Need a Headphone for 7-8 K and an affordable Amp for 3 K

S

Dear Experts,

Help me choose a good personal audio setup. The requirements and listening types are as under.

Headphones

1. Over the Head, wired
2. Great Soundstage. Needs to be more musical.
3. No Bass Head, possibly a Bass neutral capable of thumping when amped
4. Will be watching a lot of movies, concerts and some games, so need them to be in perfect surround sense with something like Xonar U3
5. Lightweight, comfortable and Long living
6. Will be used only with Laptops (HP Pavilion G6 2005 AX and Asus Pentium Dual Core) at Home. Not for travelling or workouts

Amp / Soundcard

1. Looking at something like Asus Xonar U3

Listening Types

1. Lots of Movies with Dolby 5.1 Surround, Flac recordings of Yanni, Enya, Kitaro, Vangelis and other OSTs, MJ's Pop, Christian Rock and Indian Music

2. Games like Crysis, BF3, Skyrim, etc..

Headphones circled on

Here I need your recommendations. After going through the websites for quite a lot of time, I've only managed to select these. Help to either select any among these or suggest something more fitting my requirements. The more VFM the more better, you know :-D

1. Sennheiser HD 518 - *www.flipkart.com/sennheiser-hd-518...b_26&ref=a78a7a52-f6c3-4562-a67c-b85ff8635e9f

2. Audio Technica ATH AD 700 - *www.amazon.in/gp/product/B000CMS0XU/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=AS4TABXU41Y7A

3. Denon AH-D320 - *www.junglee.com/Denon-AH-D320-BUEM-On-Ear-Headphone/dp/B00B2X1RAQ

I really hope to see a flood of suggestions to get my first ever good headphones. Since all I own is crappy, you might imagine how itchy I am to listen to something more real as the music sounds !

S

^^ Thanks for the info. Any specifix recommendation for my requirement ?

A

siddharchris said:
Dear Experts,

Help me choose a good personal audio setup. The requirements and listening types are as under.

Headphones

1. Over the Head, wired
2. Great Soundstage. Needs to be more musical.
3. No Bass Head, possibly a Bass neutral capable of thumping when amped
4. Will be watching a lot of movies, concerts and some games, so need them to be in perfect surround sense with something like Xonar U3
5. Lightweight, comfortable and Long living
6. Will be used only with Laptops (HP Pavilion G6 2005 AX and Asus Pentium Dual Core) at Home. Not for travelling or workouts

Amp / Soundcard

1. Looking at something like Asus Xonar U3

Listening Types

1. Lots of Movies with Dolby 5.1 Surround, Flac recordings of Yanni, Enya, Kitaro, Vangelis and other OSTs, MJ's Pop, Christian Rock and Indian Music

2. Games like Crysis, BF3, Skyrim, etc..

Headphones circled on

Here I need your recommendations. After going through the websites for quite a lot of time, I've only managed to select these. Help to either select any among these or suggest something more fitting my requirements. The more VFM the more better, you know

1. Sennheiser HD 518 - *www.flipkart.com/sennheiser-hd-518...b_26&ref=a78a7a52-f6c3-4562-a67c-b85ff8635e9f

2. Audio Technica ATH AD 700 - *www.amazon.in/gp/product/B000CMS0XU/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=AS4TABXU41Y7A

3. Denon AH-D320 - *www.junglee.com/Denon-AH-D320-BUEM-On-Ear-Headphone/dp/B00B2X1RAQ

I really hope to see a flood of suggestions to get my first ever good headphones. Since all I own is crappy, you might imagine how itchy I am to listen to something more real as the music sounds !

+1 to the HD518, I have the HD558 and they sound fantastic,H518 is on the same lines.

Also might I suggest the Klipsch Image One II.As for amps I dunno much about desktop amps but I have a portable headphone amp called the Soundmagic A10.

Note : I am a little short on cash, so I am willing to let go of my Sennheiser HD 558's for 8K if you are interested.They are allmost in mint condition since I hardly use them(after buying them I realized that I preferred IEM's).

Reviews of both headphones

*www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2409401,00.asp

*www.trustedreviews.com/sennheiser-hd-518_Headphones_review

Cheers!
Abhijit

@ siddharchris

IMO Audio technica Ad700 is gr8 buy but need to invest more for good Amplifier.

