Do you really enjoy headphones?
Comments
-
Only at the gym.
Funny this time of year all the people who sign up fro New Years stare at me with mine on, not ear buds I mind you.
I swear some of these people have never seen anything except ear buds... -
For me, and the Mrs, only for travel. We have a set of Bose QC 15's and a B&O Beoplay H9's.Basement: Polk SDA SRS 1.2tl's, Cary SLP-05 Pre with ultimate upgrade,McIntosh MCD301 CD/SACD player, Northstar Designs Excelsio DAC, Cambridge 851N streamer, McIntosh MC300 Amp, Silnote Morpheus Ref2, Series2 Digital Cables, Silnote Morpheus Ref2 Series2 XLR's, Furman 15PFi Power Conditioner, Pangea Power Cables, MIT Shotgun S3 IC's, MIT Shotgun S1 Bi-Wire speaker cables
Office: PC, EAR Acute CD Player, EAR 834L Pre, Northstar Designs Intenso DAC, Antique Sound Labs AV8 Monoblocks, Denon UDR-F10 Cassette, Acoustic Technologies Classic FR Speakers, SVS SB12 Plus sub, MIT AVt2 speaker cables, IFI Purifier2, AQ Cinnamon USB cable, Groneberg Quatro Reference IC's
Spare Room: Dayens Ampino Integrated Amp, Tjoeb 99 tube CD player (modified Marantz CD-38), Analysis Plus Oval 9's, Zu Jumpers, AudioEngine B1 Streamer, Klipsch RB-61 v2, SVS PB1000 sub, Blue Jeans RCA IC's, Shunyata Hydra 8 Power Conditioner
Living Room: Peachtree Nova Integrated, Cambridge CXN v2 Streamer, Rotel RCD-1072 CD player, Furman 15PFi Power Conditioner, Polk RT265 In Wall Speakers, Polk DSW Pro 660wi sub
Garage #1: Cambridge Audio 640A Integrated Amp, Project Box-E BT Streamer, Polk Tsi200 Bookies, Douglas Speaker Cables, Shunyata Power Conditioner
Garage #2: Cambridge Audio EVO150 Integrated Amplifier, Polk L200's, Analysis Plus Silver Oval 2 Speaker Cables, IC's TBD. -
I don't think my wife likes them because once I took a set and my Ipod to a family function without my wife knowing.
When I pulled them out I got one of those REALLY BAD looks from her...
They never made it out of the car....
-
Love them at times.
Have a couple older vintage ones from Koss, that are still quite listenable.
What is remarkable, is hearing things you do not "notice' with regular speakers.
I mean its there with speakers, but with Phones, you really hear everything!
Older recordings though, I notice often dropouts from the master tape for a split second and other anomolies at times. -
EndersShadow wrote: »Like mine so much I upgraded em lol...
Added a HK preamp and a Little Dot tube headphone amp w vintage tubes!
Source is still iPhone (for now) or tablet.
Looking at Tidal or using a mini computer as a source
Those Little Dot 1+ are a fun amp! I have mine paired with some Philips L2s with the same GE NOS tubes. Sounds fantastic to me.Just a dude doing dude-ly things
"Temptation is the manifestation of desire which equals necessity." - Mikey081057
" I have always had a champange taste with a beer budget" - Rick88
"Just because the thread is getting views don't mean much .. I like a good train wreck doesn't mean i want to be in one..." - pitdogg2
"Those that don't know, don't know that they don't know." - heiney9
"Audiophiles are the male equivalent of cat ladies." - Audiokarma Member -
Headphones have their place with me. Have a pair of Philips Fidelio X1 powered with a vintage Marantz 2220B receiver paired with a Sonagraphe SG-3 turntable with Ortofon 2M Black cart and LG-V35 phone with built-in hi-res dac for a home headphone rig. For work I use either a Sennheiser HD-595 or 1More Triple Driver in-ears paired with a Chinese headphone amp and LG-V35 while playing Tidal. A Little Dot 1+ or Schiit Valhalla will be on the way soon.
I do enjoy listening to headphones especially when I don't have time to warm up the all-tube main rig or when I have guests over and can't play the main rig at night. Having said that I do prefer to listen to the main rig over the headphone setups when I can.
-
I used to enjoy hifi headphones alongside my speakers, but then felt that a very nice speaker rig was better than a very nice headphone rig. I still kept my Klipsch X10i, Nuforce BE6i, and Phiaton Chord MS530 and listened occasionally or on trips, but if I was going to sit down and listen, I wanted the speaker experience.
However, I've been having to downsize the speaker rig as we moved to a small house and have been remodeling, so I have decided to go back to headphones.
Today I ordered a pair of Monoprice M1060 circumaural magnetic planar headphones to see if they can spark my headphone interest back. Being planar, I know they need more current than dynamic drivers, so I'll start off with the headphone amp in my NAD integrated and go from there. -
I used to enjoy hifi headphones alongside my speakers, but then felt that a very nice speaker rig was better than a very nice headphone rig. I still kept my Klipsch X10i, Nuforce BE6i, and Phiaton Chord MS530 and listened occasionally or on trips, but if I was going to sit down and listen, I wanted the speaker experience.
I love my headphones and the thing is they are easy to get right. It took me a while to get my speakers right. Better source, better amplifier, better preamp, cables all that and now I cannot go to my headphones for serious listening. They sound great and I get amazed by their sound but it isn't the same experience to me as the big boys.
