Anyone use a nice Headset?

[oldskoolboarder]

usualnoise, I agree, I should've 'hoarded' the $100 Triple Fi's. That price is unbeatable, as we now know.

reaper, I got the Green Hornet on headfi for MUCH less than MSRP. I 'think' around $200, it's 1st gen so the cost was less. There's one on headfi.
www.head-fi.org/t/764559/rsa-the-hornet

Once in a blue moon it's on audiogon. If you hunt, you'll find it less than $370.

[fatty]

Jun 5, 2015 1:06:57 GMT -5 oldskoolboarder said:

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-speakers

Portable 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/hornet

At 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/review

Over 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...

I won't get the Philips until the end of the month but I will give an update. As for how I drive them, I do either use my AVR or my laptop. Yeah, now that I think I am good on over the ear headphones for a while I am in the market for a good first portable headphone amp. Not having a good amp for the ATH-50's might also be affecting my opinion for them.

[oldskoolboarder]

Haven't tried them but Fiio comes up as a decent budget brand. At the least, it'd be better than your AVR.

When you compare, it's surprising how AWFUL the AVR headphone output is. For a $1K+ AVR, the manufacturers spend about $5 on that jack. Stupid but I suppose most people don't use it for that.

Make sure not to judge headphone sound quality if you're not driving them properly. A $1K headphone can sound awful on an AVR compared to $50 headphones w/ a proper amp.

www.fiio.net/en/products

Here's a good start to go down that rabbit hole. You're welcome.
www.head-fi.org/t/596482/the-sub-100-portable-amps-shootout-11-1-amps-compared

[fatty]

Thanks for the link, after some research I decided on the E11k. It is scheduled to be here by Monday. I'm pretty excited!

[oldskoolboarder]

Nice!

Something I do w/ speakers and headphones (even IEMs) is break them in. It's debateable I suppose, but nothing near cable break in which I think is BS. Speakers/headphones require a membrane to vibrate, my logic is that on new gear that membrane isn't stretched yet so breaking it in softens it. To my engineering head, it makes some sense so I do it. Does it make a diff? I think so, I notice that my headphones do sound better over time, but I can see the argument that it's just me getting used to them. I tend to break mine w/ a radio station that I can leave on all the time. The more bass heavy the better. I leave it in a room where it doesn't bother anyone at night and do it for at least 3 days.

Some argue that you should do the same w/ amps. I don't do that but who knows.

Curious if you find a diff using an outboard amp now.

[oldskoolboarder]

Headphone rant.

So my 10 YO son uses his OTE (over the ear) headphones to listen to Youtube constantly, and I mean constantly. My company gave us some cheapo, Beats knockoffs over the holidays. They lasted him about 2 weeks before he broke the detachable cable. So got a new cable...and the earcups fell apart after another week, granted it was cheap Shenzhen crap. I sucked it up and gave him some Skullcandy's that we got cheap. He's been using those since about February/March and he finally frayed the headphone plug. It's 'lifetime' warranty but I have to pay shipping so I figured I'd just pay $8 and buy a replacement plug from Amazon. Sadly, those wires are smaller than I can even see... He's on a 3rd pair, which are Virgin America giveaways that I reinforced with Sugru on the cables (https://sugru.com/about). Let's hope those last a little.

Now I'm just going to get him some Monoprice that he's going to buy himself. At least these have replaceable cups and cables, not bad for $18.

www.monoprice.com/Product?p_id=8323

BTW, if you haven't used Sugru, it's GREAT. I use it on all my lightning cables so I don't have to keep replacing them after fraying the connector. Yeah, may not look 'pretty' but it will last longer. I've also used it as a temporary fix on a washing machine.

www.instructables.com/id/Fixing-Washing-Machine-rubber-by-Sugru/

The grommet was $300 w/ install and I had to 2 weeks for the part. You can imagine not having a washing machine that long so I tried the Sugru and worked like a charm. I was 'almost' tempted to cancel the repair but didn't want to risk it. But, it actually may have worked for a LONG time.

[oldskoolboarder]

This was interesting, mostly cuz it's so damn small.

www.headfonia.com/review-stoner-acoustics-ruby-the-miniature-amp/

[dschroll]

I have the monoprice ones and give them to my daughter during trips. Works great and they sound very good for the price.