Headphones

I would never call myself an audiophile, but I know what I like. I told Santa that I wanted a set of the cheap HE-X4 planar headphones for Christmas. I plan to use them for music from my desktop PC. I understand that if my audio card/chip can't deliver enough power to drive the headphones to a sufficient volume level, I'll need an amp between the PC and the cans. But being an old "stereo" guy, is there any reason I couldn't input the PC audio into a home audio receiver/amp and use the headphone output from that to drive the headphones? What advantage, if any, would I get from buying one of these fancy DAC headphone amps? What advantage do more expensive headphone amps have over cheaper headphone amps? At 66 years old, I have no hope of having "golden ears" any longer.

Hi Reddit! Just got recently Jds labs atom amp+, atom dac+ and Sennheiser HD600 setup for my laptop. Now i'm wondering is there anyway to control soundquality with this setup? Music sounds very nice but i would prefer a bit more bass. My earlier setup had decent quality soundcard which had own driver software where you could make own profile with lot of settings to sound quality. How i could make this kind of changes to sound now since all the hardware is outside of computer?

Will a QKZ A1 cable work on my BLON BL03 IEMs?
Here is the cable I am ordering.

Mine died a few weeks back after almost a year of use (Not everyday, not always turned on).

Visiting family and we went to go check out a small bargain store that takes backstock and unfulfilled returns from amazon warehouses, buys it, then dumps it out and sells everything in the store at a set price. They kept things they assumed were more valuable behind a counter, and I spotted the gold hifi logo from behind a worker. Easiest purchase decision of my life. It is a version 1 but its very nice.
Since taking this picture I have managed to maybe destroy the screen entirely out of carelessness (wiped it over with 91% Isopropanol on a micro-fibre cloth), and now its being troublesome. Any advice on that would be nice but before that it was mint! What a steal, and it powers my 600Ω 880's nicely.

https://preview.redd.it/36lxy9smml2c1.png?width=1800&format=png&auto=webp&s=6021f6c2e737eeef9711e23ed45d487a4d12bd3e

I think I might be tripping out here. I threw these in my bag as backups forever ago, and today I forgot my main pair. These don’t sound half bad through my FIIO BTR5. I think these came from Target like a decade ago, but I honestly don’t remember at this point. The tips are generic replacements from a 100 pack off Amazon.

I’m new to the audiophile world. I just purchased a pair of Beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pros yesterday. They sound great, but I was expecting more after reading reviews. I have no experience when it comes to picking up audio cues and analyzing music. Would a dac/amp make a noticeable difference in sound quality to an untrained ear? Right now I have them connected to a TC-Helicon Goxlr. Is the built in amp strong enough to efficiently power them? Or, would a real amp be a significant upgrade/worthwhile?

So I just got the LCD-X as a present to myself. I’m using Schiit Hel with my MacBook Pro. The first thing I did was buy SoundSource and EQ it to Oratory’s EQ settings.

Now I’m not sure if I have terrible taste in music, if my little portable amp can’t handle the LCD-Xs or if I got a defective one. But man does it sound like shit. Terrible distortion on nearly every song. Doesn’t matter if I play through Spotify Premium or Apple Music. Vocals sound alright sometimes, but most of the time it sounds like I’m using an Amp to power $10 Walmart headphones.

I thought you didn’t need to break in Audeze headphones and I couldn’t even install their reveal+ app. At this point do I just reach out to Audeze and ask for a replacement? Anyone experience this before?

TIA

I should be getting actual producing headphones during Christmas, so this isn’t permanent, but the Moondrop chu IEM’s are all I have rn. For curiosity’s sake, how good are these IEM’s for producing?

Hey friends, I scored a pair of Sennheiser Momentum’s at the local thrift store for $5, however upon testing I’ve found that they only play certain parts of the music and the volume is very low. Tried wiggling the cables, multiple devices, nothing changes much. Is this an issue with the cable or the speakers themselves? Assuming the cable is the culprit, how difficult would replacing the cable be for a novice in wielding a soldering iron? Thanks!

I like the bass boost on the fiio and was wondering if theres a way to add some of that with the qudelix I just picked up. Thank you.

Just received my SHP9500 today, was so worried that they're gonna sound literal tin-cans like the Samson SR850s I tried before. But after EQ'ing these using the preset of u/Shields42, I think they sound amazing paired with the Conexant CX31993 plugged into my computer.

