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Post by reaper on Jul 11, 2009 6:23:32 GMT -5
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Post by dschroll on Jul 11, 2009 15:39:19 GMT -5
Sorry, no experience from me on these. I rarely play online it seems, and when I do I'm generally happy with the standard 360 headset. I do use quite a bit some Bose noise canceling headphones when my daughter is asleep. They work great and are fairly comfy.
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Post by reaper on Jul 11, 2009 17:43:13 GMT -5
I have a decent set of Sony cans myself but the problems I have with those are: 1. I have no receiver hooked up to my TV and the TV itself has no headphone jack 2. Even if I go to another TV that does have a headphone jack, I have no way to wear the standard headphones and still chat... Hrmm... while I was typing #2, I came up with an idea... I could wear the xbox headset around my neck so the mic is near my mouth and wear standard headphones. Then I could send voice chat audio headset and speakers. So I could hear people through my headpones and talk through the headset. But even this solution fails to address the other TV where I have no headphone jack. Thanks for the thoughts. On a related note, I tweeted something about this and Astro (The Company) started following me through twitter and tried to tweet some thoughts to me . Pretty cool eh? They spelled my name wrong, so the tweek didn't show in my feed but I saw it when I got their following notice and hopped to their page.
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Post by oldskoolboarder on Jul 11, 2009 19:21:52 GMT -5
I tried those noise cancelling Bose and they effect hurts my ears, like it's sucking air out of my eardrums.
Funny you mention the Bose too. Headphones are my current obsession. I've got a pair of in-ear monitors, the Ultimate Ears Superfi 5EB, love 'em. Then I have my audiophile Grado 325i's. They're open cans so not great for quite environments but sound fantastic. I've just put an order for a special edition one from John Grado recently.
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Post by dschroll on Jul 11, 2009 22:49:22 GMT -5
The Bose headphones take some getting used to as the noise canceling circuitry they use does almost feel like a pressure change in your ears. Still, I got used to it very quickly and really appreciated the amount of noise it manages to reduce. Its not perfect and you can still hear if someone is talking to you, but its really nice on an airplane where the blasting air conditioner and hum of the engines really makes it hard to sleep.
I got them through a credit card rewards program years ago and thought I would use them more than I did. I was starting to regret the purchase, but now with my daughter sleeping in the other room, those headphones have more than justified their existence in my household. I'm no audiophile, so I don't need anything state of the art.
reaper, is there anyway you can get a composite audio cable to 9mm headphone jack form radio shack? Then you can output the sound on your TV and have it feed into a 9mm jack with an extension cable for your headphones. Would something like that work?
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Post by UsualNoise on Jul 11, 2009 23:53:22 GMT -5
I've got a pair of in-ear monitors, the Ultimate Ears Superfi 5EB, love 'em. Then I have my audiophile Grado 325i's. They're open cans so not great for quite environments but sound fantastic. Ultimate Ears, eh? Nice. I could never justify the moolah on them, but it's always been a dream. My stock "cheapo" audiophile solution is Sennheiser PX-100 open ear and Etymotics ER-6i in ear for when I'm mowing or whatnot. Neither is perfect, but the sound quality blows away anything I had before, especially for the price.
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Post by reaper on Jul 12, 2009 7:32:16 GMT -5
reaper, is there anyway you can get a composite audio cable to 9mm headphone jack form radio shack? Then you can output the sound on your TV and have it feed into a 9mm jack with an extension cable for your headphones. Would something like that work? Hrmm.. it may but I'd still have to wear the headset also to talk. I guess the big question is this... I got $300 for my birthday from family. Is there something cooler I should buy The world (of gadgets $300 or less) is my oyster! Hahah. Leaning heavily towards these cans. Another thing they bring to the table is Dolby Headphone processing. They use the DD signal and convert it to DH. It's supposed to sound pretty good. Demos I've tried sound like a very open sound stage... hard to locate in front/back but still nice big sound stage.
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Post by oldskoolboarder on Jul 12, 2009 16:11:38 GMT -5
If you use the audio output of the TV, you'd have to make sure it's not a line out. If so, then you have no volume control. I spend a lot of time on Head-Fi. You can ask the obsessive headphone nuts over there if they know of good headsets. www.head-fi.org/forums/$300? I love my Kindle 2 and they dropped the price...
