Red-pill me on high-end audio equipment

Red-pill me on high-end audio equipment.

Quite literally want to get into music more than I have before and want proper playback.

...

you won't hear a difference, only pretentious homosexuals pretend they do

All of the poverty stricken residents of this board will say it doesnt make a difference.

They are wrong, but given that they have never experienced anything else how could they even know that?

Just stick to a budget as audio stuff has a tenancy to balloon in price if you arent careful.

t. earlet.

Gimmick placebo bullshit

I hate "audiophiles" so much. Try and listen them describing headphones is like listening to some deluded religious fuck trying to explain a divine experience. It's all fluff and self delusion.

DACs are worthwhile, just don't get suckered into expensive snake oil ones. the only one you really need is a objective2+odac amp/dac combo for a pair of headphones of your choice. beyer dt990s are good. the ath-m50 memes are good. so are any midrange sennheisers. that's all you need for "high end" audio.

>Having never tried such things myself but being limited to youtube videos I can assure you that it is merely a delusion
Excellent post.

plan to spend 25% of whatever your budget is on room treatments...

No I have a pair of hd 598s and that is more than good enough I've even tried the flac meme. It's literally 99 percent self delusion.

I just used bookcases full of books I have read, dual purpose diffuser that way.

>I spent $800 on a pair of open cans, another $1000 on a DAC, and around $350 for a tube amp
>my music sounds completely different then an alright DAC and AMP with Sennheiser cans
audiofool detected

Been there done that. It's a big inconvenience. It's much easier to just subscribe to a streaming service and listen to whatever you want on your phone. If you just want to listen to your equipment, then yeah the high end PMPs are better. But if you want to actually enjoy your music, streaming is better. Also I've accepted that I can't tell the difference between 320k and lossless.

>hd 598

>projection the post

>People can't experience things I haven't
>The notion that I'm incapable or ignorant of them makes me mad
Top fucking kek, you stupid normie

>Hurr one of the highest rated neutral open cans is trash lol

Kill yourself memer

>Calling someone else a normie while wasting money on indescribable vague non differences

Enjoy that placebo goyim.

Only because you're listening on a device with low quality output using cheap headphones

I can't imagine how some people think they can't hear a difference when the equipment and source are both high quality. Pop a CD in your car next time you drive, turn up the volume, and tell me it doesn't sound better than your Bluetooth or auxiliary cable Spotify

>Hurr one of the highest rated neutral open cans is trash lol
>Highest rated in the budget category only to be handily beaten by any of the HiFiman offerings.
Intellectual honest, what is that and how does it work?

>Y... You can't experience something nice! You must be delusional and not enjoying yourself! Haha yes your elitism can't make me mad if I pretend that it's unwarranted!

>Paying 500 dollars for non difference cans, diminishing returns and a ridiculous upcharge for 20 dollar drivers

Okay bud keep acting like pure not a good goy.

You talk a lot of shit but any blind test would prove your bullshit wrong and make you rethink your ignorance. I suggest you try it.

>I dont even look into what I talk about, but I can assure you I am right!
Does your startling level of ignorance impact anything other aspects of your life or is merely regulated to shitposting online?

that's because the difference between 320 and lossless is extremely small. any sane person wont give you shit for listening to 320, but some people listen to 128 and dont give a shit which is nutty

Not an argument retard.

Enjoy paying hundreds for some tiny driver in a plastic body.

>he doesnt know what he is talking about and he insults others when they point out that he is an ignorant buffoon

Why should I bother constructing an argument when you are clearly too retarded to even google what hifiman is as you compared their drivers to sennies.

>Red-pill me on high-end audio equipment.
You can easily do it yourself. All you need to do is to spend some time going to various stores and also friends places and LISTEN.

We can't tell you how one piece of audio equipment sounds compared to some other piece of audio equipment. You do need to go to places that have the technology and check it out for yourself.

There are also some "myths" you should learn. "DAC" means Digital-Audio Converter. There are dedicated boxes with just a DAC chip and and amp. One modern DAC chip really is quite equal to another DAC chip. These are found in phones, motherboards, dedicated devices, hifi receivers and everything else that's modern and plays audio. What kind of amplifier technology a DAC chip is connected to actually matters.

