Yet another headphone thread

I have been dreaming of a re-cabled HD555 with a portable friendly cord. Looks like Sennheiser just made my dreams come true:

http://www.sennheiser.com/sennheiser/home_en.nsf/root/private_headphones_hifi_audiophile-headphones_504631

I even love the color.

Headphonia has a comparison of the old and new 5xx line:

http://www.headfonia.com/old-and-new...

The 558 looks to be a 555 with a more open soundstage. A new gaming headphone just entered the running.

I went ahead and did the foam removal HD-555 mod. I'm pleasantly surprised in that I notice a fuller and deeper sound coming from my bass heavy songs. Not huge mind you, but certainly noticeable to this relative audio noob.

The directions in this video made it super easy in case anyone else is interested. So much so that I can't really imagine someone being able to mess it up. Please don't take that as a challenge though.

All in all, I give my hearty recommendation for any 555 owner out there.

I was looking at the MK III but apparently the MK II is a better fit for the AKG's.

My uDac2 showed up today, made a a big difference with the AKG's, a lot more bass so I'm really looking forward to the Little Dot to arrive, it should really bring out the clarity of these headphones..

I ordered the wireless Mixamp before the introductory price increase that's going to happen on 12/31. I'm still a bit up in the air as to which headphones I'm going to pair with it. Torn between the Sennheiser HD555's and the Audio Technica ATH-AD700's.

From what I've read, the AD700's are a bit lacking in bass, but may have a bit better soundstage. The HD555's with the mod might be fuller, I'm not sure.

Since I'm going to use these as a general headphones, I'm leaning HD555's.

Is my take about right? I've not been able to find a place in Nashville that has both that I can compare them, so I'm likely to just order from Amazon.

Outside option that I wouldn't have to mod in a mic would be the closed Sennheiser PC 350s.

Any other places to order headphones at a good price that would have a good return policy?

I'd agree with this.

The only big bonus for the AD700's for me is that they're more comfortable. The 555's and 595's are both very lightweight and easy to wear, but there's a little nub part sticking out inside the back half of the earcups that touches my ears, and it gets annoying after any particularly long period of use. Obviously that won't be true for everyone.

I think I could wear the 700's for hours and hours and be fine, between the headband and the giant sized earcups it's like they're not even there.

But from a sound standpoint the 555's are definitely at least a little better.

I purchased some Sennheiser 280 Pros about a year ago based on a few of your recommendations. They have been a great fit for me. So now I return to you audiophiles with a new question-

I'm listening to mostly Itunes Plus (256) quality music. I know, Itunes this and that... Its just too damn easy for me to even bother with anything else. I'm using on-board sound from my P55 mobo. What is my next step to get higher quality sound from my PC to my ears? (using Win7, since for some reason I recall that being important)

Also, how long should a set of abused Senns last? I feel like the quality of sound is just not as good as it was a year ago. Could be that I'm just losing my hearing though...

I use a small inexpensive portable headphone amp with it's own DAC. Something like that will work far better than a similarly priced soundcard (~$100) if you just want a good headphone feed.

If you want a great full-featured soundcard, though, with an excellent front panel headphone amp, then the HT | Omega Claro Plus+ would be a smart buy. It also has Dolby Headphone, which is great for both gaming and music.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...

That upgrade should keep you happy for years and the front panel amp is good enough to drive full-sized high impedance headphones, if you ever decide to upgrade or replace your headphones.

I don't know of any other cards that offer the same sort of high quality dedicated headphone amp built-in. I believe any of their cards marked "Claro Plus+" will have the front panel amp.

Buy it! The Astro 5.8 Mixamp is head and shoulders above the X41's. The 5.8 wireless signal is virtually silent, the 360 chat channel is very clean, and it is far more versatile than the X41's. The only issue I have found with the amp is that the battery life on the receiver is lame. It eats through batteries. Definitely get the rechargeable battery pack. It is worth it. You can use rechargeable AAAs, but you need to use your own charger. The battery pack sold by Astro charges when the receiver is plugged into the transmitter via USB.

The A30 headset is great for gaming (pinpoint positioning), but not so great with music. They are definitely tuned for gaming. They are actually fun to listen to on the iPhone if I use the EQ. There are cheaper headphones that put them to shame musically, though, but they are still superior to the X41 headset in that regard as well.

Unless simplicity and portability are key in the decision, I would pass on the A30 headset, and go with the HD555's for cheaper. It does both duties better (gaming/music).

Does this sound card act as a pass through for the optical? Can I use this card as a switch for my X41's; between Xbox and PC, using optical for both.
I know TB sells a card that says it's optical ports can be used as a pass through. The way I am thinking it would work is Xbox optical into card; card optical out to X41 base station. I see this as a good way to use my X41's for the PC as well as 360; any thoughts?

yes I know chat would still be a small issue for PC requiring wired controller or wireless dongle

iTunes 256 is perfectly competent as a source. Unless you have amazing ears, you're unlikely to ever need more. However, because it's a lossy format, converting to other lossy formats will cause significant sound degradation. You'll need to always use players and software that support AAC format natively for best results. You can burn the lossy tracks to CD, and they'll sound just as good as they do in AAC format, but you can't re-rip and compress them again. They become AAC files that take a ton of space, and running them through any other lossy compressor will double up on the artifacts and make them sound bad.

