[Chron Article] Music fans, do you think high end headphones worth it?

Never buy the POS headphone such as Shure. They never fit your ears to stay put and I think it's the Shure E2C. The thing doesn't sound that much better than a $20 earphone. I've bought so many head phones over the year and they are suck. The Sennheiser PX 100 is a nice head phone but you can't wear it for more than 5 mins without it cutting into your ears. After even modifying it with extra padding it still cut into your ears. The Sennheiser HD 570 is a nice headphone but once again lack the punch and heat up your head pretty quickly in the summer. Not very comfortable. Now I'm just sticking with my crappy Apple earphone since my other 2 earphone are brokened over the years is all I need to what I'm doing on the computer. Youtube and other videos on my computer aren't greatest for sound anyway so no point in using a highend headphones and another thing is that I hate too much base. Don't really need to much base when most of the stuff that I watch are usually vocals.

 

Sennheiser 595

One of the best purchases I've ever made.

 

If you really want good sound coming from your headphones get a receiver. I output the optical from my computer to my receiver and connect my head phone to my receiver and it's day and night. It's an old Panasonic receiver that I bought many years ago that came with the speakers so I decided to use it with my computer. Makes everything sound better. I only turn it on if I really want good sound.

 

btw, for those of you who don't need portable headphones, don't want to use a separate headphone amp, and can deal with an open back design (meaning, some sound will leak into the room and be audible to others), and lastly, don't want to spend a lot, these are absolutely superb, and can often be found for even less than Amazon is charging:

http://www.amazon.com/Technica-ATH-...-Headphones/dp/B000CMS0XU/ref=pd_bxgy_e_img_c

 

If you want to spend EVEN LESS money, check these out
http://www.amazon.com/JVC-HARX700-P...1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1325630563&sr=1-1

I just bought one myself. Got good reviews and some people on headfi are really in love with this thing calling it the best 30ish dollars can get.

 

You misunderstood me. Soundstage and bass you can feel are the biggest difference in speaker vs. headphones. However, because they are one of many qualities in creating a musical experience for me, I'm willing to overlook the inability of headphones to provide that powerful chest thumping bass and concert hall sound.

In this way, I can still compare speakers to headphones for myself though I realize other people might not feel the same way.

 

i agree. i also love the triple fi 10's. more portable mid-sized headphones like the Audio Technica ES-10

have a good seal and are compact enough to not be a hinderance.

im intrigued by the Velodyne earphones as well. My Denons were under 100 bux and were great but theyre dying after 2 years of use.

dont overpay for beats or bose. upgrading ur stock earphones is worth it. getting a $10,000 Morpheus headphone/amp combo? prolly not so much unless you have the sources to enjoy every nuance. (not 192 kbps mp3 but super audio cd or audio dvd).

 

i think wat hes referring to is the fact that w/headphones u can control ur environment better. with speakers u need to take into account ur space speaker positioning etc. but yeah soundstage is one thing speakers have an advantage over headphones on but there are still some open headphones like the AKG K1000s that sound superb and great soundstage.

 

Bose or never.

 

There are some bargains that deliver in leaps and bounds.

The thing that set me off was a bargain on KOSS PortaPros for like 12 bucks or something.

Even if it leaked sound like crazy and the clip-ons irritated after a few hours, I began to know what a soundstage and separation meant.

When there was a bargain on those Ultimate Ears TF10s, I jumped on that but the buds were too big for my ears. Looks who's gonna get a reshell....

Also found some refurbished HD-428s for 20 bucks. Sounds great as it is now. Hopefully I can tell the difference to the other ones I bought....

So pretty much you do some research on head-fi when a deal comes out. If you're a bargain hunter, I'd pay real close attention to "too good to be true" deals. There's a lot of Sennheiser forgeries going around, even among Amazon retailers, so follow your gut and at least do a quick google search of the merchant (instead of trusting the front like Amazon or Ebay).

Tigerdirects been selling it's ProMedia cousins for 35 bucks. Also has a microphone included. Almost new same sound quality as the drivers are the same.

What are your impressions on these cans?

