/hpg/ - Headphone General

How to request purchase advice: pastebin.com/fYZLW7Ub

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

Headphone guide: canpicker.com/

Previous thread:

Other urls found in this thread:

head-case.org/forums/topic/12921-schiit-jotunheim/
audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/measurement-and-review-of-schiit-bifrost-multibit-dac.2319/
audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/budget-dac-review-schiit-modi-2-99.1649/
audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/hardware-teardown-of-schiit-modi-2-usb-dac.2082/
reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/6wdcig/bad_experience_with_schiit_audio/
reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/6lnyd8/ama_request_nick_t_from_schiit_tech_support/
reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/7bwko4/schiit_refusing_to_replace_the_misconfigured/
reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/7b33wc/schiit_fulla_2_problems_about_blew_out_my_eardrums/
reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/71wtot/schiit_cs_has_left_me_between_a_rock_and_a_hard/
ebay.com/itm/Sennheiser-HD-558-Headband-Headphones-Black-Audiophile/202209453763
newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826138190&cm_re=shp9500-_-26-138-190-_-Product
diyaudioheaven.wordpress.com/headphones/measurements/takstar-pro-82/
twitter.com/SFWRedditImages

morning

First for m1060

Thread reminder to never buy Schiit products.

>#1 recommended brand by reddit shills because hehe i get to say Shit
>owner thinks authoring a 140-chapter work of fiction about the company history makes up for garbage quality and performance

head-case.org/forums/topic/12921-schiit-jotunheim/
audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/measurement-and-review-of-schiit-bifrost-multibit-dac.2319/
audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/budget-dac-review-schiit-modi-2-99.1649/
audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/hardware-teardown-of-schiit-modi-2-usb-dac.2082/

>solder splatter
>caps on output
>Either they don't measure their DACs, don't care or don't know how to design a clean DAC.
>For me the biggest letdown with all of this is the major disservice Schiit and others are doing to the community. They are toting these frankly "shit" amps as power houses
>As we see, tons of jitter and distortion products are visible together with higher noise floor. Even the Topping D30 at $129 shipped runs circles around it in how clean its output is relative to Schiit BiFrost Multi-bit.
>There are DACs literally at 10% of the cost that do much better. Yes I know the subjectivists go by what these devices "sound like." But I want one of them with a straight face tell me how their music is better where a spray of distortion and noise is added to any single tone in their music. How can any of this be euphonic???

reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/6wdcig/bad_experience_with_schiit_audio/
reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/6lnyd8/ama_request_nick_t_from_schiit_tech_support/
reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/7bwko4/schiit_refusing_to_replace_the_misconfigured/
reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/7b33wc/schiit_fulla_2_problems_about_blew_out_my_eardrums/
reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/71wtot/schiit_cs_has_left_me_between_a_rock_and_a_hard/

I realized the other night that my old A/V receiver has been underpowering my HT speakers for years, and I can't use it as a pre-amp for a better integrated one. Gonna have to scoop a preamp and amp now, RIP $600.
Also, I kinda miss my Polaris and can't wait to get it back, but the Andromeda is still aces.
I honestly want to grab one of these just to mod it for the experience. I'm sure one can do better with a wad of cash, but I feel like tinkering is an important part of this hobby.

Looking for 75$~ headphones, what do you anons say about the Philips SHP-9500?

Ha, as a gen z myself I can relate to pepe!

hello fellow gen z

before amirm
>all dacs sound the same
after amirm
>don't buy modi 2 because it sounds like shit

it hurts user, it hurts

only 100+ days to go

If a game has an option for "use software buffer" that can be checked/unchecked which is generally the better setting for sound quality if I have a decent DAC? My thought is disable it so my hardware can do its work as much as possible? Or is that a bad thing and will cause crack/pops sometimes or something?

