Yet another headphone thread

I was poking around Sennheiser's website, and it looks like they blasted most everything in their 400 series line. I knew the HD 439s had already disappeared, but it looks like all that is left is a version of the HD 429 with a mic. Bleh.

Hopefully, I'll get quite a few years out of my HD 439s since I can very easily replace the cord. I love these headphones quite a bit. After using them for at least 6 months, I can say they are a huge improvement over the HD 429s in respect to the comfort (velour-ish earpads and a bit tighter) and the removable cord feature.

I really wonder why Sennheiser is getting rid of the line.

I've been looking for a quality open ear 5.1 headset and while there are a few--the Plantronics GameCom and the Psyko series--none have reviewed terribly well. It being an open ear headset is of utmost importance to me since I need to be able to hear what's going on around me, and so I'm starting to look at open ear stereo headphones now rather than fall back on closed ear 5.1s. I don't really care if it's a headset with a mic or just plain old headphones, so inclined to go the audiophile route and get either the Audio Technica AD700s or Sennheiser 555s. I'm sure I'd be happy with either, so I'm mostly wondering if there's some headset I've missed in my search or if someone has an alternate suggestion? I really don't want to spend more than $100 but would stretch to $150 if the set were a real value.

I know the AD700's are supposed to have wonderful soundstage, but I haven't heard them. Would like to though. I don't think they're going to have much bass impact though.

Oh, and that would be a MUCH smarter choice than any 5.1 set. 6 speakers in a small area never works out. A good-quality large speaker is going to be better at everything.

Citizen86 wrote:

I know the AD700's are supposed to have wonderful soundstage, but I haven't heard them. Would like to though. I don't think they're going to have much bass impact though.

Oh, and that would be a MUCH smarter choice than any 5.1 set. 6 speakers in a small area never works out. A good-quality large speaker is going to be better at everything.

Agreed.

Also, as an owner of AD700's and A900's I have to say I'm a fan of Audiotechnica. Citizen is right about the bass response, as the AD700's are light on that end, but there's enough there to get the point across and the soundstage is excellent for games and for quite a lot of music.

Awesome. Sounds like the AD700s and an external mic is just the thing then.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:
thinkklinck wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:

Here are some other options you might check out for closed on ear.

Those AKG k 81 djs are only $40.50 on Amazon.

I'm a little partial to AKG because I have the K702s. ;)

How bout them, downtoan philips? on sale on amazon in brown for very cheap

At 58% off you probably can't go wrong! The inner fidelity review is pretty glowing and the Amazon reviews look great overall.

So I just received the brown ones of these today. Very classy styling (in brown), sound very nice to my ear, great for jazz, classical etc. Sound pretty tight in games, and still has some punchy bass for techno without being too overwhelming. Also very comfortable.

Glad to hear that!

Join me in the chorus of people who are now Audio-Technica fans after trying one on a lark after my previous cans broke. I find the quality of them to be pretty comparable to Sennheiser but much more comfortable to wear for long periods. (The Sennheisers always feel just a bit too tight.)

I own both the A700 and AD700, and have come to prefer the former. This is primarily because (a) I'm one of those jackasses who overvalue bass; (b) I'ld rather not disturb my lady-friend when it's late at night and; (c) I use it mostly for PC gaming or watching movies late at night and have enjoyed using Dolby Headphone for both so you can imagine that Dolby Headphone plus the crazy soundstage of the AD's leads to everything sounding like it's ridiculously far away and echoey.

That said, still prefer the ADs for music and used them for gaming in stereo for a long time without complaints, and you can wear them for hours without trouble. If they made a new version of the AD700 with better bass frequency, I think they would be the perfect headphone.

The thing I've found with just pumping out games to stereo (at least on PC), is that it does come across very stereo-y. I notice it most recently in Skyrim. I can hear someone if I'm looking directly at them, but turn slightly to the right and you lose the ability to hear them in the right ear MUCH quicker than you should. It's not like it cuts out, but it's just not realistic.

