectly accurate or transparent.
Indeed and that's basically impossible for loudspeakers and headphones alike to achieve. The concept of transparency, which I didn't mention, doesn't apply to either. While with headphones there's no agreement on a perfectly neutral FR and on loudspeakers you have a bunch of opinions on how should you control the reflected sound. Plenty of other little problems here too which complicate matter.

>That being said, HD 600 don't fit the description of neutral
I didn't mention those and I agree. It does fit into "doing a lot of things sound quality wise better than most other headphones" -category, however.

This entire thread is audiophile territory. We care about sound much more than the average person. The term is neutral.

Sub bass as far as the human ear can hear is easy to do on a pair of cheap in-ears or closed back headphones. In loudspeakers it's a bit tough to achieve and very tough to manage. Its importance in music can be questioned either way. Most of the music happens higher in the frequency range and even in music which has extension to very low deep bass, you tend not to lose a lot by not being able to play extremely low. Most headphones and decent loudspeakers still get down to 50 Hz. Let's just say sub bass is not a range to prioritize over.

Absolutely not. Training your hearing doesn't extend the bandwidth of it. With the headphones you have right now, listen to a sine sweep like this:

youtube.com/watch?v=dU80Fagdy28

Or play a pure sine tone at 20/30/40 Hz. With a decent pair they should be audible and you'll realize how very low it sounds like.

>Adult ears do 20Hz to 20KHz.
That's simplifying a lot and also generous.

>Adult ears do 20Hz to 20KHz.
More like 20 to 16k. Only children can go all the way to 20k

What about when the source file is transparent but lossy?

>What about when the source file is transparent but lossy?
Lossy being transparent vs lossless source is subjective. It depends on ears, brain, song and equipment, nevermind weather.

The important part being mostly song. Even if a codec is ABX'd to be transparent at a "quality setting" or bitrate for a bunch of songs by a large group of testers, there's no guarantee that this will hold true for every other song.

Ultimately, better lossy codecs keep appearing (like the recent OPUS) which do better / bitrate, but to benefit from them you'd need a lossless source to encode from, anyway.

Unlike the distant past, current storage solutions seem to allow for building FLAC libraries, and that's the right thing to do.

Lossy still has some niches such as streaming/videoconference on constrained conditions (network bandwidth, tolerating packet loss, latency), but due to loss of detail on each transcoding, it is no substitute for lossless.

>transparent but lossy
Keep in mind that from an objective perspective, the resulting signal is a shitty emulation of some traits of the original signal.

It is, however, optimized to fool people into thinking otherwise.

>t. ATH-M50x owner
>don't understand the hate these awesome all purpose cans get

I agree on everything except streaming being niche. It's anything but and benefits massively from the lowered data rates of lossy files.

With a decent enough encoder and high enough quality setting you can be quite sure that you aren't running into any objectionable artifacts even if you could tell the encode and original apart in a test. I believe at this point the lossless starts to be there more for a peace of mind rather than for a meaningful increase in fidelity.

Given how good of a job they can do I couldn't call it a "shitty emulation". And I was talking about the perception part, or course.

Don't try to.

So what would be an "objective" upgrade to the 600s? Someone that likes all around neutral instead of sharp highs like the AKGs and Beyers

Focal elear

>v-shaped closed memephones
>all purpose
also
>cans

Shit bait. In case not, here is why: because you can actually buy something that is not shit for cheaper. Like k612 pro for instance.

Hard but MrSpeakers Ether. I personally think the aforementioned Elear as well as the stupid expensive Utopia are both worse sounding than the HD 600 with much nicer build and finish.

Looking for:
>closed
>good mids, non punchy bass
>75-150$ USD range

what do?

>That being said, HD 600 don't fit the description of neutral because they lack far more sub-bass than the bloated upper bass makes up for.
Some argue it has too much.

I find it just about right. Enough to be enjoyable, and not too much as to be fatiguing.

HM5/XPT100

I bought two cheap highly recommended IEM the KZ-ATE and VE MONK+, and I am really liking the VE MONK+ I see on Ali there is a quite a few clones, but one that standing out is the K's 300ohm. how much better should this one be over the VE MONK+?? is tit comparably to the VE ZEN 2?

aliexpress.com/item/K-s-Earphone-K300-300ohm-Impedance-In-Ear-Earphone-Earbud-300-ohms-Earbud-Flat-Head-Plug/32786395125.html?spm=2114.13010108.99999999.7.0VDq8d

>buys questionable chink crap
>puts it in this ear
-_-

Hi my cloud stinger's left headphone has no volume coming from it but my right works perfectly? I've had them a while but the left just stopped working one day. Any ideas what it could be?

>Budget
~$100 USD
>Location
USA
>Source
Moto G5+, Laptop
>Type of headphone
IEM/Earbuds
>Comfort level
Would like to be able to wear for long periods.
>Sound signature
Maybe a bit on the bassier side
>Past headphones
Standard Samsung earbuds, Monoprice headphones

I'm looking to finally get a nicer pair of earbuds/IEMs for travelling, and was hoping you guys would be able to help.

gaymer headset build quality.

