music Any Audiophile bronies out there?

[Flutter's lover <3 8,206]

Yea, any one else an audiophile like me?

 

 

I Live for good sound quality....I can not stand cheap ass speakers or headphones. The static cheap stuff gives off when you crank them up to max....I can't afford the top of the line stuff, but I make do with what I got. I wish I could get my hands on some nice JBL speakers or something similar. One of my DJ friends swears by JBLs.  

 

 

Only problem, the good stuff is expensive as hell. But for now I'm stuck with some Trittons for personal listening(I use them for xbox gaming/chat and listening to music) when I have spare cash, I'll be making an audio upgrade to my PC as well....including a nice 5.1 sound card..  I'd like to get some studio quality headphones like Sennheiser,Ultrasones,HiFiMAN, or some Harmon Kardens.  Beats headphones are totally overrated. I want something that feels good to wear, and I haven't found it yet. Over ear is the only way to go for me,I can't stand ear buds. and on ear headphones just hurt my ears after a half hour or so..

 

 

so, Audiophileness aside....what do you actually have for PC audio set up? or what do you use to listen to your iPod? and what do you have for your TV?

 

 

Personally? I got a cheap Logitech 5.1 for my PC, bass isn't horrible...but there's little adjustment for it. and the sound isn't all that well balanced between the 5 satellite speakers, though for the $120 or so I paid for them,it's not horrible.

 

 

my TV? Nothing really. I got a Curtis 2.1 system that was given to me, lol. I'd eventually like to get a receiver and have a nice 5.1 or 7.1 set up for my TV....that way I can listen to movies, TV and play ames all with surround sound.

 

 

as for on/around my ears,I got Trittons for gaming on xbox,night gaming and listening in my room and my iPod nano, and some cheap bluetooth Headrush headphones for my iPod touch.

 

 

 

So this topic is to talk about anything and everything audio. Even though the topic says music, I could only pick one topic prefix, otherwise I would've picked them all.

 

 

[Away 2,077]

I was wondering when this thread would finally be created. I wouldn't call myself an audiophile but I do love having great sound quality.

[Lightning Dancer 28]

I'm such an audiophile. I only have high quality or decent heads phones and ear buds. For ear buds I prefer Apple's newest ear buds the bass is outstanding and there is no cracking noise when it goes to full volume. My head phones (which I practically can't live without lol) are the Mixr head phones by Beats. The bass is also amazing, they're comfortable and over all are just outstanding. 

 

 

The link to the headphones is here http://www.beatsbydre.com/headphones/mixr/beats-mixr.html

 

It's nice knowing other people appreaciate sound quality

[Acoustic Cloud 2,202]

I am in a different sense.  I am all about using certain audio files, having the right  compression, etc.
I would waste my money on nicer hardware...but not having a job, I make due with cheap headphones.  Because I have no need to prove I like music. Nobody cares what I like and I don't want to be a kid with expensive stuff to show what I like  : P

[EndtheRaven 161]

Oh yes yes yes yes.. I make music, and cannot STAND cheap speakers. Hurts my ears with the distortion. I use to do car audio installs professionally, and I'm looking at doing an SQ build in my truck again. Right now I have I just have a nice set of alpine 6.5" components and 1" silk tweeters in it, but I plan on doing more as I get the money. 

In terms of headphones I have a pair of Grado SR60's, which have open air drivers that sound amazingly clear and natural, some sennheiser earbuds which I use at school, and a pair of Beyerdynamic Dt770's 80 ohm that I use for my producing. 

Oh, and every song I have is 320 kb/s or FLAC/Lossless. I'm rather particular about compression. 

Edited June 29, 2013 by TheRavenAviator

[Flutter's lover <3 8,206]

I'm such an audiophile. I only have high quality or decent heads phones and ear buds. For ear buds I prefer Apple's newest ear buds the bass is outstanding and there is no cracking noise when it goes to full volume. My head phones (which I practically can't live without lol) are the Mixr head phones by Beats. The bass is also amazing, they're comfortable and over all are just outstanding. 