S

AbhMkh said:
+1 to the HD518, I have the HD558 and they sound fantastic,H518 is on the same lines.

Also might I suggest the Klipsch Image One II.As for amps I dunno much about desktop amps but I have a portable headphone amp called the Soundmagic A10.

Note : I am a little short on cash, so I am willing to let go of my Sennheiser HD 558's for 8K if you are interested.They are allmost in mint condition since I hardly use them(after buying them I realized that I preferred IEM's).

Reviews of both headphones

*www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2409401,00.asp

*www.trustedreviews.com/sennheiser-hd-518_Headphones_review

Cheers!
Abhijit

Thanks Abhijit ! HD 558 is quite impressive. The one you have is under warranty ?

sandynator said:
@ siddharchris

IMO Audio technica Ad700 is gr8 buy but need to invest more for good Amplifier.

How about the one I've selected ? After reading this I'm very much confused ! *linustechtips.com/main/topic/51187-sennheiser-hd-518-vs-hd-558-and-sound-card/.

I dont need blaring amplification, but I need a soundcard that'll help me provide wider soundstage for Movies, Concerts and Games. Is Xonar U 3 not worthy at all ?

A

siddharchris said:
Thanks Abhijit ! HD 558 is quite impressive. The one you have is under warranty ?

How about the one I've selected ? After reading this I'm very much confused ! *linustechtips.com/main/topic/51187-sennheiser-hd-518-vs-hd-558-and-sound-card/.

I dont need blaring amplification, but I need a soundcard that'll help me provide wider soundstage for Movies, Concerts and Games. Is Xonar U 3 not worthy at all ?

Yes it is and I have the original retail box and accesories along with it.If you are interested I can post some pics and we can discuss it further,do let me know.

Cheers!
Abhijit

S

AbhMkh said:
Yes it is and I have the original retail box and accesories along with it.If you are interested I can post some pics and we can discuss it further,do let me know.

Cheers!
Abhijit

Thats Good ! Do share it with us. If not me someone else may be interested

Now Community, kindly read through and suggest a good pair and share a word on the soundcard !

A

siddharchris said:
Thats Good ! Do share it with us. If not me someone else may be interested

Now Community, kindly read through and suggest a good pair and share a word on the soundcard !

I sent you the images and the other details in a PM

iedigcom said:
Generally, headphones should be able to reproduce richer low end since they have larger drivers than earphones and they don't rely on an in-ear seal to deliver sound. Some listeners also find headphones just plain more comfortable to wear, and easier to put on and take off, than they do earphones. When it comes to consumer headphones, several companies stand out, including Beetal, Creative, Edifier, F&D, Hytech, Lenovo, Logitech, Odyssey, PHILIPS, Portronics, Quantum, Tricom, UMAX, iBall. But Think about F&D and Edifier. Booth are having own music lover customer. also i am using f&d Headphone. Lots of Online Shopping Selling Headphone and offering good deal and Discount Coupon but i suggest if you want to buy look on this Online Shopping site its having big store of Headphone and also proving deals and discount. Gudden-Online Shopping India

Oh wow, I never knew that companies like Beetel, Hytech, Lenovo, Logitech, Portronics, Quantum, Tricom, Umax and last but not least iBall made such good headphones. Thanks for the info, I'll toss out my Koss PortaPro right now and go get myself an iBall headphone.

S

tkin said:
Oh wow, I never knew that companies like Beetel, Hytech, Lenovo, Logitech, Portronics, Quantum, Tricom, Umax and last but not least iBall made such good headphones. Thanks for the info, I'll toss out my Koss PortaPro right now and go get myself an iBall headphone.

Since u have Koss Porta Pros, can u share some of your experience so far ? Heard a lot of stories about this amazing product. Can you say about its soundstage, ability in sound reproduction, and compatibilty with sound cards ?

Thanks for dropping by !

siddharchris said:
Any suggestions for me bro ?