GR07 Bass Edition or Shure SE215

Does anyone know what the barrel size of the ac adapter is for Stax lambda driver units? I can't tell if it's 5mmx2.5mm or 5mmx2.1mm and there is no documentation available

Buying the right AC adapter is a real fucking pain for these. Finding the right polarity/V/A, a brand that is not complete shit, and the right barrel size (when they're not labeled) is really annoying. Can't use the original 100V unit in the US. I'm afraid I will damage the driver

2.1 mm. I think. Worst case scenario, it needs an adapter.
You can go over with the requisite current.

Best budget for a deep bass headphone + dac.

Thanks. The lack of standardization for info presentation on ac adapters is ridiculous. I know about the current.
I have a bunch of 12V ac adapters but all are wrong polarity. Don't want to experiment with manually flipping it.

It says 4W on the back but I assume anything over is fine as well because of higher current

I need help trying to decide between a few headphones.
>The headphones
I'm trying to pick between the HD 700, HD 650, HE 400i, HE 500. But I am more than willing to take suggestions for other headphones
> Budget
Around $450
> Location
Maryland
> Source
I'm going to buy a decent DAC and AMP to supplement it (right now I'm thinking of a Schiit stack).
> Open or closed
Open
> Comfort level
I tend to listen for several hours at a time, so comfort is important.
> Music
I mostly listen to classic rock, metal, and punk
> Sound signature
I'm not too sure as to what exactly I want here, but I do know that I don't want anything too bassy and like both the vocals and instrumentals to be clear. Really I just want something well suited to rock, whatever that may be.
> Past Headphones
I currently use ATH-M50x. Overall I do enjoy these headphones quite a bit, but something about them just feels lacking (the best word I can think of to describe this is 'shallow')

>k612
>Open Back
>high Ω
Not really a better option for general purpose headphones... plus no removable cable, try again.
I can use these anywhere I want without worrying about environmental acoustics or the source's amp.

Not that anyone cares but...

Just got my replacement Koss Pro4AA in the mail(did warranty request on my dads orig 1970's ones)

Sound is the same... i guess(?). I couldnt really sample the old ones since they were full of dried out power and the pads had deflated.

Big differences are the cable is *WAY* cheaper... The old one was a higher grade of rubber, thicker, and the coils were bigger. New cable coils feel like the kind you'd get on a cheap landline phone. The 1/6th jack is also different. Old one was a screw on cover that when removed, showed the solder points that must have been done by hand. New one is the standard rubber sealed with integrated strain relief.

Bigger issue is the new one has these tracks on the headband(pic related). Holy shit do they make the headphones uncomfortable. For 20 minutes or so its fine, but after that its really irritating.

Another difference, the microphone lug-thinggy on the left cup is a about 20% bigger, and the texture on the rim is different. It can be swapped with the old one without problem.

This replacement cost me $28cnd.(ontop of losing the orig pair. $10cnd for the return shipping, and $18cnd for shipping it to koss). If they werent so uncomfortable, itd be fine, but as it stands now, i think trying to fix them myself would have been smarter.

thx00 and modi 2

Christ. Fulla 2 > modi 2 for what you want.

So I think I fucked up but have no clue what I did wrong.

I carefully disassembled my ipod video 5G so I could replace the back case and add a ZIF to Msata adapter + Msata SSD as well as a 3000mAh battery. I want to flash rockbox onto it.

I reassembled it and it powers on fine to the ipod error screen but then shuts down before I can do anything (such as a firmware flash or even restore through itunes)

I can't figure out what's causing this and I can't get Rockbox on it until it stops rebooting

Please help. Searching online for the problem is too generic to find solutions easily online

>Schiit stack
Good pick. Re: Modi 2, either go uber, go multibit or go fulla2, as standard modi2 is bad value against any of these. Yes, even fulla2 will sound exactly the same, but is a much more useful device.

>Open to suggestions
HD600. Generally considered better than 650, and a way more solid option than the 700 you're also considering. Go watch youtube HD600 reviews if unsure. Generally, when 650 and 600 are tested, 600 wins.

Re: HiFiMan™, just don't. The QC and the support is absolute garbage. A little googling will confirm that for you.

Thanks for the input
> Modi 2 Uber ove Modi 2
Why do you suggest Modi 2 Uber of Modi 2, I thought the only notable difference was the multiple inputs
> HD600 over HD650 and HD700
I'll definitely look into this, thanks for the tip.
I've also been considering the SRH1840 or the Grado SR325e. Any thoughts on those?

HE-500 is distinctly heavier than the other sets. Minimal headband padding is likely to pose an issue without aftermarket options. Used only.
HD 650 has moderate clamp to it, 400i does not.
HD 700 would generally be the winner as far as comfort is concerned.

