Headphone spec me

G_D

G_D

G_D

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Joined
20 Jan 2008
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307
Location
Northampton & Coventry
Am about to live at home again for a year so am wanting some decent headphones so as not to upset everyone else in the house. Will only be using them in my room on my Macbook and will be for music and gaming.

Looking to spend around £50-60 i think but could possibly be persuaded to go over this slightly if needs be. Don't mind if they are headphones or in-ear headphones im just after the best sound quality for my money really. Have noticed a few connect via a USB instead of the normal headphone jack which i would prefer to avoid if i can. (Macbook Pro only has 2 USB ports, thanks apple!) Have noticed a lot of Sennheiser stuff around and have been told they are often a good way to go, notice OCUK stock a lot of their stuff as well.

I know bugger all really so feel free to talk to me with quite a patronising tone if needs be lol.

Thanks
 
The usual recommendations are:

Sennhesier HD555
Audio Technica Ax00

And at some point C64 will show up and recommend the Goldring DR150:)
 
i would go for Sennhesier as well,so many good thing's said about them and the reviews speak for themselves.
 
Thanks, have had a quick look at the suggestions think ill go for the Sennheiser HD555s then once i get paid. :)
 
C64 said:
No I am going to stop doing that now as nobody ever listens and just goes with the other sheep.
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Have just been searching around for reviews on them, they seem very comparable to the HD555's, and are a british company, which makes them a good alternative in my opinion ! At some stage i'll buy some as a late birthday pressie :) (Keep on going with the recomendations).

Intresting information on them http://rockgrotto.proboards39.com/index.cgi?board=review&action=display&thread=2546&page=1
 
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Tempted to get a pair of goldrings myself as I'd like something I can wear out and about without looking a total fool with my Audio Technica A900s ;p
 
I'd recommend Grado SR 60's I think they are still around £60. Had mine for over ten years now, first thing I bought when my first student loan came through ;)

They don't look flashy but they do a really good job.
 
Grados are excellent for using them straight into portable devices. For Sennheisers always use a headphone amp, they sound really bloated without one.
 
by all accounts there isnt much in it. the dr150's are the more 'fun' of the two with a more forward and lively sound and the 555's are the more faithful with a more laid back sound with a smoother treble and wider soundstage. also from what ive read the 555's are mote more comfortable of the two. i dont think you can particularly go wrong with either but that comfort think would be enough to swing it for me.


Grados are excellent for using them straight into portable devices. For Sennheisers always use a headphone amp, they sound really bloated without one.
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i was very VERY surprised with my 650's driven by my onkyo and even my old jvc 2 channel amplifier. impressive i must say but even still, im going to build a HP amp for them and get the job done right. forget trying to drive 650's with an mp3 player though lol. even so, whatever was used to drive them i wouldnt describe as bloated. a lack of refinement and drive, sure.
 
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yeah believe me, i have been listening to them. i never said they didnt need a decent headphone amp, i just wouldnt describe it as bloated thats all. still, there is a lot to be gained from building an amp, that i cant deny. ive already taken the foam out. i may replace the cable but i doubt that, not yet.
 
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Sounds bloated on a pair of Sennheiser 5xx range, and they're easier to drive than 6xx range. Pretty obvious the difference. EQ on flat. Headphone amp on portable device is highly rated too.
 
badbob said:
Sounds bloated on a pair of Sennheiser 5xx range, and they're easier to drive than 6xx range. Pretty obvious the difference. EQ on flat. Headphone amp on portable device is highly rated too.
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being a lower impedance doesnt mean they are easier to drive lol. it just means that all else being equal, they will be louder at a given input. infact, a lower impedance is harder to drive, even though you need more power overall for the same volume at a higher imp. being harder to drive may well be the reason you hear such a difference at the bottom end when amped if the impedance curve of the 555's isnt especially flat. A lower impedance load will demande more current delivery which is where most daps and cheap amps fall flat on their face. A proper amp would obviously handle lower impedance loads better and have enough drive to power high impedance 'phones at a satisfactory level.
 
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no?

the 555's are 50ohm and the 650's are 300ohm. lower impedances are harder to drive, not easier. its eaiser to extract power at a lower impedance but you cant confuse that with the ability to do it cleanly.
 
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they will be louder at a given input
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even though you need more power overall for the same volume
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Those are both to do with sensivitiy, which is the dB output for a given voltage. That's why Grados are good for portable devices, they're louder than other phones because of the higher sensivity. Compare horn and standard speakers with the same impedance but horn has higher sensivity, and the horn will be louder at the same poweramp voltage output.

Impedance is the amount of current required to drive the phones.
 
yes thats why i said all else being equal. anyway, im not wrong. higher impedance requires more voltage, lower impedance requires more current. take it down a level and think about whats involved in cleanly power low impedance main speaker (im talking 2-4ohm). this applies as equally to 'low' impedance earphones and headphones. it makes them harder to drive, not easier.

It's not nearly so simple. Actually high impedance headphones are usually called "easy" to drive and low impedance "hard" by amp manufactures. While low impedance phones require less voltage to get loud, they require more current. This leads to problem like hiss is systems, weak bass and so on. It is fairly easy to make an output that drives something high impedance, much harder to make something drive low impedance.

As a simple example look at the difference between a soundcard and power amplifier. For normal listening levels, power amps are generally putting out somewhere in the realm of 1 volt. Well, soundcards have no problem doing that either. However if you hook your soundcard to your speakers it won't work. Why? Because soundcards are made to drive low current, high impedance systems. Line inputs are generally in the realm of 20k Ohms or more. Very little current. Speakers, however, are very low impedance, usually 8 Ohms or less. That means you need waaay more current at a given voltage level. At 1 volt a 20k Omh line input needs only 0.05 mA of current. An 8 ohm speaker at the same 1 volt needs 125 mA of current.

Opamps are good at driving voltage, not so good at current. So when you load them with a low impedance it works, to a point, but you get more noise, less bass, more distortion and so on. You need to buffer the output of the system to properly drive low impedance phones.

About the best you can get for direct soundcard usage is actually a mid impedance kind of phone. Say in the 60-120 Ohm range. Those are low enough that the voltage output form the card should be sufficient to get to high enough levels to make you happy, but high enough that the opamps are going nuts with the current requirement.

Really the best idea is just to get a headphone amp when possible. Get something that can do a higher voltage output for high impedance phones and is buffered for low impedance phones.

After all, you wouldn't try to hook speakers straight to a soundcard, why would you do it with headphones? Headphones are just small speakers. In either case, an amp is really the way to go.
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anyway this is ooooff topic and we should continue this in another thread.
 
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