Headphone crew

217 Replies, 110842 Views

A nice listening system usually isn't the same as a nice monitoring setup!

Engineer = high quality for mixing (ie honest)

Audiophile = high quality for listening (ie flattering)

The former feeds the latter, if you get me.
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Don Cherry Wrote:Every human is blessed in her or his life with one love (passion), no matter how long it may last. This Absolute love will last in one's heart and soul forever.
Can someone point me to some sites to check out amps please Smile
http://www.meier-audio.homepage.t-online.de/

i got mine from them.

made by a geek Xyxthumbs
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Don Cherry Wrote:Every human is blessed in her or his life with one love (passion), no matter how long it may last. This Absolute love will last in one's heart and soul forever.
Oh, and Google Graham Slee - Voyager. Looks good Smile
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Don Cherry Wrote:Every human is blessed in her or his life with one love (passion), no matter how long it may last. This Absolute love will last in one's heart and soul forever.
macc Wrote:made by a geek Xyxthumbs

Lol
some extremely good advice here:

http://www.meier-audio.homepage.t-online.de/

fwiw my hd600's are starting to open up a bit Smile i've been really impressed by the transient response, but frequency wise i am not so happy. but it is changing, and the amp has made a big difference.

i just tried a few eq tweaks on them Nervous it seemed ok back on the 270's though Smiley
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Don Cherry Wrote:Every human is blessed in her or his life with one love (passion), no matter how long it may last. This Absolute love will last in one's heart and soul forever.
Yeah had a good read of that site Smile

The amp you went for seems like a good un bob, the voyager sounds good too but maybe has a more warm and polished sound to it from what I've read and as has been said already is great for listening but not so great for mixing.
So you weren't tempted by the Cantate, Bob?
Of course I was Lol

But RME convertors aren't too shabby Wink And there is that little thing called 'the mortgage' that needs paying, meaning I have to restrain my gearlust Icon_sad
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Don Cherry Wrote:Every human is blessed in her or his life with one love (passion), no matter how long it may last. This Absolute love will last in one's heart and soul forever.
Ah! Impedance! Forgot about that!

My 4-way one is to drive some HD 202's for when recording bands on-location so the quality doesn't need to be great - it's all about the loudness & noise/headphone leakage reduction when doing that. My monitoring headphones, however, are at the right impedance for my interface output.

I guess if it's made using super high-quality gold-plated sparkling-clean demagnetized balanced (etc etc) valves and stuff, that's great, but how many other people will hear it under those conditions? I've always thought that it's best to get something sounding good on 10/15 different crappy speakers/headphones in 10/15 different rooms etc as opposed to super clean on 1 set of headphones...

...unless you can afford to play around with a couple of million you have in the bank, Macc...? Lol
bhima Wrote:Ah! Impedance! Forgot about that!

Forgot about that really important thing, right? Teef Hahaha

Quote:My 4-way one is to drive some HD 202's for when recording bands on-location so the quality doesn't need to be great - it's all about the loudness & noise/headphone leakage reduction when doing that. My monitoring headphones, however, are at the right impedance for my interface output.

Yeah, that's one thing - low impedance not-top-notch quality high volume headphones for on stage/studio monitoring. This is what I was saying - there are headphone amps, and there are headphone amps.

Quote:I guess if it's made using super high-quality gold-plated sparkling-clean demagnetized balanced (etc etc) valves and stuff, that's great, but how many other people will hear it under those conditions? I've always thought that it's best to get something sounding good on 10/15 different crappy speakers/headphones in 10/15 different rooms etc as opposed to super clean on 1 set of headphones...

Bhima, what are you on about? I've read this a number of times, and while it's a fair point, that's a mixing/translation point and not really anything to do with headphone amps per se. If you're using headphones for most/all of your work - as I am - then it is of course of the UTMOST importance that things sound as good as they possibly can, in order to provide the good translation you're alluding to. Therefore >>>> best cans for the purpose + best amp for the purpose.

