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Audiophiles: Headphones and Amps and Speakers; Oh, My!
Trajan45
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Thread for all things audio!
Reddit Resource Index (has useful explanations, such as, what is closed back vs open back headphones): https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/wiki/resourcesindex/
Hear a term you're not familiar with (ie Bright or Warm): Glossary of Audio Terms
Reddit Resource Index (has useful explanations, such as, what is closed back vs open back headphones): https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/wiki/resourcesindex/
Hear a term you're not familiar with (ie Bright or Warm): Glossary of Audio Terms
Origin ID\ Steam ID: Trajan45
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This is a very slippery slope haha. I'd just pick a starting spot, either a budget option like the Sony or Jlabs from Amazon. Just be careful with the packaging and make sure you are ordering them from Amazon and not a 3rd party (I had an issue with a 3rd party wanting me to pay for the return). Try them out for a day or 2, if they don't sound great or are uncomfortable return them and move up to the Sennheisers.
Or just start with the Sennheisers, do the same thing, test them for a couple days and see. I did this with 3 sets of headphones and didn't have an issue. If your planning on a dozen, maybe Amazon will start to have issues haha.
Right now, the best option most mortal folks have is hoping they have a best buy near them with some of the higher end wireless headphones (Sony, Bose) or hoping for an easy return via Amazon, B&H, or any online retailer with a good return policy.
One piece of advise I'd throw to anyone who might be looking for new headphones in the next 2-3 years. See if you have any vacations or work trips planned to a big city. New York for sure has specific audio shops, but some other big cities do as well. And it's well worth the time to dedicate an hour or 2 while your there seeing which brands and models you like, just to help inform your decision even if it's years away.
I'm in Carlsbad CA US. I'll try looking if there is any spot(s) nearby.
Also, I know I said my budget was around $200, but I find myself thinking in a loop wanting to justify higher ones. One train of thought is that I'll be using it to play on my PC (which I spent $5100 on with a $1100 monitor) so what's spending 300-400 on some nice headphones. Oh man, I am soo doomed. 😆
I ended up with the Audeze LCD-2 Classic, which I think I got on sale for around $650. But I tried 3 other models before landing on them. Funny enough, they didn't sound that great out of the box, but using some standard EQ for the model turned them into something perfect for me and they are super comfortable. I could wear them all day (I have a big neck though so the weight doesn't bother me). Also wireless wasn't a requirement for me, since I perhaps stupidly "backed" the drop Pandas which are falling apart but still sound nice and work.
The kicker with audio though is that spending more money is diminishing returns. The more expensive the more minor the difference. From my testing, once you get in the $600-800 range, most everything was super comfortable.
You have an interesting option if you'd like, especially if you plan on spending more money: https://canjamglobal.com/shows/socal2024/ The SoCal CanJam conference is going on in a couple weeks just north of you. I wasn't able to hit the New York one, but I really wanted to. This show should have just about every vendor with their headphones hooked up to try. If you were thinking about the high high end of wireless headphones, Focal Bathy's or the B&W Px8's, this would be a good chance to test them. Sony and Sennheiser are both listed, they may have some of their wireless headphones (or some Best Buy near the conversion center haha).
If that's not possible, you'll have to try the online route. From what I remember, the Bathy's vs Px8 is like the Xbox vs Playstation kind of debate. When I go to upgrade my Panda's, I'll have to either hope I can do it online, or make it to the New York CanJam to try them out.
Any recommendations? Flexible budget for pretty much anything under $500, but I don't feel obligated to waste money either.
Well, I upgraded from the Klipsch 2.1s to a set of Vanatoo T0s and I've been very happy. They're even having a pretty steep sale right now on the first iteration of the T0s.
Yeah, sadly, going to that expo is not doable for me as I am out of town for work during that time frame. UUgh, I really wish there was a place to just try them on and test how they fit my big head and hope they don't squish my ears.
Ya, I put some feelers out and had some people say they really like the Sony XM5.
Lots of option with that budget.
Try and see if you can find a pair of B&W MM-1's. They have been out of production for a couple of years, but do pop up on ebay and the like because they are really good.
You'll probably need to jump over to reddit (or this review: https://www.soundguys.com/bose-quietcomfort-headphones-vs-sony-wh-1000xm5-100328/), I've only listened to them at bestbuy with their demo music. I liked the Sony slightly more, seemed like it had a bit more bass. But both have EQ apps, so it probably doesn't matter much. But as for which one is better, always seemed like an Xbox vs Playstation debate. There probably isn't a clear answer.
I don't think you can go too wrong with either. I really enjoyed using my Pandas (by extension any wireless headset) for gaming, since it allowed me to also use them for music on the go, traveling, even a call in a pinch. The versatility of have 1 nice set of headphones for a bunch of use cases was nice.
Panda's? That a brand name? Have not heard it.