Since you'll be using with Laptop, that tosses out the questions of any internal soundcard, and most good external DACs like FiiO Alpen series is out of your budget, if you want to enjoy a pseudo 7 channel I can suggest this, it works good: *www.ebay.in/itm/STEELSERIES-SIBERI...nsoles_Accessories&hash=item338955de45&_uhb=1

So that leaves you with ~9k, I can suggest a few headphones based on reviews I'd seen earlier, I strongly suggest you to do your own research:
*www.proaudiohome.com/Grado Prestige Series SR-80i
*www.proaudiohome.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=615
*www.proaudiohome.com/sennheiser-hd-518-Over-the-ear-headphone

Slightly cheaper:
*www.proaudiohome.com/Audio-technica-ATH-AD700-Dynamic-Audiophile-open-back-Headphone

Now I use proaudiohome site as a reference, I have no idea about their site, I have never bought from their site, only through eBay, I've seen mixed reviews about them, so I won't suggest you to buy from them, but their stock is beyond good. And they used to be known as Pristinenote in eBay(still is) and Techenclave forums.

My personal choice is the Audio Technica M50(based on the M35 that I used to own), and Koss PortaPro.

S

tkin said:
Since you'll be using with Laptop, that tosses out the questions of any internal soundcard, and most good external DACs like FiiO Alpen series is out of your budget, if you want to enjoy a pseudo 7 channel I can suggest this, it works good: *www.ebay.in/itm/STEELSERIES-SIBERI...nsoles_Accessories&hash=item338955de45&_uhb=1

So that leaves you with ~9k, I can suggest a few headphones based on reviews I'd seen earlier, I strongly suggest you to do your own research:
*www.proaudiohome.com/Grado Prestige Series SR-80i
*www.proaudiohome.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=615
*www.proaudiohome.com/sennheiser-hd-518-Over-the-ear-headphone

Slightly cheaper:
*www.proaudiohome.com/Audio-technica-ATH-AD700-Dynamic-Audiophile-open-back-Headphone

Now I use proaudiohome site as a reference, I have no idea about their site, I have never bought from their site, only through eBay, I've seen mixed reviews about them, so I won't suggest you to buy from them, but their stock is beyond good. And they used to be known as Pristinenote in eBay(still is) and Techenclave forums.

My personal choice is the Audio Technica M50(based on the M35 that I used to own), and Koss PortaPro.

Thanks for your suggestions ! Seems I have very limited options to choose from !

Now regarding Soundcard, would you recommend the same if I say, that my listening will be - 50 % Movies (HD , 5.1) + 40 % Good Quality Music + 10 % Games. I'm not a hardcore gamer so I'm more inclined to a soundcard which enhances both the musical tonality and the surround sound capability.

siddharchris said:
Thanks for your suggestions ! Seems I have very limited options to choose from !

Now regarding Soundcard, would you recommend the same if I say, that my listening will be - 50 % Movies (HD , 5.1) + 40 % Good Quality Music + 10 % Games. I'm not a hardcore gamer so I'm more inclined to a soundcard which enhances both the musical tonality and the surround sound capability.

As for external soundcards go, unless you invest a lot, you won't get your prices worth, I suggest go with Siberia to get virtual surround, ofcourse there are true surround headsets(like roccat, forgot model), but to use those you'll need an USB dac with surround output, very limited options and all are significantly costly, here is the cheapest model, but as you can see that cuts down your headphone budget by a lot: *www.proaudiohome.com/Amp-Dac/Asus-XonarU7-SurroundSound-USB-Soundcard-headphone-amplifier

On the other hand, siberia offers your virtual surround, not bad, but not that good either, but for 1.3k its absolutely worth it, been using it for over 2 yrs.

S

tkin said:
As for external soundcards go, unless you invest a lot, you won't get your prices worth, I suggest go with Siberia to get virtual surround, ofcourse there are true surround headsets(like roccat, forgot model), but to use those you'll need an USB dac with surround output, very limited options and all are significantly costly, here is the cheapest model, but as you can see that cuts down your headphone budget by a lot: *www.proaudiohome.com/Amp-Dac/Asus-XonarU7-SurroundSound-USB-Soundcard-headphone-amplifier

On the other hand, siberia offers your virtual surround, not bad, but not that good either, but for 1.3k its absolutely worth it, been using it for over 2 yrs.