I just stumbled upon the FA craze at head-fi when I had some bonus money to spend. Because the 11's were open cans, I chose the 06 and the 04's instead. The 04's are popular enough that the current version is out of stock. I won't be able to try them out until I get home on the weekend.

The reviews on Fischer Audio's FA-XXX line has been enthusiastic.

Both are around 80 after shipping expense. It'd be 60 if I lived in Europe...

Even though my audiologist told me my hearing was great (for the mold fitting), I'm not even confident on my judge for "great sound quality" since I know my right ear can hear less frequencies than my right.

I'm more or less satisfied with 320 kps mp3s even if there's some muddiness in the separation. (Finding FLACs that I like is a different issue since my waffle account is inactive) I guess I'm too lazy to dl lossless audio since I don't have everything I need. I guess that'll change soon.

 

It's kind of like art, I don't know anything about it, I just know what I like. Actually, a better analogy might be wine. I really have tried to educate myself on these subjects as much as possible, but I've found that the more I know, the more I don't know. Also, I don't think my palette or my hearing are good enough to justify the money I've wasted on wine and audio gear. Nevertheless, if I don't spend it somewhere, my wife will spend it all on shoes and handbags. Also.....like wine.....I really like a good bargain. Never the most expensive, but something that real (or self proclaimed) experts believe to be a great value. That's why I bought the Fischers.

In all honestly, I really like them. I use them mostly in the bedroom---Apple lossless on my mac, going through an airport express into a Peachtree Audio Decco2 used solely for its preamp section, the DAC and as a headphone amp. And of course, I use remote on my iPhone to control it all. It sounds great....I'm not going to go into all of the audiophile terminology (most of it, I'd be hesitant to form an opinion on anyway) other than the bass is "there" and tight. They have a warmth that appeals to me, and there is NEVER any listener fatigue. As best as my old ass ears can tell, they have a great soundstage as well. Certainly worth the money. Biggest complaint is that with the open design, I constantly have to be interrupted by my wife wondering if I'm damaging my ears.

The funny thing....and I feel like such a tool saying this.....is that I had them hooked up with one of the cheaper audio quest USB cables which I was already a bit embarrassed that I hadn't just used some USB cable that came free with some peripheral.....because, you know....."bits is bits," right? Anyway, I had some intermittent dropouts, so I bit the bullet (it was around Christmas, and you know......merry Christmas to me, right?) and bought a pangea USB AG cable. Now this wasn't some USB cable that cost several thousand dollars (yes, they exist, and yes, people buy them), but it did cost me about 70 bucks which seemed so stupid at the time. But I did it.

And I swear.....it was worth every penny. Not only did it eliminate the dropouts, the sound is so much clearer, cleaner, and fuller. Granted, one could argue that I just had a bad cable before, but man......the difference was such that it really makes me think there might be something to the whole "jitter" argument. Anyway, I'd definitely recommend the Fischers....and they look expensive too!

 

I still haven't picked up the 2 Fischer Audios I ordered from the delivery offices (one's smack dab near Austin Airport 30 miles away), but I did manage to order Brainwavs M4 earbuds for 40.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_s...ywords=brainwavz+m4&sprefix=brainwavz,aps,365

There's 2 options (mic/no mic) for 40 bucks. Or you can go to MP4nation and get an amp (another great value)/m4 bundle for ~70 (around the same combined at Amazon but faster delivery)

I've seen a lot of good reviews claiming it's a good value ~75 bucks (much better reviews than the Klipsch promedia/s4 I was pushing earler)

I think those promedias are pretty nice over the sennheiser cx300s I've beaten up for years, but I'm always interested in hearing a better sound/value. Hopefully I won't end up too outta control. I have like 5 ~$50 headphone/earbuds to listen to, and a triple-fi to reshell.

Passing along for those interested.

 

Like some of you guys said, definitely worth it but if you're low on money below 100 bucks is good, too. Would buy Bose or somethin in that range if I had more money though...

 

http://www.amazon.com/Brainwavz-BWA...es/dp/B0068Z8JBS/?t=slickdeals&tag=slickdeals

These buds are pretty good deal for the current price at 28