Ryan's Headphone Review Thread

Ninja Pirate said:
Just to throw another opinion out there, I would actually say the HD 650 would be better if you mostly listen to electronic and rnb and you want a little bit more bass punch than what the HD 600 offers.

Some other options to consider are the Fidelio X2 (the almighty Tyll seems to think they are better than the HD 600) and MrSpeakers Mad Dogs (I think you'll have to import from the US as the UK dealer no longer has them...).
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I am tempted by the X2s, particularly after reading Tyll's wall of fame list. I've got to say that I'm not really into an overly 'analytical' sound. I used to own a pair of Etymotic ER4P IEMs and while the accuracy and clarity were superb, I just didn't find them that exciting to listen to. I prefer audio equipment that has a nice bass punch without sounding muddy.
 
maj said:
Tempted to ask for the Vali & Modi stack for xmas. I've noticed that unlike some amps, the Vali doesn't have a gain switch. Is that something to worry about? Or is that only something that's needed with really sensitive headphones?
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Depends on the headphones to be honest but I'd be cautious with anything under 50ohms and very low impedance headphones like Beyer Custom One Pros or Grados and any IEM would be a definite no.
The Vali is really aimed at higher impedance and less sensitive cans and excells with both my Senn HD650s (300ohm) and K702s (62ohm but insensitive).

With sensitive low impedance headphones the Vali will be quite noisy as it has a relatively high noise floor, though with higher impedances and less sensitivity it is absolutely silent.

You will also run into problems with only having a small amount of travel on the volume control, which in turn will lead to channel imbalance unless you are very lucky. You can always reduce the input volume by reducing the volume in Windows but unless the file is 24bit that may also result in a loss of quality.

If you can stretch your budget to the Schiit Asgard 2 then that has gain switching and handles even IEMs with ease.
 
rids57 said:
Depends on the headphones to be honest but I'd be cautious with anything under 50ohms and very low impedance headphones like Beyer Custom One Pros or Grados and any IEM would be a definite no.
The Vali is really aimed at higher impedance and less sensitive cans and excells with both my Senn HD650s (300ohm) and K702s (62ohm but insensitive).

With sensitive low impedance headphones the Vali will be quite noisy as it has a relatively high noise floor, though with higher impedances and less sensitivity it is absolutely silent.

You will also run into problems with only having a small amount of travel on the volume control, which in turn will lead to channel imbalance unless you are very lucky. You can always reduce the input volume by reducing the volume in Windows but unless the file is 24bit that may also result in a loss of quality.

If you can stretch your budget to the Schiit Asgard 2 then that has gain switching and handles even IEMs with ease.
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My current cans are CAL! (v1), DT770 Pro 250Ohm & Q701.

What's the benefit of gain switching?

I will consider the Asgard 2 and is does look a good bit of kit and want the best bang for buck whilst making sure I can get the best out of the cans I do have. Would I be best considering a better DAC too if I went down the Asgard route? They wouldn't stack and the Modi might look a bit of a place. Then again at the price the Asgard is, would it be worthwhile looking at other options?
 
Not sure about the CAL but the DT770 Pro and Q701 will sound very good through the Modi & Vali stack. The noise background will be inaudible with these cans and both of them will go to about 50% on the volume control, so well above the area where you can get channel imbalance.

Gain switching enables the amp to work efficiently with your chosen headphones. If you have a pair of 300ohm Sennheiser HD650s then they will require more power to drive to usable levels than a 16ohm set of IEMs. If the 300ohm headphone can be driven to high levels at 50% volume, then to do the same with the IEMs will necessarily need to be very much lower, maybe only 10% to 20% volume. This makes accurately setting the volume very fiddly and imprecise and if you were to accidentally listen through them at very high volumes then you could damage them or even your ear drums.

Gain switching will let you select an appropriate amount of amplification for whichever headphone you are using, so high gain will feed you the right power for the HD650 and low gain will let you crank up the volume to 50% or more while using IEMs or sensitive low impedance cans like Grados without blowing the drivers. It will also keep the noise floor low, so that the background noise is inaudible even when listening through IEMs.

The Modi might look a little out of place sitting on top of the Asgard 2 but the Bifrost Uber is quite a chunk of change. There's no law that says you have to have the Modi on top of the Asgard, in fact you can put it out of sight altogether as it's USB powered and never gets switched off.
 
Received my HyperX clouds today. Not really had much chance to try them out but on first impressions attached to my Asus STX (rear connector) they sound very good indeed!

Going to go play some games and report back!
 
I just wanted to congratulate Ryan on a great review. Well done. I own various headphones and amps and I'm very (too?) active on Head-fi. My favourite set-up is the HD 650 paired with my ODAC / O2. Superb, particularly with more acoustic/ folky music. I also have a pair of AKG Q701's but they get very little head-time these days due to comfort issues (headband bumps) and a horrible spike in the FR at 2k.

Anyway, thanks & I'll be sure to point people in the direction of this thread.

Gordon.
 
Hi guys, hoping you could help me out with a little advice/opinions please...

Fedup with my G930's losing connection all the time, so after a wired headset. I’m looking for something that will be predominantly used for gaming (mostly casual, but I do like being able to pinpoint footsteps in FPS’), with some films, usually with my other half in the same room watching something on her laptop. I’ve been intently reading the OC.UK forums, this thread in particular (nice work Ryan, very informative!) and some of the posts over at Head-Fi. I’ve gathered consensus seems to be to avoid ‘gaming headsets’ and go with an audiophile headset and pick-up a separate mic.