I enjoy my Elliott Smith records now, more than ever.

It's comfy as hell too, and maybe my ears are just different, but I don't hear the "grainy" highs from high hats. I think they sound really clear.

https://preview.redd.it/8f8bstud1h2c1.jpg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=71dbb222c2bb65572260ca74c1b3ea5d489784ba

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Adorama has the HD800S @ 1499 for Black Friday.

Use promo code CYBE2023 and the price drops to $1149 plus tax.

Free 2 day shipping.

https://www.adorama.com/se506911.html

I am in love with these headphones! I previously had the Sony XM4 which died after the warranty period by randomly making deafening high pitched squeals.

The noise canceling is scary good. While walking my dog I never heard a peep from cars driving past. I'd say this is the best noise canceling I've had. The sound quality is great with the immersive audio set to motion. They feel very high quality. I am very happy with my purchase.

The reason I didn't go with the xm5 is all the complaints about the auto adjusting anc never allowing anc to be at full power 24/7.

I have been dailying the Bose qc earbuds ii, before them I had the Bose qc earbuds...amazing the different between over ear and earbuds. I'm going to steer away from earbuds since an article talking about ear damage from earbuds being much easier to cause since they are feeding directly into your ear canal.

I am the furthest thing from an audiophile so please take it easy on me.

Since 2017 I've been using a pair of MPOW 059 bluetooth headphones as my PC gaming headphones. They cost about $35 at the time. I first bought them to use wirelessly with my phone for music and YouTube videos, but one day I tried them out with my PC using a 3.5mm cable (the headphones have a jack for that) and found them to be pretty great and comfortable to wear for long periods of time. ( This is the current model, mine is an older one - https://www.xmpow.com/collections/headphones/products/mpow-059-pro-lite-bluetooth-headphones-black)

It's been over six years now and they're showing signs of age, though. Sometimes the balance between left and right gets messed up and terrible-sounding, so I need to rotate the plug in the jack until I find the 'sweet spot' that will give me the proper audio again.

So I decided to buy a good gaming headset. After an evening spent researching, I found that countless youtubers and redditors were dripping with praise for the HyperX Cloud II. It's several years old at this point and there's a new Cloud III out, but the II was about $70 and the III was $130, and the II was still getting rave reviews even this year and last. So I bought the II and I've been using it for a couple hours. ( https://www.amazon.com/HyperX-Cloud-Gaming-Headset-KHX-HSCP-RD/dp/B00SAYCXWG/ref=sr_1_3?crid=TMVZMLCLHPYX&keywords=hyperx%2Bcloud%2B2&qid=1700962136&sprefix=hyperx%2Bcloud%2B%2Caps%2C135&sr=8-3&th=1 )

While YouTube videos and music sound about the same quality as my old MPOWs, gaming audio just sounds muddy and muffled on the Cloud II. I've noticed that game music sounds fine, but the clarity and crispness of sound effects have taken a steep dive. Wearing my old headphones, it feels like I'm just naturally hearing the sounds as though they were coming from the real world around me. With the Cloud IIs, I'm acutely aware that I'm hearing sound effects coming out of little speakers next to my ears. As an example, while riding a dragon around in World of Warcraft, with the MPOWs it sounds like I'm hearing the sounds of its flapping wings coming from somewhere close by. But with the Cloud IIs, it sounds like its wings are buffeting my ears directly, literally right up against my ear canal. It's like the difference between the sound you hear when you rub your cheek - the sound of your fingers against your skin - versus the sound you hear when you rub around the entrance of your ear directly - louder, but more muffled and distorted. That's how I would describe it, at least, as an ultra-layman when it comes to audio.

Is this just something I need to try and get used to? Is the Cloud II bringing me indisputably higher-quality and more accurate gaming audio, and I just don't like it at first because I'm used to bad quality sound? Could the Cloud be defective? I've tried all 8 of the USB ports on my PC plus the built-in 3.5mm audio output jack and the muffled sound is identical in all of them. Might I need some sort of new audio component for my PC, or a new motherboard with better audio, or something? I've checked and rechecked and nothing weird like Loudness Equalization is toggled on, nor Room Correction or any other of those optional checkboxes.

