Suggestions for good quality Headphones?

[Fogel]

Well done you two lucky bastards I have been wanting a Fiio E11 for a while now. However with my 480s dead I have nothing to use it with

 

Both of you enjoy your headphones

 

Good excuse to get yourself a new set.

[Stonerboy779]

 

Good excuse to get yourself a new set.

It is but I am lazy and just using my corsair hs1 cans for now got them for $40 so can't complain for now, too much.

I have some other things to buy first and still have my cx300-II for music

 

Although fiio will come at some point and possibly some new senns or beyers

[Fogel]

The E11 came in last week btw, ahead of schedule. So Micca delivered it quickly. I love how they include a free extra battery and wall charger for the same price!

 

So I solely listening to the Beyers from the laptop on my last post. I tried them straight from iPod like I was listening to the Senns and honestly the difference was barely noticeable. There was a bit more bass but really not much more. Definitely not the difference I was expecting. I hooked up the E11 and those Beyers came to life! The difference was night and day. That was audio quality difference I was expecting. Though using the laptop as the source material I don't get much of a difference when hooking up the E11. Noticeable enough bump in bass and obviously a bump in volume but soundstage is more clear and vibrant coming from the ipod actually.

 

990s + iPod =

990s + Laptop =

990s + E11 + iPod =

 

 

I am starting to see why people also invest in a good desktop amp, though since I only chose the 250ohm version it makes me wonder just how much of a difference I would notice if I got one. Not planning on it tho I am definitely curious.

[Fogel]

I am probably just talking to myself now but as I wrote that last post I realized I didn't give the Sennheisers a chance at the Fiio E11. So I hooked up the HD 438s to the E11 (with iPod) and then straight from the laptop.

 

HD 438s + E11 + iPod

Wow did they come alive and from out of no where! But it was amazing just how different they made the song below sound - Oridinary Moment (Breakfast Club Mix). For one thing when, the vocals get stepped on. It is really apparant when on the deep pronounced breaths - example 4:45 and 5:15. It sounds a like a wave of water crashing from the right to the left and lasts an obscene amount of time. On the Beyer DT 990s it is clearly a breath and as she draws away at 4:45 you hear/feel the reverberations as it mixes with the beats till it comes together into one sound.

 

Comparisons aside, as we are talking two different price points in headphones, if the HD438s sounded like this without the E11 ...I definitely wouldn't have started this thread. Its not a perfect solution but its good for me in all honesty. At the very least it should sound like this with the laptop.

 

Then I tried some Rock music and that kind of brought my high down. Rock sounded completely ...flat. There was no grit to the electric guitar, nothing to the drums or bass. It was just there and sounded a little fake. I could deal with the vocals being walked over in the trance but don't mess with my electric guitar in rock! I'd prefer iBuds at this point. Rock is very important to my music life. So I tried the laptop after I took a shower.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAFFEfP9fEU

 

Only version I could find in HD. Still YouTube quality so the song is still understated in some of the best parts but it should at least give a reference to the parts I am mentioning.

 

HD 438s + Laptop

I have different songs on the laptop, really only 7 or 8, but I gave the Beyers a go at the laptop and the laptop sparked some life into the Beyers (if comparing the 990s to just the iPod without the E11) so out of curiosity I wanted to see what the HD438s could do because I think part of the problem is the E11 was overpowering the HD438s. I think the HD 438s are probably only 32ohm so the E11 put too much pressure in them but the sensitivity has to be low on these 438s for it to make so much difference.

 

Sadly no, the laptop didn't make much difference though it did give them a little bass which was completely absent before. Though to be fair if the HD438s sounded like this straight from the iPod with no amp and had the same sound quality I got with it from the E11 straight from the laptop I would have been ok with the sound it produces ...enough to at least not feel the urge to spend more money. The laptop did wake it up some but not enough.

Edited January 11, 2012 by Fogel