/hpg/ - Headphone General

Before this thread inevitably turns into a shitpost im just putting this out here. There are excellent headphones from many many manufactures. It doest matter if you think STAX is the best, Sennheiser is the best, or Audeze is the best. All that matters is that you enjoy it. I own an 007 but I've also owned and enjoy headphones from many different companies. I appreciate innovation and even headphones I don't like I can respect the reasons someone may like them. Putting it out there to remember the human and understand that everyone has their reasons for liking and or disliking something. And the end goal is as long as YOU enjoy it... That's all that matters.

Happy Listening!

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Redpill on STAX for newbies: STAX is an old Jap company with outdated tech that was considered high end back in the 1960s and 1970s but sounds like ass by today's standards, so they went nearly bankrupt. They were purchased by a Chinese company for just a million dollars who decided to market STAX to the audiophool "more expensive is better" demographic who buys those crappy $3000 vinyl players, they shill heavily on HeadFi and here on /hpg/, plus they pay Zeos to shill their crap just like Fostex does.

>In December 2011, Chinese loudspeaker manufacturer Edifier announced the acquisition of 100% equity in Stax

Oratory has measured the highest end STAX, the SR-009S.

dropbox.com/s/61srehjyaltd7w0/Stax SR-009S.pdf?dl=0

dropbox.com/s/dm0m6u3s3b4zqzl/Sennheiser HD600.pdf?dl=0

It's worse than the HD600. HD600 scored 92 and SR-009S scored 76.

Recently Rtings rated STAX across various dimension, it's worse in terms of sound than mid-priced offerings from Hifiman and Audeze, and only got a 7.7 rating.

i.imgur.com/W7hz3rh.png

In a separate study:

>The very highest end STAX ($4000 SR-009) was rated lower in blind tests than a $200 K701

aes.org/e-lib/browse.cfm?elib=17441

Download the PDF of the study at: mega.nz/#F!3MFm1DrD!4GlU_vNtEeF148kZcQ05wA

Oratory (respected sound engineer) on the build:

i.imgur.com/Dru4gzZ.png

Even best Stax headphones sound objectively worse than mid-fi. This is why they don't demo them in store, they rely on the internet to create a sense of mystique around STAX and shill it as the endgame because its expensive, Asian, rare and obscure. In reality its no bass sounding garbage, with shrill highs that appeal only to near-deaf boomers. And what they say is true, they have no soundstage.

To add insult to overpriced injury, they have shitty plastic build quality that you would expect on cheap chinkshit headphones:

youtube.com/watch?v=Bf38cKJ6NBc

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Stax just sound like shit

The staxchads are laughing at us AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

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Can I control my headphone's volume with the monitor knob or is it just for the sound that's coming from the microphone?

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Idol trash here. What's your setup like, user?
Nice OP!
That's a boi.

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>Open
SHP9500S
HD800 (bought yesterday)
>Closed
Sony MDR-7506
Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro 250Ω (arriving tomorrow)
>AMP / DAC
FX Audio DAC-X6 (upgrading soon)

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someone answer me fuck

S
T
A
X

ayy are you me user? What are you planning to upgrade to?

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Hope you enjoy it, user. Ordered a new headband and some AHG pads for mine.

>What are you planning to upgrade to?
Don't really know yet.
Maybe a Modi 3 and Magni 3.
Can't really spend that much.
What do you have?

Need wireless sport earbuds, which ones:

JBL t110bt
JBL t160bt
huawei am61

Getting an enog dac and thinking about amps for now

Yeah that's just the volume knob.

Thinking of getting the HD 600's, but i'm pretty new to the audiophile scene, would just using this dac/amp work fine for them?

amazon.com/dp/B07G2NQYLX/ref=psdc_537344_t1_B072JJT7SF

Just get the headphones for now.
Amps and DACs should be a solved problem today, except not; you can't just buy randomly unfortunately. Take your time later to decide what to get.
You need an amp more than you need a DAC, so look at the JDS Labs Atom if you want a solid choice that doesn't cost a leg.

How would i know if i need a dac/amp then? Just going off what i read here and shit, but i guess since i'm only using the headphones on my pc it doesn't matter?

what the fuck happened to r/headphones? it used to be sophisticated but now it's just epic memes.

do your headphones get loud enough? if not get an amp. Can you hear interference? get a dac. You still hear interference? use spdif from pc to dac if possible.

>do I need an amp? HD600
Yes.
>do I need an amp? (general case)
nwavguy.blogspot.com/2011/09/more-power.html
audiobot9000.com
>do I need a DAC?
Probably not, unless your source is faulty. Can you hear noise floor? Perhaps it sounds lowpassed? Perhaps some other form of distortion?
>what to get (current standard advice: Transparent, well-measuring, cost-efficient solutions)
Amp+DAC combo -> Topping DX3
Just Amp -> JDSLabs Atom
Just DAC -> Schiit Modi 3, JDSLabs OL-DAC

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what about the Magni 3?

