Advice about headphone setup.

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Headphone advice

The set up I want to create is fairly stationery, and in a quiet room, and it's for listening to film soundtracks / piano music - that kind of thing, not techno or anything ( I've got different headphones for that ).

I'm a musician, so I'm looking for a more neutral sound, and I don't want any gizmos, just a straight through wih a decent quality so I know what's going on. Clarity is more important than bass boost or added "sparkle" or anything.

Although I've owned some cans over the years, these might be my first Hi fi phones, so talking the lower end of the market. Gathering I probably want open ones, right?

Budget = £150 for phones.

I noticed Beyer 990 250 ohm resistance on Amazon actually cheaper than the 32 ohm version. 600 ohm seems a bit much. I'm thinking the 250 ohm paired with a basic headphone amp?

There's a few other models I was looking at as well, Grado, AKG, Sennheiser etc. - for some reason it strikes me the Beyers are particularly good value at that price, but I'm a bit limited in my knowledge.

Also, what are we talking for a basic heaphone amp with just a volume control that would decently run a pair of phones such as those? Are those small ones for around 30 or 40 quid any good?

What would happen if I plug those 250 ohm phones directly into a device like an mp3 player? I understand it would result in a very low volume, is this correct? So assuming I need the preamp.

I have only ever owned low impedance heaphones I think so this is a new one on me. Could I do both items for 200 quid if I keep them simple?

Cheers.
 
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I would have thought that AKG K702 + DAC/amp would be the best choice for £150. K702's are great value for £100. FiiO E10K does a decent job of driving them, which is around £60.

Beyerdynamic DT770 and 990 are known for having a V shape sound signature, so elevated treble and bass with recessed mids. Probably not the best choice if you are looking for something a bit more neutral sounding.

Ideal choice would be Sennheiser Hd600. I know they are well over your budget, but they are immense for film soundtracks. I've got them myself and music from Lord of the Rings especially, sounds bloody fantastic on them.
 
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AKG K702 is designed for accurate neutral sound and would be best for knowing what you hear is actual recording.
(makes them also extremely good if you want to pick environment apart from sounds in games)

DT990 has boost in bass and treble.
(good for movies and fun gaming with bass punch but without burying details badly)
Again HD6xx-serie Sennheisers overal have what is advertised as "warm" sound meaning lowered treble.
 
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Thanks for the tips, guys. AKG's with a preamp sound great, however (and sorry, should have made this clearer in my first post) :

I won't necessarily be listening from a PC or laptop etc. - most of my listening is done through a small mp3 player, and I do 320k mp3's. Sometimes I may bring a laptop in if I'm doing a film. I don't really do my music listening near a computer. The Fiio looks great but doesn't appear to have an aux input. I notice Fiio do seem to do models with aux inputs on them that aren't DAC's.

I'm a bit stuck due to lack of knowledge - I guess I had imagined some kind of mains or battery powered headphone amp that I could jack in an aux device, or possibly connect a laptop to through aux or usb so I could jack my mp3 player in to it, or feed in to a DAC through USB with a laptop occasionally. The reason I was thinking of an amp was through learning about this higher impedance of headphones.

So is it possible I could buy the AKG's and pair them with some kind of DAC/AMP that also has an aux input for listening to the mp3 player? Or should I just go for low impedance headphones and jack them straight in to the mp3 player or headphone socket of the laptop? Not quite sure how to play this. Ultimately I guess I want the option of aux and USB inputs and good quality phones, leave the phones plugged in to the the amp and jack whatever device I am using in to the back of the amp.
 
Soldato
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No the E10K is just a USB DAC. As you've said, FiiO do have a number of other options though.

Q1 or Q1 MKII, should do what you need. Costs a bit more than the E10K, but I think they the only two with line input as well as USB DAC.
 
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I'm a bit stuck due to lack of knowledge - I guess I had imagined some kind of mains or battery powered headphone amp that I could jack in an aux device, or possibly connect a laptop to through aux or usb so I could jack my mp3 player in to it, or feed in to a DAC through USB with a laptop occasionally.
FiiO Q1 price level Sound Blaster E5 would support also Bluetooth for wireless use with smartphones/tablets, if that kind use would be handy for future.
 
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Ah ok, I'm getting the hang of this amp/dac thing after a bit of research. I think the AKG's sound like a really good bet for the phones. As far as the amp, I guess I need to visualise the setup and then investigate amps from there. That Fiio Q1 looks quite good.

If I decide I don't actually need a DAC on the amp (i.e. get only a headphone amp) then I can get a pretty decent basic one fairly cheap, I notice.

Pretty much decided I can get the 702's - as for the amp, I'll have a little think about that. I could for example pick up a really inexpensive amp-only one and then upgrade later, I guess.

The 702's appear to be around £105 on Amazon :

https://www.amazon.co.uk/AKG-Reference-Open-Back-Over-Ear-Headphones/dp/B001RCD2DW

Schiit seemed to do some interesting stuff, but doesn't seem available in the UK. Fiio seems to be the most recommended one all round I notice for UK.
 
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Schiit have a UK site. As can be seen at the bottom of the site, they are Electromod who are based in the UK, and are an authorised dealer in the UK and EU for Schiit products.

The site used to Schiit EU, but it looks like it was renamed because I can see there is a Dutch website called Schiit Europe. Would be confusing to have Schiit EU and Schiit Europe. :p
 
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the UK site is now schiit.co.uk as it seems we're going to be heading out of Europe at some point.
Bought myself a Vali 2 from there last week so they seem to have the new site address working properly.
 
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Out of interest, would a Fiio A3 be enough to power the AKG's? It seems to be a viable choice from what I've read. That would also be a cheap option that would fall exactly in to my budget. Not sure I'm that concerned about a DAC, on reflection, I think I'd hardly use it.

AKG's seem to be a given here, it's just the amp that I'm musing about. I could put A3 down as a cheap option and maybe upgrade later, or I could go Schiit Magni 3 if I can push the boat out a bit.
 
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