No budget per say, although funds aren’t limitless, but considering the amount of use I expect them to get, I’m looking to sink a few £100 on something that’s good quality and going to last a while.

  • AKG’s seem highly regarded for gaming, I was looking at the Q701 & K702, but the K712 seems to be a better all-rounder if not exclusively using for competitive gaming. Really like the aesthetics of them, more so the Q701’s, but I’d be happy with the K712. My only niggle with them is I gather they aren’t compatible with the V-Moda BoomPro mic, which I really like the idea of. However, if they are *that* good for gaming, I could resign myself to picking up an Antlion Modmic instead.
  • I was also looking at the Fidelio X1 and X2. Struggled to find many comparisons for the X2, other than most seemed to acknowledge it as similar to the X1, but still an ‘upgrade’. But the X1 doesn’t seem as highly regarded as the AKG’s for gaming.
  • Also looked at the Senniheiser HD650 and whilst they have quite a following, I get the feeling they’re about on par with the X1/X2, so again not as rated as the AKG’s for gaming.

So which would you guys recommended? Would the K712 be the ‘best’ choice for me, or would you suggest something else?

I do only have an in-built Realtek sound card at the moment, so suspect I’ll need to get something with Dolby/EAX. The ASUS ROG Xonar range had a few mentions, although provided I get something with an amp in, I wasn’t sure if there’d be much difference between the DGX, compared to something like the Phoebus.
 
As an all rounder I would pick the K712. I like the K701 better for games but the K712 can do movies, bass and pretty much everything. The K712 is based on the K701 with a dryer nature and strong treble.

I like the MA900 also. If you can find one thn I really recommend those. The HD650 is too thick and lush to be a competitive headphone but it's damn beautiful sounding.
 
Ryanr1987 said:
As an all rounder I would pick the K712. I like the K701 better for games but the K712 can do movies, bass and pretty much everything. The K712 is based on the K701 with a dryer nature and strong treble.

I like the MA900 also. If you can find one thn I really recommend those. The HD650 is too thick and lush to be a competitive headphone but it's damn beautiful sounding.
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Thanks for the reply Ryan. Took a look at the MA900's, but aesthetically they just didn't do it for me. I've taken the plunge and gone for the K712's with a SB Z, just need stock of those modmics to come in now :)
 
andeh2 said:
Thanks for the reply Ryan. Took a look at the MA900's, but aesthetically they just didn't do it for me. I've taken the plunge and gone for the K712's with a SB Z, just need stock of those modmics to come in now :)
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To be honest, I don't think you're missing much by not going with the MA900. I mean they aren't horrible but they definitely don't live up to some of the hype that goes around on Head-Fi.

Sound wise, they are a pretty dark and warm pair of headphones. For a 70mm driver I would have expected the bass response to be considerably more extended and powerful but it's neither. It's mostly just a mild mid bass hump which can sound a bit loose/boomy at times. The lack of sub bass is also fairly distracting and is largely down to the fact that the housing is almost completely open. Mid range is fairly forward but not fatiguing and the treble is noticeably rolled off. The one redeeming quality is it's rather spacious sound stage (at least in terms of width) and decent imaging.

As for build quality and comfort, it feels pretty flimsy. It's extremely light weight and mostly plastic (though apparently it has metal bits where it counts). Comfort is so so for me. Headband is literally a strip with a thin pad on it (i.e. the worst possible design for distributing weight) but since the headphone weighs less than a decent steak, it's not a huge issue. The main problem I have in regards to comfort is the fact that it's a cross between on-ear and over-ear. The main oval/ring ear pads sit over my ears just fine, but the pad over the drivers touch my ears regardless of how I position them. It might not bother some people but it just doesn't jive well with me.

Anyway sorry for the rant...
 
I'm wondering if the loose and boomy bass occurs when they are used with amps that have a higher output impedance, say above 2ohms? As the MA900 are rated at a ridiculously low 16ohms they won't pair with any sound card and a lot of motherboards and are really only suited for use with untra low impedance amps.
 
rids57 said:
I'm wondering if the loose and boomy bass occurs when they are used with amps that have a higher output impedance, say above 2ohms? As the MA900 are rated at a ridiculously low 16ohms they won't pair with any sound card and a lot of motherboards and are really only suited for use with untra low impedance amps.
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Interestingly enough Sony has already thought of this issue as they actually have a resistor network (just a simple divider) to try and reduce the amount of bass bloat/boom caused by using it with a high impedance amp. The only proper description I've seen is on the Chang: http://www.changstar.com/index.php/topic,1725.msg46398.html#msg46398

As for my listening, I mostly had it running out of either a Soloist or Project Ember, both of which have (or can be configured to have) an output impedance of less than 1 Ohm.
 
Technically the K712 is superior. It's tighter, refined and has better positional accuracy. The K712 is warmer but it's really peaky giving it a sense of dryness shining through the warmth. The MA900 is easier on the ears but has also noticeable grain in the sound.

The MA900 wins on mids. the K712 mids sound pushed back like the K701. Vocals on the MA900 are smoother and have a more realistic voicing to them. The soundstage is a tough one, I think the MA900 has a more obvious soundstage but it's hard to say they are close.

Bass wise the K712 is tighter, more defined and heavier. MA900 like NP said is quite loose sounding, almost artificial. I got my MA900 for £89 and I love it. It's what I call the lazy mans headphone, plug in and play! I'm not going to say it's a hifi headphone though.

I do think they sound tighter with a decent amp but it's not really a big rig headphone like the HD650. I would say they are slightly behind the HD600 in performance apart form staging and on par with something like the X1 but with a better soundstage and mid range.
 
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