Now what I do miss is that sense of amazement and euphoria from the first time I listened to tubes (which was a headphone amp). I had never heard sound so realistic and up close.
I am sure those Monoprice will be nice, report back once you have had some time with them.
Just a dude doing dude-ly things
"Temptation is the manifestation of desire which equals necessity." - Mikey081057
" I have always had a champange taste with a beer budget" - Rick88
"Just because the thread is getting views don't mean much .. I like a good train wreck doesn't mean i want to be in one..." - pitdogg2
"Those that don't know, don't know that they don't know." - heiney9
"Audiophiles are the male equivalent of cat ladies." - Audiokarma Member -
I just ordered a Schiit Asgard headphone amp (A 90-volt, cascoded JFET gain stage feeds a high-current Class A MOSFET output section) to power the M1060s up to 1Wrms, which will be fed by my HRT USB DAC. I should have both delivered this week and be able to try life without speakers!
-
One of the earlier ptp wired versions with upgraded pio capsJC approves....he told me so. (F-1 nut) -
With the monoprice return pending and selling off pieces of the speaker 2-channel rig, I ordered a pair of Fostex Dekoni Blue headphones. This is Dekoni's Fostex approved factory modded T-50RP MKIII semi-open back planar headphone. Max power on these headphones is 4w due to the low sensitivity, due I wasn't planning on using reference headphones as mobile anyway.
-
@zingo did you get the Asgard 2 yet?
-
I like em when I am too tired to hold up my humongous noggin
-
@zingo did you get the Asgard yet?
Yes. I’ll do some listening tonight, and I’m letting it warm up and it gets HOT. (by class A design)
-
@zingo that's the one I almost got LMK what you think. Maybe I will have a reason to stop by and see those Schiity people again.
-
Schiit’s writing reminds me a lot of the old Mackie manuals:
What does Class A really mean?
For us, Class A means Class A—that is, the output stage of the Asgard is running its maximum current all the time. This is a real Class A amp, biased by a current source. It can never go out of Class A. Protip: running a Class A amp hard into a difficult load actually causes it to run cooler. Please note this is not an invitation to destroy your hearing. This is just a bit of trivia. We probably should be telling you to practice safe listening, use a condom, sign this disclaimer before you turn up Asgard, don’t use the lawnmower as a hedge trimmer, coffee is hot, blah blah, but we don’t roll that way.
So, this thing runs damn hot, like Asgard?
If by “damn hot” you mean 40-45 degrees C, then yes.
And you’re not concerned with that?
Nope. The entire chassis is a heat sink, and we’re running the outputs well within their safe operating area, even derating for the operational temperature. Sorry, some engineerese crept in there.
But it still runs hot!
And technically, that’s still not a question. If you want an amp that runs cold, it’s best to look elsewhere.
-
@zingo those guys are down the street from me and I only got over there once and they greeted me with "Welcome to Schiit" I felt right at home lol
-
Have heard good things about the Nighthawks.
-
Wow, 80 hrs break-in time!
-
Very cool man. Thanks so much for jumping on and sharing your thoughts, I appreciate it.
-
transparent wrote: »The nighthawks could be very easy to dismiss in a quick A-B listening session, I almost did. They are not an in-your-face headphone just very laid back. Because they are a conventional speaker they took around 80 hours to break in.
What makes the driver different than standard dynamic driver headphones? -
Don't know if this question makes sense. Are there earphones that are better for home theater vs music listening? What about a happy medium?
-
transparent wrote: »It is a little conventional speaker inside (Nighthawks).
50mm Dynamic Biocellulose Diaphragm (so it says on the Audioquest Site). Rather unique cup/material construction and a vent that is supposed to control airflow. And a "split-gap" motor to drive the speaker. It's all on their site if you want to dive deeper
I misunderstood your post as stating that they are a different design than the standard headphone dynamic driver; which is very similar to the cone speaker.
I love planar and dynamic headphones, and both have a place in my listening as they produce music differently. I've never heard electrostatic headphones due to my budget, but heard they can be a top shelf experience. -
biocellulose.
There -- ahem -- isn't any nonbiological cellulose.
I mean, there are things you can do to cellulose, like acetylate it (cellulose acetate is an 'old school' kinda polymer), but the feedstock is still cellulose.
It does grow on trees.
And other plants -- the preponderance of cellulose in the biome is the reason why glucose is the single most abundant organic molecule on Earth.
biocellulose.
oy vey...
-
That formula reads like my days at the bars in the Philippines...Aaron
Enabler Extraordinaire -
I decided to add AKG Q701s to my headphone rotation. I owned a pair of the K701s when they were first released and loved them, so decided to grab a pair for different listening compared to the Fostex planars.
Althought on paper they are reasonably sensitive, they do benefit from an amp, so I’m excited to try them with the Asgard amp.
-
cans are great for laying in bed and reading, not exactly for good health
-
After listening to my new pair of Fostex Dekoni Blue planar headphones, it seems like they are the dynamic microphone to my AKG Q701s condenser microphone; if the analogy holds for the positive.
-
-
Agreed... on both counts "....not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted." William Bruce Cameron, Informal Sociology: A Casual Introduction to Sociological Thinking (1963)