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Post by reaper on Jul 12, 2009 16:18:05 GMT -5
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Post by oldskoolboarder on Jul 13, 2009 0:19:29 GMT -5
I've got a pair of in-ear monitors, the Ultimate Ears Superfi 5EB, love 'em. Then I have my audiophile Grado 325i's. They're open cans so not great for quite environments but sound fantastic. Ultimate Ears, eh? Nice. I could never justify the moolah on them, but it's always been a dream. My stock "cheapo" audiophile solution is Sennheiser PX-100 open ear and Etymotics ER-6i in ear for when I'm mowing or whatnot. Neither is perfect, but the sound quality blows away anything I had before, especially for the price. Actually, I considered the PX100's a while back. Those seem to get good reviews. Those Ety's are nice too. Problem w/ IEM's is that you can't really demo them. Unless you're at Macworld. I had a chance a few years back to demo some ExtremeMacs FS1's (based on Future Sonics), Ety's, and the Ultimate Ears. Sure enough, I went on ebay that night and got them for about $100 cheaper. Head-Direct has some well rated RE0 and RE3 headphones that may rival my UE's. www.head-fi.org/forums/f87/
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Post by fatty on May 1, 2011 19:44:58 GMT -5
I remember you guys talking about your headphones so I thought I'd come if you guys had any suggestions or had any experience with others since last posting in this thread. My trusty portable Sennheiser PX-100s broke on me and I was looking to get a similar replacement for the same price point but they are now discontinued and the PX-100ii are a bit more than I was wanting to pay for the type of headphone it was. Well, I started researching and now I'm wanting to upgrade even more. My main headphones are the Panasonic RP-HTX7-W1 that I got back at Target on clearance for around $22 but I don't wear them as much because the tight fit starts to hurt my jawbone after a while, so I mainly used my PX-100s for sake of convenience. Looking into it a bit more I'm now interested in the following: Sennheiser HD555 (I would do the HD 595 mod) - They seem very comfortable, reviews seem to say the give me a bit more bass than my other choices, and I like that they are 'only' $85. Bass isn't that important to me, but I did like the way the Beats Pro headphones sounded at Best Buy. But those are way overpriced. Audio Technica ATH-AD700 - $90 Beyerdynamic DT 990 PRO $168 Saw some recommendations in another thread for this set, but I'm not sure yet if almost twice the cost of the others is worth the price. Grado Prestige Series SR80i $99 - Saw praise for the Grados brand but don't know too much about them. I'm wanting to pull the trigger but I just don't know. Anyone ever hear anything about them or try any of them out? And to think I'm still going to need a PX-100 replacement for portability, haha. UsualNoise, is your PX-100 still going strong?
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Post by oldskoolboarder on May 1, 2011 22:18:15 GMT -5
Maybe you'd get lucky on ebay or head-fi.org classifieds for the PX-100's. For the price, people LOVE the Koss Porta Pro's.
What are you looking for? In-ear or over the ear? Open or closed?
I used to have the Beyer 770DT but those were 300 ohms and needed a real headphone amp. Even a receiver headphone out couldn't handle it. My best pair are special edition Grados but I've had the 325i's and those are FANTASTIC. But, they are open so sound isn't isolated. The SR80i's are quite good and you should be able to find them for under $100.
The AD700's are also well regarded but never listened to them.
My latest pair is the Ety HF5 w/ custom molds. I got them on Xmas sale and paid the extra $100 for the molds. They isolate VERY well and don't even need noise canceling on the plane. I also like that they have the mike and volume control for my iPhone 4. Granted it's a pricey but I like them for travel.
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Post by UsualNoise on May 1, 2011 22:57:38 GMT -5
I still have 2 pairs of PX-100s that work fine. However, my new headphone of choice is the Ultimate Ears TripleFi 10 which I've had since they were on sale for $99.99 on Amazon a while back. Absolutely love this set, and purchased a pair for my wife as well. They make my previous in-ear headphone (the Etymotic ER-6i) sound like crap by comparison. Seriously. Anyway, I still use the PX-100s for casual listening occasionally and they're still going strong. Hope you find something you like out there!
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Post by oldskoolboarder on May 1, 2011 23:37:39 GMT -5
$100 for UE10's is great. I sadly missed that deal.
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Post by fatty on Jun 4, 2015 23:54:12 GMT -5
Reviving an old post. So amazon has the Philips X2/27 Fidelio on sale for $50 off. I've been keeping an eye on these for a while but gave in and pulled the trigger tonight. Biggest headphone upgrade yet. My previous two are the Sennheiser HD555 and Audio-Technica ATH-M50. The ATH-M50 were more expensive but the HD555 are still my favorite. Hoping that this new set will dethrone it. What are you going rocking since this last was last updated? For in-ear, do you still recommend the Ultimate Ears TripleFi 10's?