JDSLabs atom outperforms it in specs, measurements, and reviews. And it does cost about the same.

Good morning s t a x bros

Don't get topping DX3 until the permanent standby issue is resolved.

>>do I need an amp? HD600
>Yes.
OH NONONONO

Without an amp, it'll still sound neutral and well-rounded, but will not handle transients anywhere as well, so it'll feel a little soft/muffled.
You could try using it for a while without an amp. You'll like it already, and appreciate the amp more once you get it.

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>but will not handle transients anywhere as well, so it'll feel a little soft/muffled.
>You could try using it for a while without an amp. You'll like it already, and appreciate the amp more once you get it.
I'm not that guy you were talking too. I couldn't notice a difference with an amp besides more power. If anything I could report it being placebo of a slightly, I mean slightly, like a piece of hair boost in tightness of bass. I didn't find it muffled without an amp.

How much difference will depend on what source you're comparing against.
Motherboards these days often do have headphones amps, and that might be enough... or not. My Z97M-Plus doesn't do well.

>and that might be enough... or not
It really is. My motherboard has ALC1220 and ES9018(popular dac chip). I don't see a reason to get an amp or dac with the HD 600 with this motherboard.
>Z97M-Plus
It's a bit on the older side. My motherboard will be 1.5 years old now. Z370

Why the fuck is this taking so much space just for a 4 minute song. How do I compress it but still retain about the same audio quality?

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>st*x

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love my SHP9500S to death

How do they measure build quality

Very dumb question.

Can these stands make your headphone's clamping force weaker over time?

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You don't need an amp, motherboards have solved the amp question. There is literally no benefit to using an amp and anyone who claims it is is welcome to prove it using a blind test, which we know will never happen for obvious reasons.

Yes, in the same manner having them on your head will.

579 or 599?

they pick them up and check if the're gonna break just from you moving them or not

So far, every source I've tried sounds worse than my dx3, and I've connected the HD600 to pretty much everything. My phone comes closest.
It's only possible to claim "I don't need an amp" if you have one, and hear no difference with any source you'd plug HD600 to.

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well shit

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579. Cheaper, better in reviews and near-identical FR.
>rtings

whichever is cheaper.

Well would you rather pay $200 for a dac/amp that provides smol improvement or put that to a better headphone? I regret buying an amp because hpg shilled it. I'm sure you were part of that.

>tfw refreshing mail page forever and my new headphone still isn't home
>will probably take another week
H-hold me, anons

$99 for a jds atom. It'll drive every headphone out there no problem, save those that need special sources, such as STAX energizers.

Less than an actual head though, as you can see the model is obviously slimmer than your head, so depending on the headphone it might not exert any force at all.

What did you order?

Open: shp9500, hd558
Closed: amperior, hd25, hd280, momentum (1, over-ear) mdr7505
Amp: fx-x6, fiio e5 on portable
Player: winamp on PC, Sansa view as portable

All files are flacs.

I'm trying to find a cheap pair of hd580's next. Don't really feel like anything else needs upgrading (I'm fine with my fx-x6, dunno why it gets so much hate)

>I'm fine with my fx-x6, dunno why it gets so much hate
Measures poorly.
>I'm trying to find a cheap pair of hd580's next
Why not get the main reference, HD600? :-)

These. They're called Kuba Disco. Reviewers seem to praise them quite a lot. They even have a acoustic bass controller, where you can change the size of an opening and change the can's characteristics. I'm pretty hyped.

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>$99 for a jds atom
I don't need it for my headphones I have.

Friendly reminder that you should buy yourself a decent headphone and then buy loudspeakers if you actually care about sound reproduction. Don't fall for headphone meme.

Wtf are you talking about? You absolutely need an amp on high impedance headphones. Most audio outputs on a motherboard are going to struggle to drive anything over 80ohms. Through some dt990s or hd600s on it and you'll need to crank the volume to 90% to get enough gain to hear it properly.

You probably meant dac, which is kinda true.

I've had several amps in the past, they were an absolute necessity back in the day, but amplification is a pretty straightforward process and you are going to have to try harder than claiming you can hear a difference when the process is the exact same. This is why you will never in a million years see blind tests done on amplifier reviews, it's all talk with no objective testing as it would kill the market completely.

Locally, the hd580 sells used for around $100. The hd600 sells for $300 used... Not worth the jump in price.

>hd580 sells used for around $100.
That is a good price indeed.
>The hd600 sells for $300 used...
What the fuck. It's usually ~$285 *new* even on Amazon.

