Headphone Buying Megathread/Guide V4 - Come here for all your audio needs! (New Threads are not need - Hardware & Software

[QUOTE=Zotobom;53131884]At 199 euro's they're a bit out of my budget sadly. And i've already semi-decided on a true heathen pear of headphones: the Sony XB950B1. Bassboosted and Bluetooth, oh no. I got a replacement cable for my M50x so I can use that for producing and other things where flatness is more desired, and I can use the XB950's for general listening. They come with a smartphone app to tone down the bass if it's really too much, and I have a 30 day period where I can return it and get my money back if I end up not liking it.[/QUOTE] For what it's worth I owned the non-bluetooth version of those, and they were terrible even at the £40 I got them for.

Anyone know of a good 3.5mm Audio Jack? I've used 2 different braided cables in about 5 months and both of them end up with the same problem, that being that I have to fuck around with the cable around the jack or the sound only comes from my left ear, a problem that wasn't there at first but cropped up over time, and I don't understand why, but 2 cables of different make doing this shit is getting annoying now.

[QUOTE=GHOST!!!!;53133677]Anyone know of a good 3.5mm Audio Jack? I've used 2 different braided cables in about 5 months and both of them end up with the same problem, that being that I have to fuck around with the cable around the jack or the sound only comes from my left ear, a problem that wasn't there at first but cropped up over time, and I don't understand why, but 2 cables of different make doing this shit is getting annoying now.[/QUOTE] 3.5mm to what? 3.5mm male to male?

Male to Male.

I've found FiiO's short interconnects to be absolutely top-notch. For longer stuff Cable Mountain tend to be a good price:quality ratio.

Thanks, I'll check them out.

Looking for some new earbuds to replace my Xiaomi Piston 3's. Never really had any earbuds that cost over £15 and feel like spending a bit more than usual on some better ones. [B]Budget:[/B]£50 [B]eBay: [/B]Ideally not, last time I bought Earbuds from ebay they were counterfeit. [B]Country:[/B] United Kingdom [B]Isolation: [/B] Earbuds - so whatever I guess? [B]Purpose:[/B]Spotify, Youtube, Movies. Mostly in public spaces and at work. (Only allowed to use earbuds at work) [B]Music Tastes: [/B] Hip Hop, RnB, Acoustic, Indie Rock [B]Previous Experiences:[/B] Been using Xiaomi Piston 3's for about 3-4 years. They sound great, just one of them has died and they no longer are produced so I can't just get another pair. [B]Comments:[/B]I've been looking at: [URL="https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005HP3OB0/"]SoundMAGIC E10[/URL] and [URL="https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01M00S8ML"]Sony MDR-EX650AP[/URL]. Just wanted to know if any of you had any input/recommendations.

[QUOTE=Zotobom;53131884]At 199 euro's they're a bit out of my budget sadly. And i've already semi-decided on a true heathen pear of headphones: the Sony XB950B1. Bassboosted and Bluetooth, oh no. I got a replacement cable for my M50x so I can use that for producing and other things where flatness is more desired, and I can use the XB950's for general listening. They come with a smartphone app to tone down the bass if it's really too much, and I have a 30 day period where I can return it and get my money back if I end up not liking it.[/QUOTE] Ordered the V-Moda Crossfade LP2 instead, should arrive today. Should hopefully be good

Anyone still around who checks this thread? I have a Beyerdynamic dt990 pro which I'm loving but I've been using a shitty Asus xonar xg soundcard with it and while it does have an amp the drivers are absolute cancer so I had to find custom ones that fix it, and it doesn't work properly with linux whatsoever. I can either have 0 or 100 in volume, nothing in between. So I was thinking of getting an external dac and amp but I know very little about that area. Does the dac just go straight into your motherboard's audio output and if so does the motherboard's built in soundcard affect the quality? I would assume it does since it still has to pass through it, but I'm not that anal about sound quality as long as it sounds better and doesn't blow out my ears whenever I boot into linux and forget to lower the volume on a program manually.

An external DAC is usually hooked up via USB and depending on the simplicity of the dac, will or will not require drivers for it to properly work. Something like the ODAC or Schiit fulla 2 are simple enough to not need any drivers and are both a plug-and-play affair, but more advanced sample rates will require drivers to work properly.

My LP1's have lasted me from the release year until now and are going strong. The part that adjusts the left side is broken and while it remains stationary, it doesn't click when adjusting, the leather is basically gone on the sides of the band, there's an entire chunk missing on the plastic part of the band by the screws. Oh and there's like 2-3 cracks in the headphone shells themselves. (they've been all around the world with me and were definitely subject to some pretty harsh conditions at times) I've changed the cushions twice and tbh they're still amazing headphones. I'm honestly probably going to use their immortal life warranty and get a pair of the m100's but idk, I just can't fathom not having headphones for so long.