Thanks for the personal testimony! Since this brand Xonar is more appealing I'm getting dragged there ! Is Siberia one on par with Xonar U3 ? Coz I can see more reviews for Xonar but very less for Siberia. Any comments ?

siddharchris said:
Thanks for the personal testimony! Since this brand Xonar is more appealing I'm getting dragged there ! Is Siberia one on par with Xonar U3 ? Coz I can see more reviews for Xonar but very less for Siberia. Any comments ?

Xonar is a lot better than siberia, but the price is also 4 times higher, if you can spend that much on a dac, Xonar is a good idea.

S

tkin said:
Xonar is a lot better than siberia, but the price is also 4 times higher, if you can spend that much on a dac, Xonar is a good idea.

I'm looking at this

Asus Xonar U3 *www.amazon.com/ASUS-Xonar-Sound-Cards-XONAR_U3/dp/B0054L8GVK at 3K

siddharchris said:
I'm looking at this

Asus Xonar U3 *www.amazon.com/ASUS-Xonar-Sound-Cards-XONAR_U3/dp/B0054L8GVK at 3K

Don't get that one, apart from being stereo it isn't that good: *www.amazon.com/built-speakers-head...cd_dp_aar_al_a?_encoding=UTF8&asin=B0054L8GVK

For your purpose just avoid the Senns , I would say get ATH-M50 ,its still the king of the hill.If your headphone aint up to the mark then no amp or dac will help your cause,no matter what you get.Get a great headphone first and then the amp.

I am happy with my E11.

S

tkin said:
Don't get that one, apart from being stereo it isn't that good: *www.amazon.com/built-speakers-head...cd_dp_aar_al_a?_encoding=UTF8&asin=B0054L8GVK

Is it not worth the price ? Does the Siberia has a better VFM factor than this one ?

The Incinerator said:
For your purpose just avoid the Senns , I would say get ATH-M50 ,its still the king of the hill.If your headphone aint up to the mark then no amp or dac will help your cause,no matter what you get.Get a great headphone first and then the amp.

Thanks for dropping by ! Can you pls tell me more in detail on why I should avoid Senns and Choose ATH M50 ? Budget can be extended if the HP is worth it. Read abt Audio Technica's quality but how superior are they over Senns ?

whatthefrak said:
I am happy with my E11.

Sounds so good ! But I dont think can afford that if I take M50 as per Incinerator's advise.

Any more suggestions pls ?

The Senns 518 etc etc are so laid back that it makes ACDC sound like Jack Jonson if you know what I mean. It robs the song of its emotion,its not an all rounder,it holds itself back and misses the moment. It will never let the true emotion emote outta song what musician wanted cause its so heldback.It never rises up to the occasion when there is one! But with acoustic, western classical (small ensemble ) a small southern jazz quartet it comes on its own. Games and Movies are not at all its forte and not even all kinds of music,its not an all rounder its laidback warm sterile headphone.

If you can stretch the budget take a look at the Sennheiser Momentum. Monumental Performance.

A

The Incinerator said:
For your purpose just avoid the Senns , I would say get ATH-M50 ,its still the king of the hill.If your headphone aint up to the mark then no amp or dac will help your cause,no matter what you get.Get a great headphone first and then the amp.

ATH M50 has a different sound signature than that of the HD 518/558, it emphasizes more on bass, its a bass heavy headphone.The Senns on the other hand arent inclined to produce booming bass but have a wider soundstage with sculpted mids and highs.I personally dont like bass heavy headphones so I would pick the HD 518/558 over ATH M50.

Besides if you look up on the internet you will find many people complaining about how uncomfortable M50's arw for extended periods of use whereas the HD 518/558's have been praised for their comfort factor.

*linustechtips.com/main/topic/51787-hd558s-vs-ath-m50/
[MENTION=94364]siddarchris[/MENTION] : E11 is a portable amp if I am not mistaken, if you are looking for a portable amp within 3k I would recommend the "Soundmagic A10", I have them and they are fantastic.

Cheers!
Abhijit

Well ATH-M50 is NOT a bass heavy headphone. I wanted to buy it, then after seeing lack of bass comments refrained.

He has only read reviews but have not heard em in real world with different sources,his comments are his proof!Somebody commenting about the bass of an ATH-50 being boomy should be taken as a joke. On a serious note I would say its detailed, refined , balanced ( unlike the senns) and smooth with good bass range which is deep with superb Q slope and not overpowering at all in any stage and any case.