Is this acceptable channel matching for $350 headphones?

graphs like this mean shit

what do I buy in the same price range then?

depends if I'm looking at channel differences or measurement error

ebay.com/itm/Sennheiser-HD-558-Headband-Headphones-Black-Audiophile/202209453763

hello please recommend preamp for me

If you get the SHP9500s, you can find it for cheaper than $75
newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826138190&cm_re=shp9500-_-26-138-190-_-Product

are the Chinese headphone amp clones any good?

I found copies of Lehmann Audio, Beyerdynamic, Electrocompaniet (do they even make headphone amps?) and you could probably find more on ebay.

Do they use all the same components or do they only look similar?

when will you realize no one wants here until you can stop shitposting or buying expensive snake oil

Emotiva PT-100

Is this general for poor people? Why not just buy the Bose QC35 and be done with it?

What's your price range?

Probably only cosmetically similar.

merging nadac

>thinks bose is expensive
bose is just shit

>350
>expensive

Must suck having a minimal wage job

>calls this the thread for poor people
>proves it with his recommendation

you're an idiot. my amp alone is just expensive and I went budget. lurk more newfag

McIntosh Labs D150

sorry if I blew you the fuck out, I wasn't paying attention if you were the same user. either way it was directed at

who's ready for what might be the solution to closed back headphones?

$200

Magni 3 is the best small amp available. Go suck a dick.

Parasound Halo P5

it'll be a nice moment to buy cheap hd800s off the morons that sold them for a basslite closed. too bad I already bought stax and it'll arrive by the time the 820 rears its head.

ty anons, looking into all of these now

we'll know soon enough

stop recommending shit without measurements and fucking with people's money

Send me $3000 and I'll build you a custom preamp with the best sound ever.
Liquid mids will enchant your ears.
Watch out, /ourguy/ Amir is gonna prove you wrong.

i've heard a lot of bad things and good things about parasound. granted all the bad stuff were about its amps... maybe its preamp is better? but damn does it look nice.

tfw Takstar Pro 82 measures just like a Stax
diyaudioheaven.wordpress.com/headphones/measurements/takstar-pro-82/

should I send him my ifi amp for him to compare with like he did with the modi vs ifi measurements?

for an amp, dac, or amp and dac?

It's an absolute bargain. With measurements or not. God, there really is a mini cult here that cannot accept that schiit has made a good product at a good price lmao.

It sounds top tier to me so it wouldn't even make a difference if it doesn't read well. I'd put money on the fact that it does. I guess we'll find out.

all objective evidence offered so far shows that everything schiit makes is trash. if the magni3 measures well i'll be the first to note that there is a SINGLE exception to schiit being garbage and that's only if you ignore the fact that their quality control and customer service is awful.

If you're so sure, then what makes it "the best"?

We've reached the point where the objective and meme opinions are inseparable, and there is only one, maybe two choices for any given product.
Anyone with half a brain will treat this place the same as it's always been, a joke with a hint of truth to it. If something measures like dogshit, it probably sounds like dogshit. If it doesn't measure ABSOLUTELY PERFECT (which, hint, nothing ever will), that doesn't necessarily mean that it'll sound bad. Taste, after all, is subjective and almost none of you will ever actually blind A/B gear with no bias whatsoever. Do the research you can, try to make an informed decision, demo anything and everything you can and take a leap of faith once in a while.
That's what I think, anyway. People get too uptight over this shit when none of you are getting paid for it.

>cheap 3W amp
>best evarr!!
I remember when I was new af to the hobby and ranked amps by price and power output. might as well get a $50 50W SMSL speaker amp and power your headphones with it

Name a better small amp in the same price range then. I'll wait.

Best open headphones under $100. EQ in some sub bass and you'll be set.

Objective 2.

Anyone else who got dicked with a fx audio dac x6, I found this mostly fixed the droop. Enjoy your headphones the way they're supposed to sound!

