/hpg/ - Headphone General

>Headphone purchase advice:
pastebin.com/fYZLW7Ub

Please put some effort into your requests and questions.

If you dislike a suggestion, explain why and try giving a better suggestion to whomever asked.

For sub-$50 headphones and IEMs, check out the infographic in >Sup Forums wiki headphone FAQ:
wiki.installgentoo.com/index.php?title=Headphones

Previous thread:

Other urls found in this thread:

innerfidelity.com/images/FostexT50RPMk3.pdf
innerfidelity.com/images/SennheiserHD569.pdf
headphonespares.sennheiser.co.uk/hifi-tv-headphones/hd-600-avantgarde
cdjapan.co.jp/searches?term.media=LP&page=&agg_use=media_submedia&term.media_format=&q=kizumonogatari
gedlee.azurewebsites.net/Papers/Distortion_AES_I.pdf
gedlee.azurewebsites.net/Papers/Distortion_AES_II.pdf
asa.scitation.org/doi/full/10.1121/1.4984044
pdfs.semanticscholar.org/e38e/b5526af06589596390cd585e6aa38c19344c.pdf
twitter.com/NSFWRedditImage

>build quality.

>neutral

>2017
>Not using $3 chink earbuds with EQ that makes it sound like HD800.

>designed to last
>especially with those hair-thin non insulated copper leads

>sennheiser is the best headphone brand

What $3 earbuds?

>low distortion and accurate

Doesn't matter. You are going to EQ it into perfection anyway. $3 point is only here so you can receive earbuds that won't fall apart in your hands the moment you unpack.

>neutrality

Reminder

It does matter because you said $3 earbuds. So which is it?

>durable design

It is you that makes the headphones, dear user. Not it. That is your lesson for today :^)

Is the HD 569 a bad buy?

Yeah, get the fostex t50rp instead. Cheaper and better.

But I don't want open.

and I don't see fostex on charts :(

The t40rp is the closed equivalent. That's because fostex is primarily a speaker company but they make a few headphones and they're all excellent.

[snapping intensifies]

oh hey tiny dick, how's the lack of ability to satisfy women and owning shit headphones going?

Why do people hate neutrality so much?

That graph is old and dated. GoldenEars' methods, not to mention Sennheiser's headphones, have changed over time. Do you have a more up-to-date graph, user?

>Sennheiser's headphones, have changed over time.
prove it

>post chinkshit build quality headphones
>instant meltdown mode
Holy shit lmao

Hifiman has the worst QC and customer service of all major headphone brands. This is an indisputable fact.

Here:
-------------------------

>Snapping i n t e n s i f i e s

Ok

>this thread

Sony is worse.
They sold defective headphones and told everyone to fuck off until the chinks started threatening with a lawsuit, then they admitted only "certain production batches" were affected and the replacements sent from the "good batches" had the same snapping issue.

The Fostex seems to have higher distortion in the low end which is a focal point of your rants against Sennheiser

innerfidelity.com/images/FostexT50RPMk3.pdf
innerfidelity.com/images/SennheiserHD569.pdf

>chinkshit plastic arms
>hot glued driver
>single sided """planar"""
>pads on $500 headphones fall apart in half a year
Why is hifiman such a shit?
That might actually be true, Sony was a shit. At least the 1000x was a decent headphone though.

Thought so, not user :^)

>No defense
Kek

Sennheiser's reputation precedes it. Universal acclaim over 20 or so years, with only about as many failures as the much less popular and much newer hifiman headphones. Plus, replacement headbands are cheap.

I'm actually talking about the 1000x
They're gearing up to release the mk2 version.

Also from the same graphs, the Fostex has very poor bass extension compared to the Sennheiser.

Yeah, apart from the snapping issue (mine snapped, ironically), it sounded decent enough. The conduct of the company makes me not want to buy the mk2s though.

Source?

why so mad bro?

headphonespares.sennheiser.co.uk/hifi-tv-headphones/hd-600-avantgarde

Of course they're cheap, dumdum. They snap all the time, but i'm not talking about that part :^)

>they snap all the time
Only because they outsell many inferior headphones by a mile. It's like saying the US has more murders than Luxembourg, no shit, silly.

Why this tripfag shitposts in every fucking thread and still not banned?

So, do you have a source?

Yes, it's called not being a retard.

So no source?

Source is a functioning brain, so none for you I guess.

>No source

>schiit magni 2 uber
>ferrite bead on power
>cardas rca caps
>litz monolith interconnects
>output transistors heatsinked

seems kinda pointless to me

>This tripfag
It would be nice if it was 1 person only, but basically 90% of this thread regular posters are mentally unstable shitposters. I hope /hpg/ gets permanently banned from Sup Forums

What is the second best headphone behind the HD600?

The output transistor heatsinks are the only non-snakeoil aspect of this picture.

Pic + timestamp

>no audible benefit

I NEED IT:
cdjapan.co.jp/searches?term.media=LP&page=&agg_use=media_submedia&term.media_format=&q=kizumonogatari

THD measurements are not a reliable indicator of audibility:
gedlee.azurewebsites.net/Papers/Distortion_AES_I.pdf
gedlee.azurewebsites.net/Papers/Distortion_AES_II.pdf
> In our next paper we will show that .01% THD of one type of nonlinear system can be perceived as unacceptable while 10% THD in another example is perceived as inaudible. Even one of these simple examples is sufficient to invalidate THD as a viable metric for discussion of the perception of distortion. Furthermore, 1% THD is not at all the same as 1% IM, but we will show that neither correlates with subjective perception.
>These results supported the skepticism that THD and IMD metrics were poor predictor of subjective perception of sound quality ratings.
Furthermore:
asa.scitation.org/doi/full/10.1121/1.4984044
>Research has suggested that non-linear properties of headphone responses have little effect
Furthermore:
pdfs.semanticscholar.org/e38e/b5526af06589596390cd585e6aa38c19344c.pdf
From this presentation given at the AES 129th convention:
>Conventional distortion measurements such as THD do not show reliable correlation to the ear’s perception
>in b4 retarded tripfag says these studies are being misinterpreted (they're not)
>in b4 strawman

it's not just the tripfags that make /hpg/ cancer. lots of "im a complete expert on audio even though im a NEET with no degree/hands on knowledge of the topic."