I do have the Corsair headset that has Dolby Headphones integrated, and it works pretty well. For games I prefer to use those than the straight headphone out or my Fiio E7. It's just too bad Dolby Headphones is so locked down, you need a specific device to get it to work. I can only use it with my Corsair headset.

It's a hardware solution for sure but it's not that hard to get ahold of. It comes as part of my sound card when I'm gaming and for television I use this doohickey.

I agree with you on the weird disconnect with some games using stereo headphones. Usually far away sounds are fine, but voices go from way too quiet to in your face too quickly when you run up to people, or you can hear the sound breaking from the side to the rear. Dolby Headphone has it's flaws, but it creates the illusion of 360 well enough for me, and certainly better than "5.1" headphones, which suffer from some of the same problems since they assume you're listening to that mix through speakers.

That said, an increasing number of games do include a better mix for headphones in their settings menu.

My PC supports THX TruStudio, which seems comparable to Dolby Headphone in terms of features. Seems like it's worth checking the specs for your audio device to see what it offers. Until now I'd just ignored the TruStudio service that installed with my motherboard drivers.

That looks like a cool doohickey. I was wondering what options there were, only one I knew of was the Astromix amp.

The thing with doing all your gaming on a laptop is that I'm basically limited to USB soundcards. I think there are some around, but nothing for a price I really wanted to pay.

Cross-posting from the "silly purchases" thread, I picked up a Klipsch S4i. The store was also having a sale on the Fiio E6 so I grabbed that as well.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/xdfF7l.jpg)

The Klipsch's sound a little muted (muffled?) compared my old set. I'm guessing it will improve once I connect the Fiio, but stupid me forgot to pick up an interconnect cable.

Usually, amplification helps more with bass than with treble. It can tighten up definition, clearing up slightly muddled soundstages if you've got an underpowered headphone jack for your cans, but it won't usually make any difference in terms of treble response.

Malor wrote:

Usually, amplification helps more with bass than with treble. It can tighten up definition, clearing up slightly muddled soundstages if you've got an underpowered headphone jack for your cans, but it won't usually make any difference in terms of treble response.

Thanks for clarifying - now that you mention it, I really noticed when the drums didn't "kick" on some of my favorite tracks, which I guess could be due to the lower bass response? Although most review seem to suggest that these headphones are almost overpowering on the bass response so now I'm confused

Could be a bit of your ears not being used to the sound...plus, these being traditional dynamic drivers, there's probably a bit of burn-in involved (if you subscribe to that particular theory)

From most reviews and feedback on head-fi, these are supposed to lean more towards the sibilant/harsh treble side of things.

jollyeskimo wrote:

Could be a bit of your ears not being used to the sound...plus, these being traditional dynamic drivers, there's probably a bit of burn-in involved (if you subscribe to that particular theory)

From most reviews and feedback on head-fi, these are supposed to lean more towards the sibilant/harsh treble side of things.

I've never tried to go through the burn-in process before - the one other pair of headphones I have (a Senn HD428) are not used often enough to justify the time. That said, I'm on vacation for the next few days so I might just plug the Klipsch set into an iPad and let it run for a day.

I just tried them again with the Fiio plugged in and I felt like the soundstage opened up quite a bit with the Fiio EQ on (it's quite mild on the EQ1 setting, EQ2 makes it too bass heavy and started to give me a headache). My test track was the GWJ2010 theme - I've listened to it often enough that I can tell the difference when changing settings, and Podunk's loaded the track with lots of phat beats

With occasional exceptions, it's not equipment that burns in, it's your ears. You just get used to the sound.

Just do a straight compare/contrast with the Senns, and whatever you hear, is whatever you hear. Cheap Klipsch stuff is rarely BAD, but it's also often not terribly GOOD, either, just sort of muddling along in the middle.