HD700 has boosted, or rather, spiky highs and a broad upper bass lift into the low mid. Rolls off the deep low end, upper midrange drop.
HD650 has some general bass lift that gets into the low mid. Loses power below 40Hz or so. Has a more even upper mid-lower treble response than the other headphones. Generally lacks the major treble spikes the other listed sets have.
HE-400i and HE-500 are somewhat similar. Even bass response with extended subbass response, upper midrange drop from 1kHz into the highs that does not recover until a peak around 9-10kHz. HE-500 should have more generally reduced highs.


>Modi multibit
It's... just no. Don't.

I did a mod on my 558's where I took out the cable lock and installed a momentum cord so the end doesn't stick approximately 3 yards out of my phone. I would definitely recommend, an L shaped cable is easier for me to use on my phone and ps4.

>HD600
Like HD650, minus some bass. That is, both the upper bass thickness and the lower bass, which was still lacking on the HD650.
Also has more high end than the HD650. Whereas the HD650 highs are somewhat reduced overall, the HD600 can be slightly shrill. As a whole, similar sounding enough.
Same clamp, thinner and less robust cable. Headband padding is a little different; I prefer the one on the 650. Modularity ensures that you can swap any part between the HD650 and HD600 as you like.
You can even get a little cellphone remote cable for the Sennheiser, if you still believe in things like headphone jacks on smartphones.

>SRH1840
Some similarity to the Philips SHP9500. Very even tone, but sorely lacks lower bass. Poor linearity.
They're not bad about the fit, but not really exceptional there.

>Grado SR325e
I haven't spend too much time, but they still have the same general sound as the 325i and the rest of the Grados.
1-2kHz bump, strong bass rolloff, multiple treble spikes. Almost like a caricature of a Stax Lambda headphone.

after a few 30 minute sessions, i now also have grill imprints from the ear pads on the contours of my ears... These things are fucking horrible. I mean they sound okay-ish(not as good as other 100 closed monitors) but they are so fucking uncomfortable. They are heavy, the hurt my scalp, they hurt my ears, they clamp too hard... Fucking hell, wtf was koss thinking?

>tfw no grill imprints

Budget: 150-200
Source: Computer
Location: USA
Type of Headphone: Full Size
Closed
Comfort Level: 7/10
sound signature: Neutral

Does SPDIF make a difference over analog or is it a meme?

What's a good guide for bookshelf speakers? Can HeadFi be trusted?

hd598 open or closed back for gaymen?

Open for sure

Open if you don't need to remove sound, definitely provides a better sound stage. My Fiance has a pair of closed back and they still sound great.

PX200-IIi yea or nay

Reminder that DACs are placebo tier for your scenario and that you should put money towards a transducer instead

PortaPros > PX200-II

My HD 650 sound great with this EQ

makes them like the Harman target response curve

DT1350 yea or nay

>on ear
nah senpai

have you listened to this chink crap?? it BTFO IEM and over the ears that cost 15x as much.

I just want to know if the higher ohm versions would be a significant upgrade.

GR-07 BE all the way.

>Why do you suggest Modi 2 Uber of Modi 2, I thought the only notable difference was the multiple inputs
I don't; it's just an option. All I was saying is, the standard Modi 2 is bad value against a Fulla 2 which costs the same, so it makes sense to get a Fulla 2 or any of the other Modi 2 variants instead.

>SRH1840
No idea.

>Grado
Grado are the opposite of neutral. They do exaggerate soundstage a great deal. Sure enough, some people do absolutely love them.

Open.

The closed one is an entirely different sounding headphone that's exploiting the popularity of the model number. It uses different drivers (the ones in the HD380 Pro).

Why the fuck do even "expert" sites recommend the HyperX Cloud / Takstar Pro 80?
I recently got them for free in a monitor bundle and holy shit they're terrible (even after throwing out the USB DAC which was making them even worse with massive amounts of hissing/crackling noise).
I mean no, I didn't expect anything from a gayman headset and I wasn't really surprised, but reading about them makes me doubt I have the same thing all of the reviews on supposedly reputable sites are gushing about.
This is coming from a guy who spent his teens listening to

Make sure the replacement one is regulated. I measured an unregulated one the other day and it was throwing out 17+VDC unloaded.

Best

I want to lick her feet

Maybe you have some fakes or got faulty ones? No idea, not really trying to defend as I never even listened to pro80. I did listen to 2 other takstar phones (one of them being 2050) and found them ok for price.

Head-Fi is fine as long as you don't care about sound quality. That goes for reviewers in general, typically very poor at discerning sound quality.

There's a variety of options that pop up from ~250USD per pair and up, but I'm having trouble recalling models below that. Some old favorites get discontinued and so on.

>fakes

Nope, they're genuine. Besides, who would even bother making a chinkshit copy of rebranded chinkshit?
As for them being faulty, I don't think so, when connected directly to the audio port they don't exhibit any noise or distortion I'd call an outright defect, but they sound like something only half-deaf basshead kids could fall in love with.

DT880 or HD600?
Can E10K drive them?

Neutral/warmish or V-shapped signature?
Other than that the DT880 feels a little studier but i can imagine you won't be sitting on them or anything, comfort is about the same.
Pick your poison.
Yes, both can be driven by the e10k.