They were a limited time thing. I thought the sound quality was good, but construction sucked and tons of people's units started going bad fast. My hinges are shot, but I epoxied them for now.
I've heard good things about the Audeze Maxwell if you want to get something that is high sound quality but also suitable for gaming.
I'm just back to wired headsets personally. I've got a collection but always end up with my Verum's as they are so darn comfy.
The downsides are that cheaper planars tend to have little to no bass. When using the Panda's in passive mode and testing Ace Combat 7, you could barely hear missiles explode. I had to use my Sound Blaster SBX bass booster to fix it. Thankfully the Panda's had an active THX mode when not plugged in, which also solved the bass issue. Given some of the reviews, I'd be nervous about that with the Maxwells. It's only once you get up to their LCD line does the bass really come back (though they are still not in the "bass head" category). I'd also be a bit nervous about comfort. They look very similar to the DT770 Pro's I tried with their fabric pads, and I found them really uncomfortable.
edit: and of course they are less portable than say the Sony's or Bose, since you can use those on an airplane or public transit a bit more easily. Especially if the Maxwell's boom mic isn't detachable ha.
I would def hesitate to use them via BT just due to latency.
I wish I could 1000% this. I see where they were coming from, they didn't want to rely on the battery while plugged in, but at least give users the option. Everything post launch from that Drop was terrible.
Thankfully you can plug the Sony's in with a wire if you find the BT latency too much. I mentioned way back, but if you go the BT route, I'd 100% get an external bluetooth transmitter with low latency support for your PC.
Vanatoo's have been great and they were on a solid sale. Thanks for the rec.
I hear good things about the Samsung Q990. There has been several iterations of the Q990, but any of the later should be good. For something more fancy then B&O might be it, still good price to performance as you get a lot only it is costly.
I am seeking a headset primarily for gaming and watching/streaming on my PC. Wireless is much preferred. Also, if they could run with dual inputs, meaning playing my music on PC and the game on PC as well. I tried that with the Bose, and it seemed to have issues with doing that, making one or the other very quiet. Budget is 300-400USD. Help appreciated, thanks.
Sounds like when gaming they're using up a channel for the microphone, so they're using the lower-quality audio mode to allow for that. When using only audio (music) it doesn't assume you want to use the mike and uses the full audio quality mode.
Unless something has changed considerably since I last looked, you're basically looking at something wired or with a proprietary wireless dongle.
Yeah this seems like a configuration issue. When you say you plugged them in, what do you mean? Are you using a USB cable with PC?
If you are using bluetooth with PC, are you using it via motherboard or did you buy a BT 5.3 dongle?
I bought a little dongle that goes into a USB slot in the front of my case.
You could start here: https://www.reddit.com/r/bose/comments/18nemdy/low_audio_quality_when_qc_ultra_connected_to/
I have a 2.1 setup for my pc; Edifier S330. Sub under the desk and speakers either end of the table, which is wide enough for a dual widescreen monitor setup. It’s a great system but pretty old at this point. One grill cover keeps popping off a speaker.
Black Friday sales means I could grab an Edifier S2000MKIII for like half price. 2.0 setup, apparently amazing quality. Even half off it’s more than double what I spent on the old Edifiers originally.
But I don’t know how big a quality difference it is; worthwhile? Also wondering if I’ll miss the subwoofer. There’s finally concern over whether the larger speakers will fit in my desk but we’ll get to that later.
Anyone have any thoughts?
I had a set of Arctis Steelseries 5 wireless headphones that served me just fine until they started to literally fall apart.
No worries, right? I'll just hop onto Amazon and get the Arctis Nova 7 Wireless headphones, the latest in the series.
Okay so first of all these are now using Bluetooth instead of whatever proprietary wireless tech the previous version used, and they have much worse range in my home than the older set. That's annoying but I don't know that there's anything to do about it.
But what is really annoying is that while the old set had the ability to adjust the volume balance between voice chat and game audio... the new headphones want me to create a login for their app in order to utilize the volume balancing on my headphones.
Please, somebody tell me there's a way to have these headphones provide the function that already exists without me having to create a login to a proprietary app, when this restriction has obviously been arbitrarily imposed by the manufacturer as a way of harvesting info to resell.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
I loved my old Arctis 7 and hate the new Arctis Nova over this. Huge letdown.
But the previous generation of Arctis headsets used to have two separate adapters and drivers for voice audio and gaming audio so you didn't even need to download the SteelSeries "engine" if you didn't want to. But the latest gen doesn't have that and needs both the engine and their shitty "Sonar" feature enabled for the game/chat volume mixer to work.
When I click the toggle to activate Sonar it brings up a pop-up that is prompting me to log-in or create and account. There's no option to bypass it, and clicking away from it just closes the pop-up and keeps it toggled off.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
I've got a pioneer pl-518 I'm cleaning up for my son for Christmas and it has an audio cable with 3 hookups. what's the third one for =p
I have no idea what to search for so google has been no help