>DACs are worthwhile
Yes, it's worth having something that can convert digital audio to analog audio. But no, it's pointless to use a dedicated device for this if you can afford a good hifi receiver and a pair of quality speakers. Hifi receivers have a headphone jack.

xD red pill me on memes :)

I have been down the audiophile road and have made purchases on amps and dacs and headphones of all sorts. Now I just have a small portable amp and Grado SR-80e's and they do the fucking job. I can redpill you real quick:
Some upgrades to audio equipment make a difference but a lot do not.
Don't be a dumbass and be fooled that your fucking audiotechnicas will pick up any differences between 320 kbps and flac. I will bet you on my mother's left nut that you will not hear a difference. Maybe MAYBE if you fuckin owned a true hi end audio system with a hi end amp and multi thousand dollar speakers/headphones you may hear the difference but if you are expecting to hear a difference between 320 and flac with any pair of headphones under 1000 dollars, good luck.

As long as you're not buying dumb shit like audiophile cables, high end stuff can be good, but keep in mind the farther you go, the more you get into diminishing returns. I could tell fairly well the difference between my shitty gayman headset and a $150 pair of open headphones, especially at high volumes.

I think that may be why a lot of people try on expensive headphones and say they don't sound any different. At highest volumes, there is almost no distortion, but with my shitty headset it's clear as fuck. But as for sound quality and difference in the sound itself, you legit have to listen for it. If you can blast your shit at high volumes and it sounds good, you don't need to bother with higher-end stuff.

>But as for sound quality and difference in the sound itself, you legit have to listen for it
And by this I mean there's almost no difference, not that it's some magical thing to chase.

Own a Fiio X3ii
I've done blind test asking my gf to plug my headphones into whatever and guessing which.
I haven't been able to reliably pass the test and every single time I feel like I'm guessing.
Tried it with a pair of M2 OE, MA750 and AKG K550s

This.
I feel like any dac more expensive the fucking basic external dac upgrade to your computer (like a Schiit Modi or equivalent in price) is a dumb purchase and I would love to see some proof that it makes an honest to god difference in any system past a 100 dollars.

I just use the DAC in my integrated amp.

I mean in any system using dacs that cost anything more than a 100 dollars.

>Blind test
The blind test is when I have my phone plugged in while listening to a playlist, a song that I love comes on, and I'm so disgusted by the quality that I spend the time to put in the CD

Tip my fedora to you sir.

>320 isn't good enough

Guarantee you wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

pretty much this. i went around the block with audiophile nonsense for a few years and 320 on a decent pair of studio headphones is all you need unless you really have cash to burn.

But I literally do. Every single day.
The difference is that my car has high quality speakers and I can tell at high volumes. Lossless audio right from the CD sounds incredible. Anything else sounds compressed and the sound quality falls apart once it's louder than conversation level

I have no doubt you've deluded yourself into thinking there is a huge difference but blindfolded I know you wouldn't. It's simple facts. Your ears are no way as good as you think they are.

You have never listened to lossless quality music on a good speaker. You just literally haven't.

>You just LITERALLY haven't dude!

>Muh feels man don't look at facts I just KNOW it's different

Even with my best gigantic tower speakers I struggle to tell the difference between VBR 192k and lossless, but on the other hand it's very easy for me to tell when I've left my laptop's audio "enhancements" on when using nice speakers. (The enhancements are pretty much a dynamic range compressor, and without it the built-in speakers don't get loud enough.)

I feel the same way with those blind tests. I can't help but wonder if I actually would see a difference with a DAC compared to my onboard audio (SupremeFX S1220). I guess I'll know soon since I'm getting a Scarlett Solo in the mail in a couple of days. Needed the XLR input primarily in this case.

The irony is that you're the one arguing against facts

When it's a song that I love and listen to every day and KNOW how it's supposed to sound, when any of that sound is missing I know

You can't tell me what I can't hear. I can tell you that your"studies" and experience probably have to do with headphones

schiit.com

LSR305

HD600

Muh feels aren't facts. Blind tests are facts.

Are you the same idiot that things that sennies are the same as planar-magnetic drivers?

Pfff colored trash.

HD600 the minimum.

You'll realize that DACs are silly when you pay $100 for a portable DAC from FiiO, and your flagship smartphone's DAC is actually better.

Of course, if you're using IEMs you won't be able to tell the difference. At that level, you'll be needing nice headphones to tell a difference.