Because I've tested/owned most of the known small amps out there and the magni 3 is the best. Magni 2 and o2 are a close second.

literally anything with measurements would be a better purchase because it's a known quantity. I'll wait for measurements

You didn't answer my question. What makes it "the best"?

prove it with measurements, jason

Fucking knew it lmao. It's not better, but it's good. I used to own one.

which amp do you own now?

Right. Thanks for the advice. I'll buy these.
You sure that the SHP9500s is not drastically different? I don't wanna get a lousy model

none of this gear needs to measure absolutely perfect, it just has to not have glaring problems that indicate poor design choices. poor design choices that contradict the self-suck marketing.

erm let me guesss... it fucking sounds better. More bass, more detail etc etc. All of the differences are incredibly small between these kind of amps. Some of you here are really obsessed with the o2. It's weird.

Only difference is the cable it comes with. Headphones are exactly the same.

It's literally the same hardware with a shorter cable in the box. The cable is a 3.5mm male-to-male, though, so you can replace it with whatever you want. The SHP9500 was essentially discontinued when they re-branded it as the 9500s and included a shorter cable because reasons.

did you even bother to voltage match?
>Some of you here are really obsessed with the o2. It's weird.
gee I wonder why? maybe it's because it's measureable and documented and made as a stand against snake oil companies like schiit

I've owned the e10k, fulla 2, magni 2, o2, and now I own the magni 3. The magi 2/3 and o2 are all better than the first two but they all sound very similar. The o2 also costs more money for me than the magni 3 does.

You really are a fucking caped crusader aren't you lmao. Did you find out about o2 last week? o2 is good, but it's old and far weaker tha the magni 3. people have moved on. You're in the past m8.

I don't recommend amps. I've never actually recommended the o2. nice try though.

Alright, thanks anons. Purchased it off newegg.

It's not being "obsessed". You're being foolish here.
The O2 is ruler flat. It doesn't have any flaws besides the battery power in portable use. Measured and used by every reviewer.
If you don't think the O2 and the Magni 3 sound exactly the same, then the Magni 3 is the worse choice out of the two because it means it is colored and not neutral. It is easier to EQ from neutral than correct a colored amp to transparency.
Only thing better on paper for the Magni is the output power, but it won't be enough anyway to go through old high-ohm cans or high-end planars. O2 has a whole blog dedicated to it proving it's power output and reliability, showing that it can power through anything that isn't the latter things I quoted.
Hell the only measurement ever done on the Magni 2 showed it performing worse than the O2.
Objectively, there is no reason to think the Magni 3 is a better product than the O2. This also applies to every non-measured gear.

I assumed you were the guy who shills the o2 and protests against schiit every time I fucking come here. It's pure autism posting. Anyway, the o2 and the magni 3 are both great and I doubt most people would even hear a difference between them.

>but it's old and far weaker tha the magni 3
so what? my o2 is configured with 1x/3.5x gain and on 1x gain i can't even crank it past 75% on 300 ohm headphones before it hurts my ears on most music. again, that's the 1x gain. the o2 comes stock with like 2.5x/6.5x gain settings. old isn't a valid complaint and weaker also isn't a valid complaint and also, you are retarded.

Can I measure a Walnut V2 (or at least the gain and wattage) with a multimeter?

Another small question about it, though. The SHP-9500 don't need an amp at all, right? Will it noticeably benefit from one?

> but it won't be enough anyway to go through old high-ohm cans or high-end planars

This is partly the point. I can power certain headphones better than the o2. The magni is 'good enough' to use wih nearly everything. The same can't be said for the o2.

>Objectively, there is no reason to think the Magni 3 is a better product than the O2

You mean besides schiits actual measurements? yeah they could be lying, but I'll trust them over you any day.

>I assumed you were the guy who shills the o2 and protests against schiit every time I fucking come here.
no I just don't rec amps because you should be building them yourself. source gear is snake oil cancerous minefield. you are retarded for recommending something that hasn't been measured. I don't give a fuck what your subjective impressions are, keep them to yourself when recommending.