I believe you mean the Fulla Schiit. In other news the Bimby and Magni 3 are performing excellently, though it irks me that the $99 Magni has pressed in feets and the $599 Bimby has stick on feets. Also the power lights are different temperatures which is degrading my listening experience greatly, at least they aren't blue. Customs a shit, I want my planars but they've been sitting there awaiting clearance since thursday.

I finally got my Magni 3, and I gotta say, I don't think it's as good as my Magni 2 Uber. It sounds a bit more muffled with a hint more distortion or something? It's hard to pinpoint

Always had an eye on Schiit's stuff but sadly there is no viable way of buying their stuff in the EU and the shipping is very expensive, not to mention Swedish customs have flipped out as of late and is slapping everyone with a hefty customs tax. Also my dt990s say 250 ohms on them, my current soundcard isn't anywhere near that but can push around 64 ohms, the fulla 2 is only 16 but maybe that doesn't matter? I used to know a bit more about his stuff when I bought it but I'm probably overdue for a refresher. Either way are there any comparable brands to schiit that ideally distribute in the EU?

What's wrong with this mob? Welcome at Schiit Audio Europe ! Modi

As a rule of thumb you want the output impedance of an amp to be as low as possible and at max about 1/8 of the headphones impedance. That said. I'm using the DT990 Pros with a cheap Sabaj D2 DAC/Amp. Works well and i can have multiple sources hooked up to it. I also had a Fiio E10K here and couldn't hear a difference really.

Thanks for the info, I'll check those out.

I'd say if you want to upgrade from your DT990 at some point then go for Schiit. Otherwise the Fiio is fine. It is one of their older DACs and it hasn't got a successor yet but it still holds up.

Haven't considered upgrading my headphones whatsoever, had them for about five years now and I love them. They are quite nasty now though, should probably replace the ear pads. No idea what a logical upgrade would even be. Oh man, don't make me fall into another several months of researching, I just got out of one of those periods, finally buying a Switch after researching various consoles and whatnot for far too long.

Yeah had the same problem. Got tired of washing the damn pads every 2 weeks and then just switched to Brainwavz HM5 leather pads. Turns the DT990 into semi-open headphones though.

Funny, I found the magni 2U a bit too bright and the magni 3 a little more to my liking.

so youd agree with the assessment the 3 is a bit more mellow than the 2u? to me it just packs less of a punch and doesn't seem to cope as well with high treble

I'm thinking about getting some proper headphones and making it into a headset. I have a pair HyperX Cloud II but the sound quality and mic is kind of lacking. Do you guys think that a pair of Sennheiser HD 598's and a ModMic 5 would be a good combination? I also plan on using it with a VR headset as well. More specifically this one: https://www.amazon.com/Dell-Virtual-Reality-Controllers-Compatible/dp/B077R65C4D/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1521587061&sr=8-2&keywords=dell+visor So what do you guys think?

i would try to avoid using full fledged headphones with wmr because it gets hot enough furiously flailing your arms around

Huh, you think? The only reason I thought of doing something like that with headphones is because of blunty's videos. Seems like that's the exact setup he has. Idk, I'll try it out when I actually get the thing.

idk, I just own an Odyssey and playing something like Climbey gets the headset hot enough that I'd consider just using cheaper sports earbuds for any other WMR headset

Every two weeks is dedication. I washed mine two days ago for the first time since I got them 5 years ago. I guess I've been in denial about how nasty they are. They are pretty nice and shiny again but some of the nerd grease will never come out and has forever tainted it and my soul. Still they feel pretty new again even though they were so nasty.

Anyone on a low budget, Aliexpress has their annual sale on in about 13 hours. Always good for some good chi-fi deals. I'm probably going to pick up a KZ ZSR & Tin Audio T2 just to try since at that price....

I finally got a pair of HD201s for cheap because they needed a recable. The rubber sleeves and stopper aren't glued to the cables themselves so it was easy enough to get them looking factory-new, which really makes me wonder why all the recables on head-fi opt to remove the stock hardware and stick some horrible thick or braided cables on there. Wonderful cans, though. Really nice for music compared to my lifechat headset, they pretty much made me go through half my punk rock discography. They're power hogs though, gotta crank my phone to full volume to get something worth listening to.

Does anyone have recommendations for an IEM that sounds close to either the M50x or HD598, and has a decent mic? I use my M50xs daily but I definitely don't want to wear them in the summer. Cheaper is better but I'm willing to splash if it's worth it.