 

 

The link to the headphones is here http://www.beatsbydre.com/headphones/mixr/beats-mixr.html

 

It's nice knowing other people appreaciate sound quality

 

 

Yea, the Tritton AX120 headphones I have arn't horrible for the cost. they got a nice bass to them, 40mm drivers in each ear cup. I could feel them vibrating on my head during my bass heavy songs in my iTunes. Just the plastic casing they're in kinda sucks....feels cheap,...and the foam+leather ear cups aren't  all that soft...otherwise they push against the arms of my glasses every so often and it gets annoying. speakers inside are awesome though.

[An Old Head 4,816]

Protip for audiophiles: you should get the DFX Audio Enhancer for your computers. You can get it for free from the right sources; it really betters sound fidelity, 3D surround, there's an option to turn on hyperbass and ambience - here's a screenshot of it.

 

 

If you can't invest a huge amount in extreme quality headphones (my situation - these Razer Carcharias are already fantastic quality, but they're not the best) then definitely get this. You'll be really surprised at how much of a difference it makes.

[Flutter's lover <3 8,206]

Oh yes yes yes yes.. I make music, and cannot STAND cheap speakers. Hurts my ears with the distortion. I use to do car audio installs professionally, and I'm looking at doing an SQ build in my truck again. Right now I have I just have a nice set of alpine 6.5" components and 1" silk tweeters in it, but I plan on doing more as I get the money. 

 

In terms of headphones I have a pair of Grado SR60's, which have open air drivers that sound amazingly clear and natural, some sennheiser earbuds which I use at school, and a pair of Beyerdynamic Dt770's 80 ohm that I use for my producing. 

 

Oh, and every song I have is 320 kb/s or FLAC/Lossless. I'm rather particular about compression. 

 

 

my friend has an awesome set up in his car, I forget what brands he's got but he's got a couple 12'' basses in the trunk, 6'' or 7'' mid range speakers/drivers in the door panels and the rear window as well as some tweeters elsewhere.....it is orgasmic.

Protip for audiophiles: you should get the DFX Audio Enhancer for your computers. You can get it for free from the right sources; it really betters sound fidelity, 3D surround, there's an option to turn on hyperbass and ambience - here's a screenshot of it.

 

 

If you can't invest a huge amount in extreme quality headphones (my situation - these Razer Carcharias are already fantastic quality, but they're not the best) then definitely get this. You'll be really surprised at how much of a difference it makes.

 

 

Nice! I've been searching for a better Audio manager, then my Realtek HD manager. Maybe I can finally fix the tinny/reverb sound from some of my MP3s. Thanks.

 

I just downloaded it from download.com totally free.

Edited June 29, 2013 by Flutter Dash

[Lightning Dancer 28]

Yea, the Tritton AX120 headphones I have arn't horrible for the cost. they got a nice bass to them, 40mm drivers in each ear cup. I could feel them vibrating on my head during my bass heavy songs in my iTunes. Just the plastic casing they're in kinda sucks....feels cheap,...and the foam+leather ear cups aren't  all that soft...otherwise they push against the arms of my glasses every so often and it gets annoying. speakers inside are awesome though.

Ikr? Sometimes you have to choose between sound quality and comfort which can become EXTREMELY annoying. But if I had to choose I'd choose sound quality becauuse that's the whole point of purchasing headphones

[An Old Head 4,816]

Nice! I've been searching for a better Audio manager, then my Realtek HD manager. Maybe I can finally fix the tinny/reverb sound from some of my MP3s. Thanks.

 

I just downloaded it from download.com totally free.

 

Does it let you take the bars up to 10? The free version might not; see if there's a source for the full version anywhere.

 

I think 2013's Christmas is when I'll yearn for an extreme quality set of headphones. Can I get you guys' opinions for the best set of headphones worth around £100? ($150.)

[Thrashy 2,800]

I don't know if this counts since I don't feel the need to have a top notch playback setup (although it would be nice if I could afford such a setup), but I am extremely picky about the production quality of songs. It's to a point where I sometimes find myself unable to listen to some bands because of their lousy PQ...which really sucks, because there are quite a few bands who write some really awesome music that'd otherwise be right up my alley, but I just can't can't get over the "excess high-end gain" or "inaudible kick drum" or "uncompressed vocals" or whatever other mixing and mastering problems plague those who home-record their material.