>Through some dt990s or hd600s on it and you'll need to crank the volume to 90% to get enough gain to hear it properly.
Only if you are deaf.

I see you are posting from 2001. Sorry but to claim motherboards made in the last 5 years struggle with driving a pair of DT 990s is just silly.

Funny thing is that this is right on the money in a lot of cases, a bunch of older guys who have damaged their hearing talking about fidelity without addressing the elephant in the room.

Honestly I can get away with 6%-10% volume on winblows with HD 600. The headroom for EQ is substantial if anyone tries to argue that. DT 990 isn't that much harder to drive than HD600 I can get away with 10-14%.

Here's an excerpt pic related that was archived from the legendary thread where he got deleted and spotted.
He's still among us.
For the easily identifiable pic posts. Can't prove he's the one posting the troll posts unless he gets nuked again but it's pretty obvious most of the stax spamming here is him being back at shitting /hpg/.
Remember this the next time you see stax shilling : most of it is done by someone who believes in dac, amp, cable magic, hates topping, benchmark, but also subjectivist gear like audiogd and schiit because it's not expensive enough. He also has schizophrenia and will act like a newfag asking innocent questions.

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You know a simple multimeter will tell you a 3.5mm output on a motherboard is insufficient. But hey, maybe you know more than what Sennheiser and Beyer Dynamics and at and etc.... Engineers when they rate the impedance of the things they designed.

You seem like the kinda guy who plugs his qc3.0 phone into an old 500mah power adapter and is satisfied that it only takes 4 hours to charge...

>when they rate the impedance
Impedance is not power requirement.

For all intents and purposes, unless you want to be a pedantic ass, it is.

If your port isn't outputting enough amperage, you won't run the drivers properly.

It's like trying to fuel a sports car on kerosene. Yeah, it might turn over and even run, but you're not using it properly and you're not going to win any drag races.

Stop trying to justify you're cheapness and buy a fucking amp you scrub.

Would you consider the HD650/HD6XX to be "A" shaped sound?

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>Stop trying to not waste money and buy your plastic knob box like me!

The correct tem is "mound of mud".

Honestly, the sound of the HD6XX wasn't what I was expecting. I guess I like a brighter sound.

t. damaged ears

HD650 btfo by DT 990

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>For all intents and purposes, unless you want to be a pedantic ass, it is.
No, it's not.
HiFiMan HE-6 are 50 ohm but this one is far, far more difficult to drive than a 250 ohm DT990.
I already have an amp, K5, capable of 150 mW at 300 ohm. I hear no difference from a decent motherboard output. High gain mode is unusable even with my 600 ohm T1, deafening loud levels, the thing is overkill.

DT 990 Pro BTFOs any headphones, no meme graphs needed.

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My 600 ohm premium coming tomorrow.

If I could have started over again I would have bought the 600ohms version. These dumb deaf niggers from hpg shilled me into thinking I needed a lot more power just for 250ohms.

I broke all of my headphone jacks on my computer by stepping on my wires what do I do now... Do I just buy a new case or one of those usb to 3.5mm thingys? Do I go bluetooth?? No bully please.

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What's up, stax general?

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Based, I'll get the whole DT 990 family eventually.

>I broke all of my headphone jacks on my computer by stepping on my wires what do I do now
You stop being retarded. You might just have to buy a USB to headphone jack. or a pci card with multiple headphone jacks if you have the room.

I'll report back when I get them whether they are much harder to drive than my other headphones (HD6XX, K702). I know what you mean though, so far the sets I've tested get very loud easily with no external amp. I have a Massdrop O2, but I will test other sources with the 600 ohms as well.

>You might just have to buy a USB to headphone jack
do they affect sound quality much? Or as long as I buy a decent one its ok?

Get bluetooth.
With how clumsy you are it's only a matter of time until you break an external dac/amp.
I recommend the HD 4.40.
Caveat: bluetooth has latency that makes it unsuitable for video or gaming. If you need low latency you need to look into gaming headsets like the Arctis, that use a proprietary protocol different from bluetooth.

The 250 ohms was barely harder to drive than the HD 600. So maybe that can give you somewhere to look at to see if it really requires that much more power.

Most of them suck honestly in the $10 or less section. They get about a little more than half as loud as my onboard audio. You may need to switch to bluetooth because you are too autistic for this. If you have cheap headphones I doubt you would be bothered by a cheap USB headphone jack.

>he doesn't know how to route cables around his desk
>he lets headphone cables touch the floor

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>bluetooth
Latency. If he does game at all, it won't cut it.

Based and objectivepilled

I did mention the latency though. Are you blind?
The Apple USB-C audio dongle is fine and only cost $10. He may need another dongle to go USB-C-to-A if he doesn't have a C port though.
Power is a little lacking but it's unlikely he owns any headphone with high power requirement.