I wonder if it's fit that keeps them from sounding right to you? Try the different ear tips?

Glad to see another satisfied AD700 owner. They're really great all around cans.

Man, I've always wanted me a pair of AD700's....

The AD700s arrived today and I've been passing them around to my other audio geek friends at work. The universal consensus is that the bass is solid as opposed to skull-rattling and they sound awesome. I think I may have just sold another few pairs of headphones. About the only weird thing is that so far as I can tell the size of the headphones isn't adjustable, but they seem to fit a wide range of heads regardless.

[edit]

I've been listening to more music with these and I'll further qualify the comment on bass to say that they do fall down a bit on sub-bass frequencies. I can still hear the the tone, but there's very little weight behind it. So for some genres of hip hop or electronica where there's a rolling sub-bass line, a different set of headphones may be preferable. Still, they fit the bill perfectly for my intended use, which is more for gaming and casual listening rather than as a carry-everywhere listening set.

complexmath wrote:

I've been listening to more music with these and I'll further qualify the comment on bass to say that they do fall down a bit on sub-bass frequencies. I can still hear the the tone, but there's very little weight behind it. So for some genres of hip hop or electronica where there's a rolling sub-bass line, a different set of headphones may be preferable. Still, they fit the bill perfectly for my intended use, which is more for gaming and casual listening rather than as a carry-everywhere listening set.

There's a chance that what you're describing might be due to listening to a lossy recording, not amplifying the headphones, not using bitperfect audio, or your DAC. It might be something to think about. I can't recall, are you using the motherboard's audio or a soundcard of some sort?

This test was just plugged into my Mac Pro at work listening to a sampling of tracks I have in iTunes. I'm sure I could get more sub-bass out of a different source or with a headphone amp or whatever, but I do have other headphones where the subs are more tangible with the same setup. They just can't match the overall sound quality of the AD700s, and I'm not ready to spend on a quality set of bass-oriented cans like the Audio Technica Pro700 MKIIs to try and pick up the slack. Most of the time when I'm listening to the kind of music where this level of sub response is desirable it's on a real set of speakers these days anyway.

I'm looking for some decent In the Ear buds, preferably with mic/track control because I will be using it with my iPhone. I'd like to keep it around $20. Is that possible, or should I look to raise my budget?

The new Apple EarPods are actually surprisingly good and run about $25.

complexmath wrote:

I've been listening to more music with these and I'll further qualify the comment on bass to say that they do fall down a bit on sub-bass frequencies. I can still hear the the tone, but there's very little weight behind it. So for some genres of hip hop or electronica where there's a rolling sub-bass line, a different set of headphones may be preferable. Still, they fit the bill perfectly for my intended use, which is more for gaming and casual listening rather than as a carry-everywhere listening set.

For me, it is less being bothered by not enough bass in some places, but rather when you listen to content that is already very treble-heavy it can sometimes shine a bit too much.

Maybe it has been posted before... The Wirecutter. They just post whatever they think is best.
http://thewirecutter.com/leaderboard/headphones/

I finally got some time to try gaming with the AD700s and the open ear design really makes a difference in overall sound quality even on top of the better drivers. My only complaint now is that the sound effects used in the games I tried sound more artificial than they used to because I can hear them so much better, which really isn't a complaint at all This ended up being the perfect purchase for my needs, which is pretty awesome.

I remember several years ago, the first time I had a chance to try my friend's AKG K 701 set. I was awed by the incredibly open and airy sound they produced. I was jealous of them, but there was no way I could rationalize $300+ for a pair of headphones.

Flash forward to last month, I stumbled across a pretty fantastic deal for a pair of Beyerdynamic DT 990 cans, and they just arrived last night. These come pretty close to delivering what I remember of the AKGs, packing in a bit more bass but perhaps delivering overly bright highs. They are quite snug yet comfortable, far tighter against the head than 701s, and a bit more so than my Razer Carcharias.

And now I'm off in search of more FLACs.