From where you are, replacing the soundcard will give you the most improvement, followed by driving that soundcard in WASAPI mode, which is Win7's version of bitperfect playback. Using a player that supports WASAPI output will avoid a whole class of mixing bugs and other Windows strangeness... the player can take exclusive control of the card and play back the file without any resampling or mangulation of any type. AFAIK, iTunes does not support WASAPI, and your marriage to the AAC format could give you some issues because of that. You can safely ignore WASAPI for now, but there's usually at least a small improvement to be made by using it.

As for what soundcard to choose, it depends on what you want to do. If it's just music and two-channel gaming, something like the Xonar Essence STX would suit very well. It'll do 110db of signal-to-noise on the built-in headphone amp, which is outstanding.

If you need more channels, a Xonar D2X has 7.1 analog outputs, and damn good sound (very similar to the Essence), but it does not have an integrated headphone amp. You don't need an amp for the headphones you have now, but if you're thinking about upgrading, that could be an issue. The Xonar DX is much cheaper, and uses lower-grade analog outs, but it's unclear that normal humans could even tell the difference. It's quite possible that the D2X is a waste of money for most folks. I had one, until my power supply blew it up, and it was truly outstanding. But $80 for a DX versus $200 for a D2X makes the DX a lot more appealing.

Another approach, if you want to use the new soundcard only to drive headphones for music, leaving the existing setup alone, is to pick up a Total Bithead from Headroom. It's a USB soundcard with a built-in amp. It'll run either from batteries or from the USB port -- it doesn't have enough power on USB to push big volume, but it's fine for most routine use. (You can add batteries even when it's on USB if you want more power.) It's a complete analog amp and DAC all in one unit.

I actually like the D2X's sound a little better than the Bithead's, but both are very competent units.

One warning: the Xonar's control panel is awful. It's designed to look slick, but you can't easily tell what's on and what's off, and settings are all over the darn place. It's usable, but expect some confusion and frustration until you figure it out. I fiddled with it, off and on, for many hours before I felt comfortable.

My onboard sound does 5.1 out, but only can take in 2 channels on the optical in. So I'd never be able to pass optical 5.1 sound from the Xbox to the PC optical out to the headphone base.

Wonder why this is so hard?

I have been thinking about ordering one of those switches for my incoming Mixamp 5.8 to be able to attach to both my PS3 and 360. I figure it's cheap enough that I'm not risking much.

We should probably throw this up here for those who missed it:

Okay, the first thing I need to say is that you should never, never, not ever use headphones that way. When you're looking for big, poundy, loud music, you should ALWAYS use speakers, because you simply cannot duplicate that full-body slam any other way. On headphones, you don't have the body cues that the music is too loud. Instead, you have to way, way overcrank the volume to kinda-sorta duplicate the feeling of big bass, beating the living shit out of the most sensitive organ in your entire body. It'll turn your ears to goo.

DO NOT use headphones for loud music listening. Just don't. It's NEVER worth the lifetime hearing damage. With headphones, turn up the volume just enough to hear everything clearly. If you want to seriously rock out, switch to speakers.

OK, that said, you want both gaming and good music. That means you don't want the Bithead, because it just doesn't work very well for gaming. You'll get weird dropouts and other strangeness from many games. It's excellent for music, but it's just annoying and unreliable with games.

You also don't need a headphone amp unless you're going to replace your headphones; your model is regular impedance, so you're fine on a regular headphone out.

Given those two things, I'd suggest either the Xonar DX for $80 if you're gonna stick with your existing cans, or the Essence STX for $200 if you're going to replace them with something high-impedance. The STX has an amp that'll comfortably drive pretty much anything. Note that you are trading away 7.1 sound in that instance, however... the STX ONLY has headphone outs. If you want both 7.1 and an amp, I'd probably do a DX and an outboard unit like the Total Airhead... the Airhead has only an analog amp, no DAC, so it's a little cheaper. If you want to be semi-portable, you can also buy a Bithead and just not use its DAC unless you're on a laptop. (and then be aware that gaming won't be very good.) The Bithead can run from USB power, but you'll get best results with batteries on either unit.

If you want super-luxury sound, you can replace the DX with the $200 D2X, but I'm not sure that normal people can tell the difference, and I don't think your existing headphones are good enough to make the difference audible anyway.

The Full Monty super-luxury edition would be a D2X, an Airhead or a Bithead, and a set of HD650s, which will probably run you about $650, but which will sound as good as a multi-thousand-dollar stereo.

You don't need to spend that much, however. Just $80 on a DX should be a very significant upgrade.