Well that's good news! I can get them then! Have you ever had any chance to use a V55?

S

The Incinerator said:
He has only read reviews but have not heard em in real world with different sources,his comments are his proof!Somebody commenting about the bass of an ATH-50 being boomy should be taken as a joke. On a serious note I would say its detailed, refined , balanced ( unlike the senns) and smooth with good bass range which is deep with superb Q slope and not overpowering at all in any stage and any case.

I have read at least 20 diff forums to make a decision only to find myself more confused. Initially I was convinced of buying a Headphone with an amazing 'SOUNDSTAGE' but after reading through this *www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=103148, I have tracked back to square one of finding a neutral Headphone with decent sound reproduction.

On those lines, M50 certainly looks better (again through comments only!), but I've decided to try them out myself. Help me to visit some dealers in Chennai to get some tangible experience.

Being a beginner, this is a substantial investment for me and I dont want to choose something hastily and regret later on!

A

The Incinerator said:
He has only read reviews but have not heard em in real world with different sources,his comments are his proof!Somebody commenting about the bass of an ATH-50 being boomy should be taken as a joke. On a serious note I would say its detailed, refined , balanced ( unlike the senns) and smooth with good bass range which is deep with superb Q slope and not overpowering at all in any stage and any case.

I don't need to hear them personally, the people who do these reviews are experts and unlike amateurs like us make their living out of it.I have a lot of high end IEM's and Headphones like the Klipsch Image X7I, Shure SE 215, Klipsch Image S4, Sennheiser HD 202 and the Sennheiser HD 558 and most of them were brought on recommendations from these reviews.I don't regret a single purchase.

Coming to the Frequency response graphs of the ATH M50 and the Sennheiser HD 558, this site has them both.

M50 : *headphones.reviewed.com/content/audio-technica-ath-m50-over-ear-headphones-review/sound-quality

HD 558 : *headphones.reviewed.com/content/sennheiser-hd-558-on-ear-headphone-review/sound-quality

Quote from the sound quality section of these reviews.

ATH M50 :

As you can see from the chart below, the frequency response of the ATH-M50 was a little more dynamic than what we usually like to see, but for some people the overemphasized bass and subdued 5-10kHz ranges might be preferable to other headphones. Audio Technica seems to have frequency responses very similar to this one in other models they've fielded, but this one is somewhat improved over other models we've seen. Still, don't let the branding fool you, these are not headphone variants of studio monitors. Not even close.What does this response mean for you? Well, in addition to feeling like you have a subwoofer inside your head, you'll also notice that sibilants (s, sh sounds), cymbal crashes and high-hats will all sound a little muffled in comparison to other instruments and voice sounds. Given that these specific sounds are typically pretty loud in comparison to others when their levels aren't toned down a bit in an unmixed track, it's not terribly surprising that Audio Technica would elect to downplay these sounds. We still believe that if the track is mixed correctly, this underemphasis is unnecessary (and leads to bad mixing if you use these headphones at home to create tracks). These are not ideal headphones for this purpose.

Sennheiser HD 558 :

If you're looking for a flat frequency response, the Sennheiser HD 558 have a good one. What isn't pictured here, is a dropoff of about 10dB at 90Hz, meaning that these headphones may not be the best bet for bass-lovers, but will do fantastically well for most everyone else.

IT IS CLEAR FROM BOTH THE FR GRAPH AND THE REVIEW THAT THE M50 ARE INDEED "BASS-BOOSTED" PERIOD.

Now if the OP is looking for Bass-Neutral Headphones(as he mentioned in his first post) ATH M50 is obviously not the way to go, I have the Sennheiser HD 558 and I am satisfied by the amount of Bass it delivers despite the flat response it on paper.

So you gonna buy sound by graph or a reviewer who has his own preferences? Best of luck. Your basics lack. He wants a headphone which he will use for movies music and games.He needs an all rounder not a ruler flat sterile boring headphone.