>Red-pill

bye

-- that way, faggot

>that's because the difference between 320 and lossless is extremely small
These days this applies to file-size too. I know, a compressed audio file is smaller than a .flac audio file. We're still talking peanuts vs slightly bigger peanuts by modern standards. I prefer flac over mp3 just because it's "pure" original copy, I don't really hear the difference but I don't see the point in using compressed audio unless I can't get it in any other format when storage is pretty affordable. I were to compress things myself for some reason then AAC is the obvious choice. But as I said, music files in general are so small (compared to video etc) that it doesn't really matter. My phone's 64GB SD card, for example, is mostly filled with musicvideos size-wise even though most of the music is stored as flac or mp3.

>I feel like any dac more expensive the fucking basic external dac upgrade to your computer (like a Schiit Modi or equivalent in price) is a dumb purchase
I use a Pioneer receiver that did cost me a lot back in the day ($700-ish) and it's got a DAC chip in it so I guess buying something with a DAC for your computer is worth it. It's got a headphone jack that does the job and it's also got a 5.1 speaker setup. I use SPDIF for it.

I've had this for years and years since before those small dedicated amp+dac boxes became a thing. Since I've had a setup like this since the days Pentium II was popular (though using another receiver) I personally think it's ridiculous to buy a dedicated thing just for headphones. All actual hifi systems have a headphone jack if you need it.

Oh, one little last lesson to all of you who are fooled into thinking that DAC - just a Digital-Analog Convert - is some MAGIC thing that does jack shit beyond what your motherboards soundcard does... let me enlighten you: SPDIF and HDMI carry DIGITAL signals and use the DAC chip in whatever they are connected to.

The ultimate audio redpill is contained within this webm

topkek

Nor to mention that receivers also act as an amplifier, eliminating another cost.

You don't even have to spend a lot of money either. I got a 70s Kenwood for 50usd shipped through ebay. No dac unfortunately, but the sound it provides is really nice (compared to a previous 2000s Pioneer , with dac.) Plus it can power speakers if you have them.

Just get some Beats and a Mac. Enough said. High-end audio equipment by Dre. (and Tim Cook)

holy kek
where is this from?

nice b8

>Red-pill me on high-end audio equipment.

Spend as much money as you want, but you won't come anywhere near to live quality. Go out to live music rather than being a backpacker dweeb linking blogs on Sup Forums

Any high end smart phone has a decent DAC. Any computer that costs more than 500$ will have a good one aswell. If you want high quality get a computer with an electronically isolated PCB.

There is no audio driver improvement beyond 150$ headphones it's just snake oil and cosmetics.

MP3 320 is not discernible from FLAC or any of the "lossless" audio formats. Keep Flac if you want to transition your codecs.
MP3 128 is shit, MP3 256 is workable but if you have the above it is noticeably worse based on the specific songs and music genres due to the compression variation.

There have been no meaningful advances in digital audio playback since the early 2000's.

>Live music
Nigga plz
I don't want to listen to 3000 screaming people and eardrum damaging loud music to compensate for the poor listening environment.

If you have your own personal orchestra in a sound engineered room, and you're the only one in the audience. Then you're right it is better.

These are about the most sensible responses in this thread, OP. There are leaps and bounds from the bottom to the top, but there is a significant threshold of diminishing returns beyond a point. I recommend getting a decent smartphone or DAP (digital audio player), then dabbling in lower-end offerings to get an idea of what sound signature you prefer. Once you know what you like (and what you don't), move up in budget. There's plenty of snake oil, but you will have to spend some money to get AMAZING quality...just probably not as much as you might suspect. It's up to you to part fact from fiction between reviews and suggestions, and even if you do end up buying REALLY expensive shit in your quest, you'll probably end up happy, even if it largely comes form placebo. Being happy is the important part.

tl;dr, 320kbps or better from a decent source and headphones or earphones that fit your taste in sound signature is all you need. If you want more, that's for you to decide. Ask around in /hpg/ and /csg/, hell maybe even head-fi. Just make sure that you don't take everything they tell you as gospel.

it's placebo
humans can't recognize sound quality

Get a Raspberry Pi 3 and make it a media center, 80$, problem solved

My Takstar HI2050 were everything I could need for audio quality

until the wire broke and I have no experience with soldering wires

Have both a Sansa Clip Jam and a Fiio M3.
Using the same files and earphones, the M3 sound is clearly more defined and cleaner, but I'm DD'ing the Clip instead, the M3's UI is next to unusable.

DIY is the best thing about this hobby desu. Building your own amplifiers and converter is a fun and rewarding experience.

send it to me, i want a 2nd pair

I have a set of thrift store Mission speakers and a Teac amp hooked up to my pc. AKG k92 headphones are plugged into the amp when needed. All in all, I spent maybe $200 in total. Works well enough for me for music and gaming.

