Headphones

C64 said:
So all you guys who bought the ns 1000's any chance of weighing in with opinions of them compared to other phones you have ?
Click to expand...

I will once the bloody things arrive! Ordered Monday and wasn't here by yesterday.:(

I will be doing a full roundup vs DR-150 and my Zalman 5.1 headphones and my diddy little FiiO E5 which arrived. My god the thing is small!

I'll test in 5.1 games and music.
 
finite said:
The NS1000's are a great price atm, but I assume the 300 Ohms impedance would be less than ideal for an Astro Mix Amp to drive.
Click to expand...

Despite the stated 300 ohm impedance, the NS1000s are not at all hard to drive, as their noise cancelling cirtuitry doubles as an onboard amp.

I expect they will go very well with the Astro Mixamp, as they are very well suited to Dolby Headphone.
 
Greebo said:
I will once the bloody things arrive! Ordered Monday and wasn't here by yesterday.:(

I will be doing a full roundup vs DR-150 and my Zalman 5.1 headphones and my diddy little FiiO E5 which arrived. My god the thing is small!

I'll test in 5.1 games and music.
Click to expand...

Yeah mine havn't arrived yet either! :mad: I bought them at the same time as you!
 
Suppose that's what you get for free postage although i had an email to say they were posted Tuesday so really thought they would be waiting for me when I got home tonight. :(
 
Uriel said:
Despite the stated 300 ohm impedance, the NS1000s are not at all hard to drive, as their noise cancelling cirtuitry doubles as an onboard amp.

I expect they will go very well with the Astro Mixamp, as they are very well suited to Dolby Headphone.
Click to expand...

Cheers, looks like the only downside to these headphones will be judging how loud I'm talking into a mic.
 
Just ordered some NS1000 as they were £24 cheaper than DR-150, now I read the DR-150 are better. ho hum..
 
Tim said:
Just ordered some NS1000 as they were £24 cheaper than DR-150, now I read the DR-150 are better. ho hum..
Click to expand...

But the NS1000 are £24 cheaper ;)

To be honest there is not mcuh in them and probably coems down to whether you need closed or opn headphones as to which you get.

Chances are you wouldn't be disappointed with either.
 
Greebo said:
But the NS1000 are £24 cheaper ;)

To be honest there is not mcuh in them and probably coems down to whether you need closed or opn headphones as to which you get.

Chances are you wouldn't be disappointed with either.
Click to expand...

yea but prices on Goldring site say the DR-150 are £74 and NS1000 £149. Assumed NS1000 would be the improved model and a bargain at £49.

Not sure if I need open or closed really. I guess closed so I get no leakage and open if I use a mic (I don't)?
 
Tim said:
yea but prices on Goldring site say the DR-150 are £74 and NS1000 £149. Assumed NS1000 would be the improved model and a bargain at £49.

Not sure if I need open or closed really. I guess closed so I get no leakage and open if I use a mic (I don't)?
Click to expand...

Depends on how you can control how loud you are shouting!

As for a bargain, you do get active noise cancellation with the NS1000 and personally I think they are slightly better than the DR150 but it's a close call.

The DR150 are certainly a bargain at their list price though which I suppose makes it difficult and I certainly wouldn't have bought the ns1000 for £150.

Funnily enough though, apart from the £50 sill offer on now, DR150 sell for £70 and NS1000 can be found easily for under £90 so not much in it really.
 
Last edited:
3 parcels this morning. DR150's NS1000's and some ghd hair strightners for my gf as her birthday present.

Early quick tests are promising but the although the Dr150's sound great, there is too much leakage for me to keep them since I share my computer in the living room so I will sell them on (they were 2nd hand)

It's a bit unfair to do a proper comparison as the NS1000 are new and the DR150 are well broken in but I intend to do a full comparison/review along with my old zalman 5.1 headsets before I do.

The NS1000 do seem to gain a lot from the amp whereas the DR150 are better without the amp IMO.
 
Last edited:
The amp? Was it a FiiO e5?

I don't use my DR150s with my e5 much. They do go well with a Bravo Audio tube amp I got from the bay. It doesn't seem to drive the NS1000s (in passive mode) as well as the e5.

It's a funny thing - amp / headphone synergy.
 
Yeah it's a FiiO e5 on your recommendation. I don't think the DR150 needs it at all, driven by my dx2 and in fact I would say it makes them worse and is prone to "overdrive" them if that is the correct terminolgy? I;m new to all this audio stuff.

I'll play around some more this weekend though. Dolby headphone on the xonar is pretty impressive and both cans are far superior to my zalman 5.1 when playing music of course ;)

One quick question - do you get some interference if you leave the FiiO plugged in to charge via the usb when using it?
 
Interference happens for me only when it's fully charged. It's fine charging and playing at the same time but then unplugging it is the best thing to soon as the battery's topped up.

Depends how clean your USB power is I guess. Some people have reported no issue when charging and listening at the same time.

I recommended the e5 specifically for a cheap option to allow use of the NS1000s in passive mode. The main issue there is that they need a lot of current to power them. The DR150 does surprisingly well from more refined amps but they're not at all current hungry. The NS1000s in passive mode need a 'brute force' amp; the DR150s definitely don't.

I thought the e5 benefited from burn-in too by the way. I would say bass boost off for both sets of headphones. It's tends to muddy up the sound a bit too much for me. I prefer the clearer sound with it off.
 
Last edited:
Thanks Uriel. Top response as always.

I guess I don't have a "clean" usb so I unplug it when using it and charge it up when not in use. How long does a charge last out of interest?

I only bought the amp cause of the NS1000. I thought I was all sorted when I bought my DR150's but couldn't resist the NS1000 for £50 the day after and then thought I best get the amp to get the best from them. Glad I did now, as I never realised how much another person can hear the DR150 as they are my first open headphones. It's like they are listening to 2W speakers!
 
I think the NS1000s are better overall with Noise Cancelling on. The bass extends lower and is better controlled (although not as much of it). Additionally the treble extends higher - which really improves harmonics etc for acoustic music. In that case they don't really require an amp but they do benefit from rather more refined amps than the E5.

The e5's very handy to have if you want to hear them hiss free though. It's almost like having two different headphones.

Edit: Charge wise, it depends on which headphones you're using. Seems to last me a few days at work with IEMs I'm sure it won't last quite that long with the NS1000s though.
 
Last edited:
I will bear all that in mind with the burn in for the amp and I have lots of options to play around with this weekend.

I agree about the bass boost off on the amp though.

How long to burn in the NS1000?
 
Don't really know how long to burn in the NS1000s for. They seem to get better with age. I wasn't that impressed when I got them and then a few months later I was listening to one of my favourite songs and my jaw nearly hit the floor.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom