Headphones

[Jib]

My wife said I have to wait till after Christmas to purchase new headphones.  I justify the price to myself because I wear them every weekday for 8 hrs.  The HD595 are on sale for $200 at headphone.com.  If I can still get it for that price after Christmas I will.  Otherwise I'll try to find the HD580, or something else around the $150 price.

[Shirow]

If you can get the HD595 for $200, I'd think that'd be the way to go. The HD580 do have some minor issues, the headband is covered in plastic and I have already snapped them in half once. Sennheiser did replace them for free, but it was still annoying.

[Trommler]

One thing to keep in mind when buying headphones (or speakers for that matter) is what you are connecting them to and what kind of frequencies both things can produce.

The HD580 ranges between 12 Hz to 38,000 Hz, and the HD595 does an even better job, ranging between 12 Hz to 38,500 Hz.

If you are connecting to an iPod, for example, you won't get the full benefit of either of those, as the iPod only ranges from 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz.

Might help in the decision making

[Jib]

This has got me wondering now.  What is the best setup for listening to DG?  Seems like it would include some are all of the following: Media Player, Sound Card, Headphone Amp, Headphone.  I wonder if the media player would make a difference?  A headphone amp would probably not be need if you had a nice sound card.

[Jib]

headphone.com has a usb sound card/headphone amp for a computer.  http://www.headphone.com/products/headphone-amps/the-mobile-line/headroom-total-bithead.php  That probably would be great for use with an office computer. 

[Trommler]

That inline amp has some nice features, but I'm still hung up on the frequency response (20 - 20K).  You'd still be missing some of the lower end and a bit of the higher end with that.  I'd check the specks on your sound card and see what frequency range it can put out, and then base my decision on that.

For example, the headphone port on my powerbook is 20 - 20K, so the headphones your looking at wouldn't work at their full potential, compare that to my pioneer stereo amp of 10 - 50K, and the headphones wouldn't be enough.

Another thing to keep in mind is if you are listening to mp3s, the sampling rate will determine the quality of the recording, and the better your playback equipment, the better your chances of hearing the imperfections in the sound.

It really depends on how much of an audiophile you are.

[koggen]

I really don't see any use for anything that says it has any frequency range substantially larger than 20 - 20kHz, especially if you want to listen to the DG stream. First of all, sure, you can see "frequency ranges" like the one Trommler quoted, but I sincerely doubt it is a true range with -3dB points at 10 and 50kHz. Above all (since the -3dB points only refer to power levels); such ranges never ever tell anything about total harmonic distortion, signal to noise ratio or the phase response , and these factors determine the perceived quality so much more than the frequency response.

Second; you're listening to non-lossless compressed media, and frankly I often prefer to listen to MP3 media using my JBL computer media speakers (although pretty expensive and good quality, I have to admit) instead of my hifi equipment, just because much of the compression related distortion is masked with simpler equipment.

Third; only infants and pretty young children can hear sounds ranging from 20 all the way up to 20kHz, for us who are somewhat older (no comments, creeps!) it's just not much of an idea to have equipment with excessive frequency ranges ;)

If you do want some good sound from your computer I would just buy some fairly decent headphones and try to find an audio card with sufficient electromagnetic isolation (e.g. my laptop's audio circuits pick up electromagnetic noise from the CPU, so I can actually hear when I scroll the screen).

But speaking of audiophiles; if you truly are an audiophile than nothing of this matters anyway. Then it's so much more about oxygen-free cables, ferromagnetic or RF damping terminators, the structure of the carpeting and wallpapers and I even once had a customer who truly felt that lining his curtains with special metal needles improved the "sound field" ... ;)

Sorry for anyone who feels injured, but with a degree in electro acoustical engineering and having worked as a sound technician for a couple of years I'm just very skeptical :)

[Jib]

Thanks for your input Koggen.

[Shirow]

these are what you need http://www.pearcable.com/sub_products_anjou_sc.htm

[koggen]

Or this one; http://www.hifix.co.uk/sku.lasso?item=24fd6784149d859649cc39fd357029ce

Please note that there's a "signal direction for best quality" and "delivers the best possible audio quality" which I think is a remarkable feature considering we're talking digital audio here :)

[Shirow]

It is acknowledged to sound better than SPDIF, Firewire and HDMi!

[Jon Meth]

Hmmmm....Beyerdynamic. Best ones round, but Seinheisers are pretty close in quality. If its for personal music listening...anything will do...even Boss or Sony will cut it. Beyers are good for sound engineering and studio mixing. My last pair broke and now I have seinheisers, and hate them. I can't pull off a decent mix with them coz they don't have decent spacial response.....so active monitors are the way to go......anyway, I'm going off on a tangent......Beyerdynamics. They aren't that exp.

[Jib]

Ok well I saved up a few hundred for some new cans and then I got sidetracked and spent my money on my shotgun (new stock and barrel).  Anyway after that I found out that Grado does repair work for a flat fee of $25.  Can't beat that.  I now have my original headphones sounding as good as ever.

[Jon Meth]

Tsk Tsk...cheap ass bastard..( says he to a man with a shotgun..gulps!) Nice work...I wish I could have restored my beyerdynamics, but I jumped on them and threw them out after many irritating days of twiddling with a wire that had bad contact..

[Shirow]

That is one thing I like about the Sennheisers I have.. modular cable. If it messes up, just pull it out and replace it myself.

I have snapped them in half once already though :(