 

Case in point - I was just talking about this the other day in Crispy's metal thread - Mastodon's Leviathan album is pretty awesome in terms of composition. But I simply can't listen to it because the guitars are so grossly emphatic on their high-end that it sounds like there's a white noise track playing throughout every song, and it honestly hurts my ears to try and listen to it. There are varying levels to which I'll tolerate spotty PQ, but when it's at a point where it hurts to listen to...yeah, no.

Edited June 29, 2013 by Lowline

[Away 2,077]

Does it let you take the bars up to 10? The free version might not; see if there's a source for the full version anywhere.

 

I think 2013's Christmas is when I'll yearn for an extreme quality set of headphones. Can I get you guys' opinions for the best set of headphones worth around £100? ($150.)

Audio Technica ATH M50s. They're around $150 and they're supposedly the best headphones you can get for that price range. I might just get a pair myself.

[Flutter's lover <3 8,206]

Does it let you take the bars up to 10? The free version might not; see if there's a source for the full version anywhere.

 

I think 2013's Christmas is when I'll yearn for an extreme quality set of headphones. Can I get you guys' opinions for the best set of headphones worth around £100? ($150.)

 

nah, it didn't...but I found a Torrent on Pirate bay that has a crack with it. Comments says it's a good torrent and works, so I"m gonna give it a shot.

[EndtheRaven 161]

Is their an audio enhancer program like that for mac? i've just been using the itunes equalizer which I have set perfectly for my Grado cans. It would be cool to try something else like that. 

[Zygen 6,066]

Eh, I like to have decent quality, but I'm to conservative with money to be an audiophile really.

 

I have no real speakers on my desktop pc, I always use headphones or something. I have a turtle beach x10( I think it's x10..) and I use that on my computer and on Xbox sometimes, of course I got those for Christmas and they weren't that expensive, maybe 50 bucks.

 

I have another pair of these really hard metal headphones, that also have thick wire, because I always break ear buds and weaker headsets after a little for whatever reason.

 

I also don't really turn my music up all the way on my iPod or anything, I don't really like my music to loud honestly, I also don't wanna damage my hearing either .

 

But yeah, I'm not really that picky with audio quality, sometimes I don't like audio quality in like videos to be bad, but I can tolerate it. And again I'm a bit cheap on buying stuff, so I can't really be that picky .

[Level3rd 128]

For my gaming setup I use a 2.0 passive speaker set-up, with 6" Energy bookshelf speakers.  They've got a low-end FR of ~40 Hz, which is more than enough for gaming.  That only cost me $350.

For my audio production rig I use a pair of Sennheiser HD 280's.  They have a nearly flat frequency response, and reproduce down to 8 HZ, which is nice for my ~14 Hz ears.  Not that I produce in that range ANYWAYS, it's just nice knowing that the headphones are that flexible.  I also use these on my DJ rig, they're nearly impossible to break at high-volumes.  I got some harmonic distortion on a previous pair, but I'm chalking that up to a factory defect.

 

Beats by Dr. Dre are complete garbage, for the price you pay.  My 280's are the best headphones I've ever bought, and they only set me back $100.  
Beats on the other hand, will cost you over $200-$300, and are comparable to an $80 pair of consumer-grade headphones, based on my experiences.

Edited June 29, 2013 by Level3rd

[Fluttershyfan94 5,744]

I'm not sure if I'm considered an audiophile, but now that I think of it.. I might be, after I started to listen to music with my Sennheiser HD 202, I just can't use anything else. When they got broken I just got the same type again, of course there are better overear headphones. But they are at a decent price and are good quality. It made me rediscover music all over again, it really does matter that you listen to your music in high quality. I can't go back to ear buds, I do still use them.. But I'd much rather have my overear headphones.