>source
Nowadays smartphones are capable of both storing and streaming music almost flawlessly. Having a dedicated player may be nice, but it's completely redundant, especially considering that the price can get exponentially high the more audiophile-friendly a player gets, to the point of being more expensive than a flagship smartphone.
This is true also for computers.

>DAC/amplifier
Unless your source is so crappy it produces actual perceivable noise, which is very unlikely, you don't need a dedicated DAC. Period. However, if you ever end up buying high-impedence headphones, then a dedicated amplifier may very well be necessary; the market however is filled to the brim with excellent headphones that can be easily driven even by your smartphone, so just don't buy headphones sporting high impedence.

>headphones
We can argue all day about headphones, but it's pretty much a fact that in audio quality the point of diminishing return sits at roughly $100, and for build quality it is located at $300.

>encoding
It's a physical fact, that can be mathematically demonstrated, that you won't be able to tell the difference between CD quality (which is overkill anyway)/FLAC (which is lossless) and mp3 - 320kbps. Who says that can perceive such difference is very probably deluding himself.

To wrap it up: buy decent headphones, jack them up your smartphone or computer, if you hear hisses or noise buy a DAC/amp that isn't too expensive, and don't forget your goal is to enjoy your favorite music, not to masturbate on the sound that comes out your equipment. Unless you're an audiophool.

Don't bother if you don't also have good headphones

Jesus christ this is so fucking cringe
Is this the kid that made that?

How does this kid afford all that?

watch the show.. he doesn't.

Akiba's trip. Its dubed now too.

These threads are funny.
They usually show off that no one on Sup Forums either wants to know or cares about audio quality. Same for most folks.
That's fine. But it would be less annoying if you stopped pretending to care.

You have the idiots who lap up nonsense and will throw money uselessly at electronics and coat hangers for nothing.
Opposing them are the other idiots that assume everything else is "placebo".
There are other things, like the people who religiously follow a sound/price ratio that doesn't exist,
And of course, no one actually knows what impedance or lossy coding is.

Just get sennheiser HD600s and ODAC

Don't bother with any of the fancy placebo crap

>angry over having shitty ear
t. pleb

PLACEBO

the most noticeable difference is noise floor, not hearing that hissing sound is a godsend

basically read and you can listen at your computer while you work.

>HD600 the minimum.
HD600 is endgame, anything past that is pure placebo and memes

There is proof that anything past the $2 realtek DAC in your mobo is placebo. Other DACs will sound slightly different but not subjectively or objectively superior. External DACs do not sound better, they just remove EMI if you have any.

Because the DAC on your phone is shit, has nothing to do with the file quality you fucking autist

phone with good DAC

There is no phone with good DAC, end of story.

onkyo granbeat use AKM 4490

you will tho. cheap speakers cant do anything under 200hz properly

This is probably semi-related, but what the hell. I've been looking for a new portable music player (because my phone doesn't do that, and I need some music with me on the go), and several Fiio models are looking pretty good, according to reviews. Problem is, I've literally never heard of them, and they're a Chinese company, so there's the "chink shit" factor. How good of a brand it really is?

And bonus question, did Sony ever explain why they're using a proprietary connector for their MP3 players instead of microUSB like normal people, or is it just because they're a bunch of literal retards who refuse to make something that doesn't have at least a single glaring flaw.

how else would they sell you their expensive accessories with that proprietary connector? also its good planned obsolescence when they decide to stop selling cables to it.

Figured as much. Wanted to get a Walkman, but the proprietary shit and no support for memory cards (along with only 16 gigs of internal memory) quickly killed that plan. So I'm looking at FiiO now. It's kinda hard to believe, but people seem to be generally positive about it, especially praising the audio quality. Wish their players would last longer though, 10 hours on a 4 hour charge is pretty shit.

Smoke weed
Listen to Spotify or pandora or download whatever compressed or lossless whatever you want, doesn't matter

Use decent but no overly expensive headphones. Don't spend more than $200. Don't buy beats.

Most people are looking for that rush when the music moves you. I'm telling you weed and 128kbps mp3s will do the trick more than $100k of equipment.

Your cellphone or motherboard audio is fine too. It's when you have expensive headphones that you need goood amps.

Some A series support mSD and WM-port cables are plenty.
Sony players also have better firmware.