I'm just kind of baffled because the reviews for the Cloud II said it had an impressive wide soundstage, which I took to mean I would feel more immersed in my games, but if anything it feels like the soundstage has shrunk. Standing in an open field listening to the wind and distant birdsong and rustling leaves, when before it sounded like real life now it sounds like everything was collapsed inward onto me like a tight bubble. Every sound's source seems to be right next to my actual ear holes.

Thanks.

I really don't want a headset dent on my head

Preamp: -3.0 dB

Filter 1: ON LSC Fc 80 Hz Gain -3.0 dB Q 0.6

Filter 2: ON PK Fc 500 Hz Gain -0.2 dB Q 5

Filter 3: ON PK Fc 600 Hz Gain -0.4 dB Q 3.5

Filter 4: ON PK Fc 800 Hz Gain -0.4 dB Q 0.1

Filter 5: ON PK Fc 930 Hz Gain 0.3 dB Q 1.6

Filter 6: ON PK Fc 1400 Hz Gain -1.8 dB Q 2

Filter 7: ON HSC Fc 1500 Hz Gain 0.1 dB Q 2

Filter 8: ON HSC Fc 1800 Hz Gain 2.1 dB Q 0.1

Filter 9: ON PK Fc 2800 Hz Gain -2.8 dB Q 2

Filter 10: ON PK Fc 4300 Hz Gain 1.3 dB Q 3.5

Filter 11: ON PK Fc 5700 Hz Gain -0.2 dB Q 5

Filter 12: ON PK Fc 5700 Hz Gain 0.7 dB Q 6

Filter 13: ON HSC Fc 6000 Hz Gain -0.1 dB Q 7

Filter 14: ON PK Fc 8000 Hz Gain -1.9 dB Q 5

Filter 15: ON HSC Fc 10000 Hz Gain -0.5 dB Q 4.9

Filter 16: ON HSC Fc 11000 Hz Gain -0.5 dB Q 7

Filter 17: ON PK Fc 12000 Hz Gain 6.3 dB Q 3.2

Filter 18: ON HSC Fc 17000 Hz Gain 1.0 dB Q 2

Filter 19: ON HSC Fc 17600 Hz Gain -1.0 dB Q 3.5

Filter 20: ON PK Fc 19000 Hz Gain -7.4 dB Q 0.7

i am asking of curiosity since i heard some sold it again since they could not stand the treble with it.

but i really dont have any issues with my pair after i gave it time to adjust.

in comparison, my hd 660s2 still sounds very good, but lacks in soundstage and it is a darker headphone for sure which is great for some songs but it is not really an allrounder to me

also to me the 109 just seems more alive to me

So, last January, I got myself a pair of Moondrop Aria Snow Editions, and they've been my main audio gear along with my Sennheiser HD 58X JUBILEE's. Sound-wise they have been great, until now.

The not-so-good part? After just a year of use, the right IEM seems off. The sound is way softer than the left. I initially thought it was the cable, but testing it with some other IEMs (KZ ZSTs, if that matters) ruled that out. Plugging those into the same cable, both sides sound the same. So, it looks like the right Moondrop IEM might be busted or damaged. Just to be clear, I haven't dropped them or done anything crazy.

It's a bit disappointing that a pair of 20 euro IEMs (KZ ZSTs) is outlasting an "expensive" 80 euro pair from a more known brand like Moondrop. Especially since the cheap ones just live in my bag and go through more "abuse" than the Moondrop ones that just live at my desk and get neatly put away into their case every evening.

Any suggestions on fixing this, or are these just headed for the trash? Also, I guess I'll have to look for a new pair so does anyone have any recommendations for more budget IEMs that are good for gaming and music? I was thinking about getting myself the LINSOUL TANGZU Wan'er or Fanmusic TRUTHEAR x Crinacle Zero.

Just wanted to share this because I don't think it's cool, but hey, that's just my 2c.

This is mostly a quick question. My understanding is, the real frequency graph that you will perceive is the result of the interaction between the headphone FR (assuming some standard testing equipment) + the geometry of the ear canal?
So state of the art headphone FR = standardized tests on any headphone model + do an MRI of your ear?

Are we at that stage to get such EQ? And the only tradeoff you would get is some delay due to EQ processing?

some people recommended a dac but i discovered that i could change some equalizer options in the sound page and that solved my problem. so my question is why buy a dac/amp thing if some EQ numbers made it sound better ?