I use a Klipsch Custom 3/ Sleek Audio SA6 / Etymotics /Denons/ Sonys/Grado / AKG etc etcand hell lotta audio gear from amps to speakers to dacs to subs to directional plate speakers to THX cerified audio gears, that dosnt make me elite,does it? Sound is personal so a person having a low end iem might still find it better over a hi end iem whoz sound signature he loathes.Sometime my entry level Lenovo iem picks up and presents detail in a way that fortune costing Grados or Klipsch dosnt! But Trial and error puts the blame on source.Play around with source amps and speakers, interchange them over the same recordings, spend hours on them,tear your hair rather than reading those half baked reviews done by some so called pro whom your ears have never met
Trust your ears.

Audio dosnt work in a way that expensive means better. I just removed an all Alpine 1.3 Lac system from my Fortuner coz it was plain ear piercing bright and even a DLS amp from my other SUV couldnt calm it down,hence changed it with a all Pioneer for Rs 89K,spent whole day yesterday doing that,and the final sound just blew me,the technicians and my frens away. I had chose the Alpine based on reviews and graphs and stuffs printed on the back of their packaging,sensitivity ,watts, long/short term power handling,ohms dips, etc etc and final result was a bummer!Thats not how sound works my fren.

since you guys are talkign about high end headphones and amps, i think it would be prudent to say that the source is equally important.
[MENTION=146807]siddharchris[/MENTION]: when you finally play the music from the PC/Laptop, use good source.. meaning, use audio cds or WAV/FLAC/ALAC. if you can get hold of 16bit/192khz files, thatd be awesome. stay away from mp3., or other formats.

and regarding the audio player, do even think of going towards WMP/VLC. Use foobar from www.foobar2000.org with WASAPI. its a really powerful player, and with the Windows Audio Session API it produces bit perfect sound, i.e., produces the sound as it was recorded. bit to bit.

hope this helps.

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The Incinerator said:
So you gonna buy sound by graph or a reviewer who has his own preferences? Best of luck. Your basics lack. He wants a headphone which he will use for movies music and games.He needs an all rounder not a ruler flat sterile boring headphone.

I use a Klipsch Custom 3/ Sleek Audio SA6 / Etymotics /Denons/ Sonys/Grado / AKG etc etcand hell lotta audio gear from amps to speakers to dacs to subs to directional plate speakers to THX cerified audio gears, that dosnt make me elite,does it? Sound is personal so a person having a low end iem might still find it better over a hi end iem whoz sound signature he loathes.Sometime my entry level Lenovo iem picks up and presents detail in a way that fortune costing Grados or Klipsch dosnt! But Trial and error puts the blame on source.Play around with source amps and speakers, interchange them over the same recordings, spend hours on them,tear your hair rather than reading those half baked reviews done by some so called pro whom your ears have never met
Trust your ears.

Audio dosnt work in a way that expensive means better. I just removed an all Alpine 1.3 Lac system from my Fortuner coz it was plain ear piercing bright and even a DLS amp from my other SUV couldnt calm it down,hence changed it with a all Pioneer for Rs 89K,spent whole day yesterday doing that,and the final sound just blew me,the technicians and my frens away. I had chose the Alpine based on reviews and graphs and stuffs printed on the back of their packaging,sensitivity ,watts, long/short term power handling,ohms dips, etc etc and final result was a bummer!Thats not how sound works my fren.

wow.
lotsa money!!

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btw, your 1L car system reminded me, above a certain limit, money sings. literally.

Sound is quite subjective. What I like the other persons may not like it. From what I had read few mnths back I found Audio Technica ATH M50 to be pretty versatile headphones.
Two mnth back I had an opportunity of trying Sennheiser Momentum on ear model which retails @15k in croma outlet. I was not carrying my Nationite player so the sales guy connected it to some sony player. I heard it for just 3-4 min & found out to be bass heavy & dark sounding. I'll have to hear it again with my setup.

[MENTION=146807]siddharchris[/MENTION]
Better get an demo/audition first preferably with your audio setup & songs before investing into anything.

[MENTION=146621]The Incinerator[/MENTION]
hey bro you opted for all pioneer? I do agree with alpine being bright.
Can I just dare to ask, Why? I mean any specific reason to choose pioneer over many other international brands which are officially available here.

^Pioneer does have some very good audio hardware.

