Mayonnaise smooth mids and soufflé treble

In my opinioon well trained.. All right? All right

What is “Galactic Bucks”?

Little Dot Mk3 is a OTL tube amp with tube output stage. Mk3 SE is a hybrid with solid state output. My understanding from Google, I don't own either (I have a TA-26).

> For Christmas I ended up getting the Focal Clear OG and the Sennheiser HD8XX

Hey it's me, your long lost brother.

I was kidding about the banning but most manufacturers try to make product that accurately reproduces music and price them according to their success. Deviants from this are bose, beats and skull candy who are selling image and brand over and above any fidelity they might have.

Back when wired IEMs or old school earbuds/earphones were given as freebies with the phones/other devices, some of us just lost them over time all the time, lol.

These days the $20 IEMs are really good and so just use those for outside use.

Right now the current marketed hype sets are the $20 Truthear HOLA, TANGZU Wan'er, 7Hz Salnotes Zero, et cetera.

There's a lot of earbuds cases these days that may be really easy to find, like put stickers/etc. on it to make it distinguishable. As in, always have a container for your IEMs so that they don't get damaged or lost easily. Treat IEMs/audio stuff as jewelry as when you drop them, the sound/everything can be damaged, and so yup, always use some caution when using them.

For $50 or so IEMs, parametric EQ, squig.link comparison graphs, et cetera, click here: https://www.reddit.com/r/HeadphoneAdvice/comments/1153zi3/any_advice_on_what_headphones_i_could_buy_for_my/j9iic7p/

Extra info on wired IEMs/headphones/Bluetooth/et cetera: https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/11a550d/how_can_i_learn_the_basics_about_soundheadphones/j9r9r48/

My two pence:

I got my pair of 660S2 today and I’m not going to beat around the bush: they’re absolutely mindblowing.

I got the Meze 109 Pro’s in December, and my other over-ears are Focal Clear OG’s, Senny HD 560’s, Focal Bathys and AKG K371’s.

I’ve owned HifiMans ranging from Sundaras to Aryas and I’ve owned a pair of HD 650’s and the original pair of HD 660’s. I also have a small obsession with really nice IEMs that I won’t go into here.

But, basically, I’m here to say this: forget the talk from YouTubers (et al) about this being an incremental improvement on the previous 660’s and a different but equal flavour of the 600 series. These headphones, to my ears, fight in a different weight class.

I adore my Meze 109 Pro’s, but I can tell you immediately today after just a few hours of listening that the 660S2 are going to be on my head way more in 2023.

Others will disagree, and I totally get that. But to me, the 660S2 are everything good and great about the 600 series amalgamated into a single headphone. They punch, the midrange is great, they’re analytical like a pair of 600’s but warm like 650’s, 6xx or 660’s, the treble is just right, etc etc

I don’t know if this comment is meaningful or not, but I’ll finish on this point tonight: I’m a big EQer of headphones. This is the first pair I’ve had in years that I’ve been unable to improve via EQ. I keep just going back to stock tuning.

I really feel like (most of the) reviewers (we all watch) have misrepresented the quality of these cans.

I can understand that the price is difficult for a lot of people to swallow, but - in a vacuum - this is easily a $500 pair of headphones compared to others competing in the same range, and in fact I’d say that these are a match for almost anything under £1000.

They play in the same ballpark as my Focal Clear OG’s (and in some cases better them) as opposed to something like the Edition XS or Ananda. And I say that as a HUGE planar fan and fan of those two headphones as well.

If you can wait until the S2’s come down in price, all power to you. But will I ever regret selling my old HD660’s and a few other things so I could spend the money on these? No chance.

So far, I find them captivating in a way that has been very rare in my audiophile journey so far.

If I had to name one thing that leaves me feeling sore about the S2’s, it’s definitely the packaging. Come on, Sennheiser… These are headphones that merit so much more than a little pouch for transport.

Yeah I've been using a pretty basic Fiio amp/DAC for years. It's good. Good build quality. I've always been interested in Schiit's products because they look great an are a US based company. But would I discern a difference? Probably not.

TL;DR: just get the Apple dongle or some other well-reviewed dongle (with physical volume control) and see if it gets your headphones loud enough. Your Realtek ALC1200/etc. from the motherboard will probably just drive the headphones just fine too.

Hello, try the cheaper headphones first before you get the HD6xx/etc. Some people talk of the Sennheiser veil or vocals part, so note that fact.