>weaker also isn't a valid complaint

It is when the magni 3 is better at powering higher end, power hungry headphones.

Nah, you'll be fine without an amp.

You don't give a fuck but others might. We're talking about a high quality amp for 99 fucking dollars. Most people aren't autistic enough to get into building their own fucking equipment. You're in a tiny minority in that respect.

Is there anything more reasonably priced than the Bose Quiet Comfort 35s?

>We're talking about a high quality amp for 99 fucking dollars.
prove it you fuckface

>You mean besides schiits actual measurements
hey everybody, this guy has access to schiit's secret trove of measurements!! the ones that the public can't see!

>Most people aren't autistic enough to get into building their own fucking equipment. You're in a tiny minority in that respect.
also, no shit. that's why i keep quiet when it comes to recommending amps. I don't bother anymore. I just tell people like you to shut the fuck up when they make claims about an unmeasured equipment

For ANC? Sennheiser HD 4.50

What mods would you guys recommend for a pair of ATH M40xs? I heard that getting new pads is a good start but I have no idea which pads would work best

I want to lick her feet.

I'm not autistic enough to care if some random fat sperg on an audio forum has measured it over schiit themselves. I used to own the o2 and it sounds no better then the magni 3 with my headphones.

I don't need to prove anything to you, and we both know that I can't. I own it and use it everyday. you clearly haven't even tried it before.

Shorter cable for M40x. Stock pads is fine, change only if you feel uncomfortable.

that's fine. stop recommending it to people, especially impressionable anons looking to buy an entry level amp
>and we both know that I can't.
it's even worse that you realize there are no measurements but that there WILL be measurements soon and you can't even shut the fuck up for just a moment until the measurements come out

>You mean besides schiits actual measurements? yeah they could be lying, but I'll trust them over you any day.
Please. Their DAC don't even measure close to their "measurements". Believing marketing spec-sheets is ridiculous.

>This is partly the point. I can power certain headphones better than the o2. The magni is 'good enough' to use wih nearly everything. The same can't be said for the o2.
The O2 doesn't clip before 7Vrms of output power, take a look at headphones requirements. Maybe your gain settings weren't the best for your headphones, but it can even power planars without any trouble.
Magni would hypothetically let you do so without turning the knob further. Wew, crazy, definitely worth taking the risk to have a flawed amp with garbage QC from a company known with underperforming gear!

This fat idiot is just looking to rationalize his purchase. He probably doesn't even own headphones that required more power to drive, he just likes to spend money to fill the hole in his heart.

>People get too uptight over this shit when none of you are getting paid for it
>none of you are getting paid for it

hahahahaha good one user

Getting a Sennheiser HD650 because I always wanted god tier headphones and because I have some money to spend.
How about the FiiO E10K? I'm a first buyer. Should I even get one in the first place?

I'd advice shelling out a bit more money and get something like the ODAC/OL DAC/Topping D30 with an O2. E10K should be fine, but the aforementioned units would be much better in the long run.

n o m e a s u r e m e n t s

>and you can't even shut the fuck up for just a moment until the measurements come out

I rarely make comments on here, I mostly lurk, and not very often. You should be telling that to the autistic fucks that talk mock the magni 3 24/7 and praise th o2. It literally feels like 1-2 people doing it every single fucking time I come here. I'm actually looking forward to the measurements. I hope that they're good, because maybe then they'll shut the fuck up. We both know that wont be the case though, they'll think of something else to concentrate on.

>the paid shill boogeyman
I think that you seriously underestimate the average nerd's brand loyalty. Why would companies (who already mark up components) pay for shills, when people gladly and rabidly do it for free? Go on any board here associated with a product or market and you'll see the same thing, it's just the way people are. Tribalism is as ingrained as the need for religion.

>You should be telling that to the autistic fucks
I'll side with whichever side has measurements. kys m8