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Post by oldskoolboarder on Jun 5, 2015 1:06:57 GMT -5
The ATH-50's are supposed to be nice, haven't heard them though. Here's my current stable. Have to say I'm partial to over the ears for sound and I can passively isolate on planes. The active noise canceling ones like Bose actually hurt my eardrums. Amps These over the ears sound WAY better when driven by my tube amp. bottlehead.com/?product=single-ended-experimenters-kit-2-1-for-headphones-sensitive-speakersPortable amps I have a Hornet, and yes, it's a GREEN Hornet. Best portable amp I have and it DOES make an audible difference. www.raysamuelsaudio.com/products/hornetAt work I use this because it's USB and optical and I mainly have it hooked up to my work Macbook so as not to wear out the headphone jack. Good but not as good as the Hornet. www.whathifi.com/ibasso/d10/reviewOver the ear HE 400: VERY nice but you need a good amp. These aren't closed so the sound does leak. They planar headphones so mostly home use Grado HF2: Special head-fi.org Grados that were limited quantity. I got in on the deal and was lucky. They sound FANTASTIC, a big step up to the 325i's I had at one point. Shure 840: These are what I travel with even though they're on the big side. I got them for $125 and it's the best deal I have. SO good and doesn't need additional amping. Harmon Kardon CL: I got these cheap ($80?) on Amazon w/ the hopes they could replace the Shure since it's smaller and easier to carry. Meh, they don't sound good and are only on the ear so not great on a plane, I can still hear background noise. IEM ETY HF5: OK, I lost my molds (Dangit) so I moved to Comply Foam tips. They are OK but not my go to. I just use them in the car as a headset now. Monster Turbine: These are my office headphones, mostly 'cause I got them under $100. They actually sound good despite the fact that I utterly DESPISE Monster. UE TripleFi.10: Hands down, still the best. I 'kinda' travel with them but I like the Shures on the plane cause I can wear earplugs AND the Shures and shut out the world for a nice nap. BUT I also use these UE10's w/ Comply Foam tips and they sound PHENOMENAL, even straight from an iPhone. Still my best IEMs. I have had to replace the cables because they aren't that durable. Curious how those Philips work. How are you driving those? Bear in mind that your iPhone/iPod may not have enough drive for it, unless you have one of the older iPod Classics w/ the Wolfson DAC. Also, don't rely on the AVR headphone jack. Those are AWFUL and can make great headphones sound awful. Your source materials matter as well. My best is using my tube-based CD player. Yup, you read that right. www.stereophile.com/cdplayers/1103tjoeb/If you're looking for audiophile grade gear at good prices, take a look at audiogon.com. It's ebay for audio. I've spent a ton of money there...
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Post by reaper on Jun 5, 2015 8:58:53 GMT -5
Something else to spend my hard earned money on. You guys are always tempting me. I am still using my astros although I now have 2 amps, a wired and wireless. Original was wired. So, technically, I've owned a total of 3 amps but now have one I keep near the xbox and one near the PS4.
I was recently reading some posts from Palmer Lucky on the Oculus Rift and the built in headset. He seemed to be pretty versed on adio quality and the headphone's ability to produce something amazing. So, I guess, right now, I will see how happy that makes me when I get it. I am currently preparing to drop around $2k or so for a PC+rift although I am worried it may not be enough. So, I am trying to reign other electronics purchases in for now.
Those are some cool products, oldskool. That amp. How much did you pay for it?
I'd be curious to learn how impressed you are with the phillips as well. Good reviews on amazon.
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Post by oldskoolboarder on Jun 5, 2015 10:22:55 GMT -5
reaper, which amp?
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Post by reaper on Jun 5, 2015 12:09:04 GMT -5
GREEN Hornet
I've tried amps before and find they do benefit the larger driver headphones. The idea crosses my mind from time to time to get one. But never did yet. Sounds like you're happy with yours.
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Post by UsualNoise on Jun 5, 2015 12:13:27 GMT -5
Re: the Ultimate Ears Triple Fi 10 - I'm kicking myself that I didn't grab an extra pair (or two) way back when they were "only" $100 on Amazon. They've since been discontinued and I'm always nervous I'm going to accidentally damage mine. My wife messed up the left earbud on hers, so she's moved on to other headphones, but I'm sticking with the UE's as long as possible. I also recently replaced the cord. I just have never had anything close to the same sound quality in a headphone.
You can still get them new on eBay, of course, but you'll be paying $300+ for the privilege.
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