People really like the Sennheiser HD 560S for gaming instead of the HD 600 series.

For budget headphones over $100, see here for more info: https://www.reddit.com/r/HeadphoneAdvice/comments/11ak45m/what_are_the_best_overall_headphones_in_2023/j9sk0c0/

Oh and Amazon also offers financing for certain popular (Sennheiser) headphones (legit free, no interest rates/etc.), over 5 months or 12 months, and so on. It'll depend on your account history with them though, as in you will probably get that offer if you buy a lot from Amazon and don't return as much items.

Anyway, some people always just use the $10 Apple dongle/etc. with headphones. But you'll probably want a well-reviewed dongle (~$30-100) with physical volume control in order to have more volume variation (this is really helpful with background static/buzzing/hissing/etc.).

For the ~$10 Apple dongle, just note the reduced power if it's the EU version, or the apps needed on Android to bypass Android's DAC/etc. system in order to get the best capabilities.

Some people will say those cheap dongles are not enough and then the next progress would then be to get the usual $100 stacks/options of amps/DACs/etc. from JDS Labs, Topping, Schiit, etc.

But tbh, you'll probably have better value by just going with wired IEMs and gaming.

More info on headphones/IEMs and PC gaming: https://www.reddit.com/r/HeadphoneAdvice/comments/1151ezm/looking_for_1st_real_pair_of_headphones_mostly/j8zm0q8/

The $50 Truthear x crinacle Zero is the one that some people really like right now for gaming. Though yes you can just be fine with the $20 7Hz Salnotes Zero, etc.

Vali is a toy level fake tube amp with tube there just for the show. Op amp inside is doing 99.9999% of the work, thus the solid state sound. Don’t waste your money buying tube for Vali.

What AirPods? The max are excellent headphones.

fra-gee-lay

Ok, ill look into the e10k or k7 and learn a bit more about combo units. My mic is standalone so not a lot of use there.

Thank you again!!

The HD's ( new ) cost $450 Galactic Bucks and the B&W ( used ) were $70. There were two pairs for $70 GB and I should have bought the second pair.. I am dork x2

The B&W have clear definite bottom end. The HD's do not. They just simply don't.

If I boosted a mix to get the same bottom end sound with the HD's the B&W's would be puking on the same mix and the mix will sound like SHIT on monitors.

Sometimes I have the B&W's on AND the monitors and I can get a really nice surround sound. Like I am swimming in sound.

Since I migrated to the B&W's my mixes are way better, I can enjoy low keys and kicks etc. I might use the HD's for Isolation and maybe a quick scan of the upper ranges... but yeah they are poison to me now.

The driver plugs and the resonating shells are pretty dumb...

> Is it as good, or is this one of those "pick a price that works from a reputable company" things?

Take your pick. Both will work. They're good starting off points which I think is what you're looking for. There's like 20 good starter amp/DACs either in the form of combos or all in one units. Personally I'd only pick the Fulla if I wanted to use a headset with a mic on it.

why

Might get you banned from this sub-reddit s/

lets get this tube out onto a tray

It has a bit of an omelette texture

Delta really said fuck V-shaped, we do ^-shaped

"There" is a very subjective observation. It's response to bass might be very low , but it's still there... uh, sure, you can drive the things if you want, EQ to " increase" the bass volume... but is it "there" well I say only just and they sound like the 1970's... with radio mixes for 3 inch mid range open back speakers...

For mid to high detail yep they will show you the truth... but that's all.

Or turn up the bass... right ?

Do we have to do a response test here?

Awesome, thank you so much. I might go with a combo unit as I'm sure it's more beginner friendly.

I tend to wait well past the due date for upgrades anyway, so it might be cheaper on me too. I see Schitt also has combo units like the full. Is it as good, or is this one of those "pick a price that works from a reputable company" things?

Lots of people also think they're listening to tube amps when it's just a tube input stage and a solid state output.

Also different tube topologies sound drastically different. Output transformer amps sound different from output transformer less. Cheap output transformers sound way different than expensive ones (and they get pricey...)

Whoah "Absurd" levels of bass? Jeez that is some entitled shit right there.

The HD 25's have fuck all bass. you can drive the fuck out of them if you wish but yeah you are going to have to EQ that shit which then makes them being FLAT a fucking moot point. Ay.