Far left: Lafayette RP-50, middle left: T20RPv2, middle right: T50RP MKII, far right: T50RP MKIII, bottom: T50RP 50th Anniversary
this post was submitted on 29 Oct 2023
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Headphones
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Ah it's alright.
I'm fine with a headphone that I can use without an amplifier or DAC because this would be extra money I don't have and don't really wanna invest as well. I read a lot about this topic and most of that seems to be just a placebo effect because people think that louder is better. But people already have told me on another thread that an amplifier wouldn't have changed anything on the sound aspect. I didn't liked the stock sound and an amplifier wouldn't have changed that. I could have tried an equalizer but I didn't really had the time to learn and understand that before the return window would've been gone. And I'm fine with that.
The Mahagonys you have mentioned are more laidback and uncontrolled in the bass area and have a warmer, looser sound compared to the Purplehearts. The Purplehearts on the other said tend to bleed a bit more into the midrange. I think it really depends on the music you are listening to which one you would prefer in the end.
What I do now is to simply try to understand and try to read frequency response graphs in order to understand what I should be looking at for my next headphones. I already learnt that I don't like neutral and flat headphones (like Sennheiser for example) and I also don't like veiled headphones (Sennheiser again with the HD 650 for example). I know that I am treble sensitive when I tested the Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro and I was also able to test the Beyerdynamic DT 700 Pro X which were too flat and boring to my ears. Ironically if the treble is too much laidback then the headphones will sound boring as well so I still need a bit of it as it looks like. Just enough to not feel any hisses. I don't know where I will end up with, probably with a cheap 10€ headphone from a supermarket but who knows.
I’m currently using them in bed with the Qudelix 5k balanced and I don’t feel like I’m lacking much compared to my bigger amps. The Qudelix sounds brighter/harsher than the Schiit Magni Piety and the Elekit TU-8200DX but It’s no big deal since the Qudelix is not as fatiguing out of the balanced port compared to the single ended port, at least with the T50RP. Amps can make a difference, but it’s not this huge night and day difference. In the T50RP’s case, it helps with the punchiness and bass, but it doesn’t change the sound dramatically.
I’ve found it pretty hard to find a bassy headphone under $500 that isn’t muddy or too bright or lacks detail/clarity. The TH-X00 was it, although it was pretty harsh with the stock earpads. Sadly, they don’t make them anymore. The only other option I found besides modded T50RP’s (I’m probably forgetting something) with deep bass and clarity for $200 or less are IEMs. I personally don’t like how most IEMs fit and they all sound tiny/too closed in, but you could be the perfect candidate for them.
IEM's are sadly a no-go for me.
I already tried them out in the past and they are really hurting my ear canals no matter what type of tips I was using. Even with normal MP3 player earbuds from the past I had this problem.
Then a few weeks ago I saw a comment here on reddit that someone wasn't able to pull their IEM out of their ears and had to visit a doctor in order to pull them out. That is pretty scary even though it won't happen much often.
There was another guy a few days ago mentioning that he got a fungus because of IEM's. But he also mentioned that he lives in a tropical country so that's also more of an exception I guess.
Problem is that I don't have the option to test a lot of headphones. We don't have big hifi stores here in Germany where I live (I'm not living in a big city) so the only thing I can do is to understand frequency responses and then buy a headphone that should be alright. But if they all don't fit my needs I have to return them which is also frustrating and stressfull.
The Fostex Purpleheart was really a great headphone but I was never able to get one myself. I only know of them because a friend of mine had one in the past and he sometimes gave them to me over some weekends when he wasn't at home. Sadly it's discontinued for years and people want 700$ or even more for a used pair which is just ridicilous. And there is no other headphone that comes close to them in terms of sound. Or at least not that I'm aware of.