I agree it should be permanently banned from Sup Forums, but I feel like mods use this place as a containment thread like /ptg/.

>More THD is better

Do you have a degree or hands on knowledge?

Are the HD800 the best headphones ever made?

HD800S are far better.

your entire argument is a strawman though and harmonic distortion is very relevant to fidelity. 3 shitty studies that led to absolutely nothing changing in the industry doesn't make you right.

it's like saying that one study on vaccines that was repeatedly debunked means vaccines cause autism. the study was bullshit and the doctor lost his medical license over it. same situation only you're arguing that distortion isn't distortion on /hpg/

>in after strawman
>it's like saying that one study on vaccines that was repeatedly debunked
It's not like this at all unless you are able to provide proof of THD measurements being a reliable indicator of audibility. Nobody has done so in the dozens of times that copypasta has been posted.

>More THD is b e t t e r
Top kek

no I don't, but that's why I stay out of the graph shitposting. most I've ever done is throw out the occasional purchase recommendation based on what i have owned or at least heard. I don't pretend to be an expert on these topics.

either way this place is complete shit so I'm hoping it gets banned soon.

THE MEME(S) ARE REAL

You can try it for yourself if you have a set of low distortion headphones (Audeze LCD-2 were mine). Open up two since wave generators, one running at -0dB 40hz and the other at -40dB 80hz. This will simulate second harmonic distortion. Adjust the level up and down to where you can just barely tell the difference. That's roughly the level of second harmonic distortion you can hear. Then do the same at 120hz for 3rd harmonic, etc etc. You'll find that your ability to notice distortion may be lower than you thought.

>since wave
Sine wave jfc

gods gift to your ears

-17 dB
What's that in %?

Nevermind, found a calculator. Kek, that's 14.1%. About what I expected.

Flexible £100, UK, Back of my PC 3.5mm jack, full sized, preferably closed, preferably comfy, no idea about sound signature (I tried some in town and the bassy ones sounded best).

Any recommendations?

Who /tinnitus/ here?

Okay, graph interpretation is a fairly easy subject. I'm sure everyone understands that graphs are fallible and measurements will be different and they're not the end-all of perceived frequency response. The issue is that the shitposters willfully ignore the limitations of graphs as an excuse to shitpost.
Yep, that's about par for the course. Of course, 3rd harmonic and above are much easier to hear than the 2nd harmonic but with most headphones, bass distortion tends to be second harmonic.

Simulating third order with 120 Hz, I hear it at -20 dB, or 10%.

But why pay if you can have HD800 for $3, as long as you have EqualizerAPO+PeaceGUI and some knowledge and expertise in EQing.
Do you enjoy being a cuck?

Would buying an amp+dac render any sound card useless? The PC would just be used to "send in" the songs to the dac basically?

Trying to understand how that works.

>not buying HD800s for comfort and then EQing them to sound like $3 Walmart shitphones

keep deluding yourself that your eq'd poorfag phones will ever match the clarity and realism of the hd800s.

If your sound card has optical built in it isn't useless otherwise it is. Just use your soundcard for virtual surround sound shit.

>Having this much buyer's remorse
Kek. Could have avoided it all if you only knew how to eq, you brainlet

MDR-MA900, even discontinued, is a lot cheaper while being more comfortable than HD800. Imaging/soundstage is roughly the same, too; angled 70 mm drivers.

Oh, also note that this sort of simulation depends on the flatness of your headphones frequency response. Although the numbers you're getting are a bit low (my 3rd order was something like -35dB).

> /hpg/ is seriously degenerate

>Although the numbers you're getting are a bit low
I didn't really sit there and autistically drag the slider back and forth for minutes while listening super intently to find the exact frequency where I think I might be perceiving a difference. I dragged the slider back and forth maybe 10 times and picked the frequency I was sure I heard a difference at. My logic is that anything below this point is inconsequential to me.

That's probably fair, considering distortion is much more difficult to perceive in actual music as opposed to test tones.

Also, FR is loli-flat, verified through home measurements.

I actually don't have a sound card, I'm just trying to understand the relationship between a computer and a hybrid amp/dac device. The PC, laptop or whatever you're using is not interfering in any way with the audio when using something like I mentioned, right?

It won't interfere anything because you have to set which audio source you want to output with.

Cheers.

computers are inherently noisy. even usb to an external dac can be an issue. galvanic isolation is the only way. if your computer has optical out then there can be no noise issues. ground hum suxxxxx. usb isolators are iffy though available.

Meh I'll just get Audio-Technica ATH-M50X

The ATH-M40X are better believe it or not.

I know knowing about headphone quality. In what way are they better?

Does Sup Forums have recommended mmcx cables and wireless adapters?

Reminder that vinyl and cassette are better than digital trash.

>can be an issue
Usually won't, though. I've never experienced a noisy USB DAC.

I'm probably the only person on this thread with a turntable and even I know that's bullshit. I collect vinyl because it appreciates in value when it's treated properly.

And I'm still using cassette on occasions.
Drop outs, distortion, wow and flutter, high noise floor, and limited frequency response in the highs are all very real.
No such problems with audio CD or FLAC.

You need metal tape son.