S

anirbandd said:
since you guys are talkign about high end headphones and amps, i think it would be prudent to say that the source is equally important.
[MENTION=146807]siddharchris[/MENTION]: when you finally play the music from the PC/Laptop, use good source.. meaning, use audio cds or WAV/FLAC/ALAC. if you can get hold of 16bit/192khz files, thatd be awesome. stay away from mp3., or other formats.

and regarding the audio player, do even think of going towards WMP/VLC. Use foobar from www.foobar2000.org with WASAPI. its a really powerful player, and with the Windows Audio Session API it produces bit perfect sound, i.e., produces the sound as it was recorded. bit to bit.

hope this helps.

The music collections are in FLAC at 16/24 bit 44kHZ sampling rate and the Movies are at DTS/Dolby 6 Channel 24 Bit 48kHZ sampling rate. Foobar plays all these but unable to get the detail due to crappy headphone I have!

Now, can M50 produce these sounds reasonably well? Since its a closed model (with a great sound though!) and not much recommended for spatial sounding, I wonder how this will perform with an external soundcard like Xonar U7?

Help Please! :-(

anirbandd said:
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wow.
lotsa money!!

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btw, your 1L car system reminded me, above a certain limit, money sings. literally.

no idea about Asus Xonars, but a good DAC will directly affect the sound. it will improve the sound to a great great extent.

i personally dont own one, but i've had the good fortune to listen to a few at a friend's.

i will ask him the details and get back.

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and since you are spending a big amount, dont rush.

wait, read up. take auditions before you buy.

S

anirbandd said:
no idea about Asus Xonars, but a good DAC will directly affect the sound. it will improve the sound to a great great extent.

i personally dont own one, but i've had the good fortune to listen to a few at a friend's.

i will ask him the details and get back.

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and since you are spending a big amount, dont rush.

wait, read up. take auditions before you buy.

Thanks for your help! I will take my time and personally visit those dealers offering test samples. Here's a quick list of the available options,

1. Audio Technica ATH M50
2. Audio Technica AD700
3. Shure SRH840
4. Sennheiser HD 558

Have anything else to add ?

yeah sure..

he has the M50 and AD700.

and some DACs. i'll ask him and let you know.

@ sandynator, all pioneer because the tonal balance remained the same through out,perfect. Its on the warmer side with slight forward nature which can be easily corrected with EQ,but no where as bad as Alpine which just dosnt seem to tame,just impossible. I hate bright forward sounding audio gear.All Kenwood is another neutral sounding ICE not exactly warm but can be easily EQd or voiced to your liking.Another problem was budget ofcourse,the Fortuner us substantial inside and to fill that up with hiend stuff from Morel,MTX, JL, DLS or Rainbow was turning out be very expensive. Pioneer speakers seem better to ME than even JBL ,I think its because they own TAD and technology has trickled down from TAD to Pioneer in all segment of their speaker line from HT to ICE, a ultra hi end speaker manufacturer,if you hear a TAD Evolution I believe you will be smitten for life.But I think atleast I wont be able to afford a set up that can have the Evolution1 as a speaker in this lifetime! So I have to be happy in a imitation of that sound! Bless me!!!

@ anirbandd ,all you saw was the money in that post? Did you get what I meant? Why expensive gear or money aint the solution for the best in audio,that was the point.? Or is it our typical Kolkata communist attitude? :wink:

S

anirbandd said:
yeah sure..

he has the M50 and AD700.

and some DACs. i'll ask him and let you know.

Thanks so much

siddharchris said:
Is it not worth the price ? Does the Siberia has a better VFM factor than this one ?

Thanks for dropping by ! Can you pls tell me more in detail on why I should avoid Senns and Choose ATH M50 ? Budget can be extended if the HP is worth it. Read abt Audio Technica's quality but how superior are they over Senns ?

Sounds so good ! But I dont think can afford that if I take M50 as per Incinerator's advise.

Any more suggestions pls ?

Siberia is a lot VFM than the Asus U3.

And ATH M50 is an exceptional product, its price tag is fully justified and beats higher priced headphones.

- - - Updated - - -

siddharchris said:
Thanks for your help! I will take my time and personally visit those dealers offering test samples. Here's a quick list of the available options,

1. Audio Technica ATH M50
2. Audio Technica AD700
3. Shure SRH840
4. Sennheiser HD 558

Have anything else to add ?