 

I'm obsessed with music, I spend a lot of time listening to music. While working, drawing, driving and just being on the computer. I'm obsessed with the quality too.

 

I'm mostly interested in car setups though, nothing is cooler then a nice looking car with some groundshaking subwoofers. The thing is, when it comes to cars the first thing people think about is not always the soundsystem. Imagine this, driving around in a white Mercedes Benz c63 AMG, black tinted windows. Have a picture, so you can fantasize:

 

You see me cruising around in the Benz, you hear the loud 6.3L V8.. You can't see inside the car, then suddenly you hear the bass kick, them subwoofers will shake the ground.. Ahh.. It will be so awesome. Then I would do a burnout and leave you all in the dust.

You would never be able to get that german beauty off your mind..   Ever..

I'm not getting off topic or anything, it's just that I love german cars. A good quality sound system in a car, you will never want to exit it.

What I'm saying is that I'm very interested in car soundsystem setups, I just love subwoofers.

 

Btw, german car manufacturers are awesome. Keep up the good work Germany, I learned german only because of your cars.

Edited June 30, 2013 by Fluttershyfan94

[MVC NVMXD JVRXD 2,406]

 

 

I'm such an audiophile. I only have high quality or decent heads phones and ear buds. For ear buds I prefer Apple's newest ear buds the bass is outstanding and there is no cracking noise when it goes to full volume. My head phones (which I practically can't live without lol) are the Mixr head phones by Beats. The bass is also amazing, they're comfortable and over all are just outstanding.

>judging by how much bass there is in the headphone

You want a balanced sound for music listening. That's not too strong bass or highs. The music itself should determine characteristics like strong bass, not your headphones :V

pic related

 

 

Audio Technica ATH M50s. They're around $150 and they're supposedly the best headphones you can get for that price range. I might just get a pair myself.

I have these, and they're pretty good for what they're worth.

 

I'm not sure if I'm considered an audiophile, but now that I think of it.. I might be, after I started to listen to music with my Sennheiser HD 202, I just can't use anything else. When they got broken I just got the same type again, of course there are better overear headphones. But they are at a decent price and are good quality. It made me rediscover music all over again, it really does matter that you listen to your music in high quality. I can't go back to ear buds, I do still use them.. But I'd much rather have my overear headphones.

sennheisers aren't that good. It's the same bose phenomena really. Overpriced products for THAT brand name. the build quality is awful.

 

Anyway, I like good quality audio but I don't discriminate that much. ATH M50s, FLAC, MPD for software playback. I also have a moderately good vinyl set up, but I forgot my specs right now :V

[Fluttershyfan94 5,744]

sennheisers aren't that good. It's the same bose phenomena really. Overpriced products for THAT brand name. the build quality is awful.

I think it was at a good price. They were already a year old when I got them so the price wasn't high at all and there are worse headphones at a higher price. Besides I don't think too much about headphones, I'm more interested when it comes to sound systems in cars. I said the headphones were at a decent price and I was talking about the sound quality, the sound quality is good. The price was 48 dollars (converted currency), I also wasn't talking about all sennheisers only HD 202, that's why I mentioned the type. At least I like mine.

Edited June 30, 2013 by Fluttershyfan94

[cd_solidsnake 122]

I'm really such an audiophilly! Sadly, I don't have a bunch of money to buy audiophilly equipment. Would like some lovely High Fidelity vinyl player and some kick ass producer headphones ($1000) to listen to those beats <3

[A Blithering Div 247]

Kind of. I try to get my music in flac when available and would happily spend thousands on a good system if I had it kickin' about. I'm not mental over it however as there are much bigger things to worry about than sampling rates. I found this video particularly informative: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYTlN6wjcvQ

 

That said, again I would prefer to pay a bit more to get better sound quality, however I personally find spending north of $15k like some do to be a tad ridiculous on a 2 channel home stereo. And you also have the people that spend hundreds of dollars on power cords to "improve" sound quality. Cause apparently electrical grade copper isn't enough.

[cd_solidsnake 122]

So, Audiophileness aside....what do you actually have for PC audio set up? or what do you use to listen to your iPod? and what do you have for your TV?

