A new pair of headphones

[IamPinhead]

I got my Audio Technica ATH-M50s yesterday.

First and foremost, they are a great improvement over my JVC Rx-900s. They're smaller, fold up nicely and are more durable. Sound-wise, it's another big improvement. Everything is much more balanced, and the detail is far improved. The sound-stage is more realistic than my old 'phones, and I really feel much closer to my music than I did before. The bass response is a lot more detailed and punchy, and electronic songs don't just sound like a bunch of distorted vibrations. Mids and trebles are just as crisp, bringing a great balance to everything that I hear through them.

I watched Jurassic Park with my buddy Dan through his Compass DAC, and it made a great movie that much better. Unfortunately, it terminates into a 1/4" plug. Dan gave me an adapter for it (I bought them through him), but the jack is around four inches long and is really touchy when it's in a 1/8" input.
Otherwise, I'm happy with my purchase.
Update: I have herped the derp. There was a 1/8" to 1/4" screwed on the end. So basically I had a 1/8-1/4-1/8 on them the day I OP'ed.

[orius]

Re: A new pair of headphones

Adaptors are a minor issue, really. If your buddy didn't have one, you could easily pick some up at Radio Shack or something, they always have those things, and they're relatively cheap. I have a few extra laying around that I never use that I got with new headphones here and there.

I need to pick up a new pair sometime next week too. My set died out rather suddenly on me this week. That's probably what I get for buying the cheaper ones, but the way I go through headphones, I don't like spending more than $10 on them.

[Perversion]

Re: A new pair of headphones

I've had 2 pairs of Sennheisers for over a year and a half now, both of which have had the cord yanked multiple times, and both still work perfectly fine.

If these had been cheapie headphones, they wouldn't have survived the first yank.

[IamPinhead]

Re: A new pair of headphones

spending more than $10 on them.

spending more than $10 on them

spending more than $10 on them

Do you ever enjoy your music? Ever? How can you even connect it when you're only buying $10 headphones? How?!
I spent 90$ on mine. Originally they're anywhere from $120-140, so I got a steal.

[orius]

Re: A new pair of headphones

My ears are biologically incapable of telling the difference.

[Perversion]

Re: A new pair of headphones

I'm seriously pretty deaf myself, but I can tell you from personal experience that you WILL hear the difference using a good pair of headphones or speakers. I used to think like you..."Ah, it all sounds the same." This is absolutely, unequivocally not true.


Also, maybe your hand is biologically incapable of reaching into your wallet to ALLOW you to hear the difference.

[orius]

Re: A new pair of headphones

More like my salary is monetarily incapable of justifying such a purchace in the first place.

[IamPinhead]

Re: A new pair of headphones

More like my salary is monetarily incapable of justifying such a purchase in the first place.

There's a reason audiophiles made the phrase "sorry about your wallet."
If you're so monetarily incapable of purchasing headphones of good quality, get the Superlux 668bs. They're $30-$40 and people on Head-Fi love them. If people on Head-Fi place them at #10 then it is definitely a wise purchase (at least for headphones).

[orius]

Re: A new pair of headphones

It's not a big deal really. Unless the headphones are really crappy, it doesn't make that much difference to me.

[Red Dragon]

Re: A new pair of headphones

I have a terrible experience with headphones. They always end up broken in the oddest of ways. I can never justify spending more than 10 bucks on headphones because of this. I couldn't imagine spending 120 bucks on some headphones only 3 monthes later to have them broken in some weird stupid way.

[Cutter De Blanc]

Re: A new pair of headphones

Headphones suck, if my music is too loud, you're too old!

**** yeah

[Alex]

Re: A new pair of headphones



Once again repping the Grado SR-60's. While these guys sound amazing and are relatively cheap at 80 bucks, they aren't exactly the most rugged pair out there. Maybe if I still had my receipt, I would get a replacement pair as they have a lifetime guarantee, but instead I'm keeping them alive with some tape, a soldering iron, and some extra speaker wire, and in the process converting them to a single-wire set:



But these guys are an open-ear set and leak pretty much all sound. For riding the bus or being in public, I carry around these eight dollar Skullcandy ear plugs:



Inner-ear buds take a while to get used to, and are probably very bad for your ears, but it's like being hooked up directly to a soundsystem as the sound goes straight to your brain, and nobody can hear it. The sound quality isn't very good- it's a little muddy but whatev, 8 bucks, complete silence.

The audiophile snobbery of "Do you ever enjoy your music? Ever?" is bull****. You guys are just another subset of obsessive nerds and it's cool that you have a hobby or interest or whatever, but it usually involves belittling those who listen to music with their iPod ear-buds or 128kbit Mp3's and that's not very nice.

[Perversion]

Re: A new pair of headphones

If you listen to your MP3s via an ipod dock and/or use $10 headphones, 128 kb/sec MP3s are more than sufficient.

And if you choose not to upgrade your headphones/speakers/etc, by all means, be happy with what you have.

My only point is that there is a major difference between $10 headphones and good headphones. Also, because you brought it up, between 128 kb/sec MP3s and 320 or higher MP3s.

This is no joke, but ever since I've had my current audio setup, there have been quite a few albums that I've "listened to" many, many, many times over the years, and literally just "heard" for the first time.