Where are you located? Audio Technica HP's are hard to find in a shop, I had seen them selling in Hyderabad and just a bit above the online price point.

S

tkin said:
Siberia is a lot VFM than the Asus U3.

And ATH M50 is an exceptional product, its price tag is fully justified and beats higher priced headphones.

Thanks so much! I'll try Siberia.

tkin said:
Where are you located? Audio Technica HP's are hard to find in a shop, I had seen them selling in Hyderabad and just a bit above the online price point.

I'm in Chennai. Saptaswara Musicals has offered me an audition of M50. Just looking for Senn Dealers.

As far as I know Saptaswara stocks Senns too.

A

I was almost impressed until I saw a pair of "Bass-Boosted"(ATH M50) headphones being proclaimed as an allrounder. I borrowed an ATH M50 from a friend and tried it myself, what I concluded is that while it is a good step into the audiophile world, it cannot match my Sennheiser HD558 on any level.The soundstage(due to the open back design), the amount of details picked up and the allround sound signature is far more better in the HD558 than the ATH M50.

But then again it is subject to one's personal taste, a person who likes hip-hop and metal will find a pair of "Bass-Boosted" headphones like Beats by Dre or the ath m50 to be better because these genres require such headphones.

In this price range there is no such thing as an "allrounder" . If one wants to buy a TRUE all allrounder one has to cough up more than 30k on IEM's like the SHURE SE 535 which is has "Triple BA drivers : One for each part of the frequency spectrum" or headphones like the Shure Srh1940 and the Sennheiser HD 650.

Anyways if OP has decided to check out all the headphones select the one he likes, no amount of recommendations saying otherwise will change his mind.GL on your HF Hunt

All rounders are present in every aspects, stages of life materialistic or not, let alone audio.Im not bad mouthing the Senns ,I have mentioned what they do best.

The Incinerator said:
@ anirbandd ,all you saw was the money in that post? Did you get what I meant? Why expensive gear or money aint the solution for the best in audio,that was the point.? Or is it our typical Kolkata communist attitude?

wow!

you took it seriously.

PS: if i remember, you had given a pic of your red cpu cabinet. and said you were diehard cpm fan. gimme a break dada.

I thought you overlooked my point altogether,sorry bro.No hard feelings.

The Incinerator said:
I thought you overlooked my point altogether,sorry bro.No hard feelings.

no issues

S

The Incinerator said:
As far as I know Saptaswara stocks Senns too.

Not the HD 5xx series. I checked with them. Headphone Zone and Musee Musicals store these Senn Models but unsure of auditioning. You know anyone else ?

AbhMkh said:
I was almost impressed until I saw a pair of "Bass-Boosted"(ATH M50) headphones being proclaimed as an allrounder. I borrowed an ATH M50 from a friend and tried it myself, what I concluded is that while it is a good step into the audiophile world, it cannot match my Sennheiser HD558 on any level.The soundstage(due to the open back design), the amount of details picked up and the allround sound signature is far more better in the HD558 than the ATH M50.

But then again it is subject to one's personal taste, a person who likes hip-hop and metal will find a pair of "Bass-Boosted" headphones like Beats by Dre or the ath m50 to be better because these genres require such headphones.

In this price range there is no such thing as an "allrounder" . If one wants to buy a TRUE all allrounder one has to cough up more than 30k on IEM's like the SHURE SE 535 which is has "Triple BA drivers : One for each part of the frequency spectrum" or headphones like the Shure Srh1940 and the Sennheiser HD 650.

Anyways if OP has decided to check out all the headphones select the one he likes, no amount of recommendations saying otherwise will change his mind.GL on your HF Hunt

The Incinerator said:
All rounders are present in every aspects, stages of life materialistic or not, let alone audio.Im not bad mouthing the Senns ,I have mentioned what they do best.

I'm just glad to have you help me find the right equipment. You guys made this thread more informative than it required and took it to a different plane. Thanks!

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S

Thanks a lot [MENTION=5739]Incinerator[/MENTION]

S

Came through this offer and verified it to be true and genuine *www.ebay.in/itm/Logitech-UE-6000-H...Head_Sets&hash=item233601454b&_uhb=1#payCntId

So UE 6000 and Fiio E07K makes a versatile combination?