 

I didn't answer to this question... So, let's begin.

 

As a begginer audiophile (Audiophilly ), I two computers: one PC and one laptop. The PC has a 7.1 audio card, while the laptop (sadly) has an integrated 2.0 audio card. The good thing is that I can use the HDMI audio with my 7.1 audio channels Sony TV, but is worthless without a lovely home theather system.

 

As for my mp3 player (don't have an iPod ) I use my DJ headphones: Pioneer HDJ-1500. They're not the best ones out there, but they at least give you a better audio experience than most things out there costing $200.

 

Beats headphones are totally overrated.

 

Agree.

[Level3rd 128]

I'm really such an audiophilly! Sadly, I don't have a bunch of money to buy audiophilly equipment. Would like some lovely High Fidelity vinyl player and some kick ass producer headphones ($1000) to listen to those beats <3

 

Where did you get that $1000 price tag?

Sure you aren't referring to a Technics turntable?

 I'm sure that's what you were referring to because you mention that it would cost you $1000.  

If it's vinyl you're looking to listen to, you can just go to the music store or hobby store, and get any vinyl tables.  I've seen them go for $200.

 

Second, a good pair of Hi-Fi headphones shouldn't cost you more than $200.  Even a good pair of "Production" style headphones shouldn't cost you more than $150,

I'm not sure where you get the $1000 price tag from, that's just a little too high for "Vinyl listening".

Kind of. I try to get my music in flac when available and would happily spend thousands on a good system if I had it kickin' about. I'm not mental over it however as there are much bigger things to worry about than sampling rates. I found this video particularly informative: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYTlN6wjcvQ

 

That said, again I would prefer to pay a bit more to get better sound quality, however I personally find spending north of $15k like some do to be a tad ridiculous on a 2 channel home stereo. And you also have the people that spend hundreds of dollars on power cords to "improve" sound quality. Cause apparently electrical grade copper isn't enough.

 

Wire is wire.  WHen it comes to audio, it doesn't really matter the cord you use.  I've even seen companies go as far as to say that the signal has to "Travel a certain direction down the cord".  Which is completely absurd.

Take for example, a simple HDMI cord.  You see them go for 15$, and you see them go for 90$.

Realistically, there is no difference.  Different braids of copper, or "special "OptiFibre tubes run through the core" are all just marketing gimmicks.

The only real functional difference in cords that I know of, are the connectors.  Are they copper or gold plated?  That's about it.  I see no reason to spend more then $50 on a set of cords.

Seeing this has always driven me crazy, and it bothers me that some companies are trying to get away with that.  You're totally right.  Normal wire is totally fine.

 

Although some people will suggest that many strands of thin copper will transmit audio better than few, thicker strands.  But I suppose the functional difference is debatable.

Edited June 30, 2013 by Level3rd

[repsol rave 2,963]

 I'd like to get some studio quality headphones like Sennheiser,Ultrasones,HiFiMAN, or some Harmon Kardens.

so you're still looking for headphones? then i can really recommend the sennheiser RS120 II. it's the one i'm using right now. i have no idea of the specs of this thing but it;s wireless. and that's a big plus for me. it has also very good sound quality. it is much better then the beats soloHD (wich is crappy anyways, dumb thing broke in half when it was freezing when i wore it, bye bye 120 euro's..)

i think the retail valeu for this sennheiser is about 70-80 euro's now

Edited June 30, 2013 by repsol rave

[Yamato 1,348]

Yeah, I can be a real stickler for sound quality sometimes. My truck is an excellent example. For reasons unbeknownst to me, the factory sound system in it is much much better than it should be. However, the trim pieces covering the speakers are loosely attached and cannot handle the amount of bass that the speakers put out and as a result they vibrate, a lot. And they make quite a bit of noise when they do. It pisses me off to no end. "Strawberry Fields Forever" was making them buzz earlier. FUCKING "STRAWBERRY FIELDS FOREVER"! HOW?! WHY?! So in this case, it really isn't a matter of the sound system itself, but rather of the components encasing it. Shitty 90's interior...