If I'm reading you right, you're saying 'what's the point of quality monitoring? No one else listens on quality gear' Baffled Let's all mix on our laptops then Teef

Note to bhima: Engage squidgy grey thing in your head before posting Teef Teef Teef Wink
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Don Cherry Wrote:Every human is blessed in her or his life with one love (passion), no matter how long it may last. This Absolute love will last in one's heart and soul forever.
Got the cans today! Start breaking them in tonight Jig
give em time... every time i check mine they get better and better :d

follow yer man's advice Xyxthumbs

also, what he says about the cans going forward and lower - Icon_eek
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Don Cherry Wrote:Every human is blessed in her or his life with one love (passion), no matter how long it may last. This Absolute love will last in one's heart and soul forever.
Macc Wrote:Also, what he says about the cans going forward and lower - Icon_eek

Yeah gonna try that
when the hd600's cups just touch the back of my (rather large) ears, it is mad. depth central.

that's another thing these cans are killing me with... the whole open thing combined with the transient response makes it seem like you can reach out into the room and grab the instruments out of the air or something :d

and reverbs. jeebus.

it's certainly going to be a real struggle to get used to eqing on them, they are so different to the 270's... Nervous still, going to give them another 50 hours yet Smile
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Don Cherry Wrote:Every human is blessed in her or his life with one love (passion), no matter how long it may last. This Absolute love will last in one's heart and soul forever.
so i've probably put about 100 hours through them, maybe a bit more. the volume has been increasing slowly through the amp and is just reaching 'agghhh' levels while i am at work etc. Smile the difference is staggering, it has to be said. they really were disappointing at first, so be patient all of you.

i'm also weaning myself over to them slowly so i know them, so they don't completely fuck me up when i go over to them 100%, and so i can still refer back to the 270's and be aware of the specific differences (which are very great).

one thing i notice on listening to them now - which i am doing for 5-30 minutes here or there - is that from a spectral pov, perfectly-mixed stuff sounds amazing. warm, fat, deep, etc - unbelievable. and mixes which i did where i thought 'i might change that one day but it will do for now' sound Oops Oops Oops

i see this as a very positive development Yes once i've really got down and dirty with them it's going to be wixxed.
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Don Cherry Wrote:Every human is blessed in her or his life with one love (passion), no matter how long it may last. This Absolute love will last in one's heart and soul forever.
Anyone else of those of view who bought new cans lately have anything to report? Smile

I can't fucking belieeeeeve how good the stereo field is on these things. and low mid warm punch. Amazing.
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Don Cherry Wrote:Every human is blessed in her or his life with one love (passion), no matter how long it may last. This Absolute love will last in one's heart and soul forever.
My Audio Technica AD300's just keep on sounding ultimately polite. Nothing stands out, but nothing sounds bad to me. Great for easy listening or non-ear fatiguing music making sessions.
i've been tinkering with sennheisers pxc350s over the last few weeks. noise cancelling, closed-back phones available for around the 150 quid mark.

The noise cancelling is very fine (not least because the closed-back design keeps most of the noise out in the first place) but in quiet passages, the aliasing hiss typical of sennhesier's noise cancelling circuit is a tad annoying. But, bass slam and the sense of scale is sooooo much better than my teeny tiny old pxc250s.

Problem is, noise cancelling is only realy useful if you're out and about, and these cans make you look like a fucking cyberman. Baffled
bare
Macc Wrote:Bhima, what are you on about? I've read this a number of times, and while it's a fair point, that's a mixing/translation point and not really anything to do with headphone amps per se.

I know. Teef Seemed like a good argument at the time... Oops Just went off on one. Roll
That's not like you Teef
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Don Cherry Wrote:Every human is blessed in her or his life with one love (passion), no matter how long it may last. This Absolute love will last in one's heart and soul forever.
Yeah i have run mine for about 70 hours slowly increasing the volume bit by bit. Not used them much at all yet tbh but i did use them for a bit the other night and already i have noticed a big difference from the 270s. when i played back the new thing i started on my pmcs the next day (after starting it on the 650s) it sounded a lot better/right.
When i use to use my 270s i would always have to adjust things when i worked from my monitors and even though i got to learn what to compensate for when using cans these already sound a lot closer when A -B ing from cans to my pmcs Lovesmilie Gonna save me a lot of time.

I'm sure they will get better and better as they really kick in too Grin
considering some shure e4c's, more for listening than anything else, jazz, classical, dub and stuff.

i nearly bought the e4c in the apple store (£200) today except the police have cordoned off most of regent street Baffled lucky because theyre only £130 on amazon, seems reasonable?

looks good...[link removed cos it was massive - Macc]

think i remember reading they were low on bass but is that just that they don't have a boost there? so presumably the response is there and if they are lacking i can just turn it up in the eq?

are there any better alternatives?

i already have some bose ones, and imo the difference over the £30 sony ones is worth it, except theyre complete cunts, uncomfortable and the plastic thingies fling themselves across the room and under some furniture at the slightest provocation.
i thought the e4cees had been replaced by the shure se420s?

I liked the se420s alot when i tested them last year.... Grin
bare
ahhh

i did notice the e2c/e3c seem to have disappeared from places, didnt realise there were new ones Grin

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