The All Purpose Advice Thread

I'm afraid only a few headphone amps will make the Senn 800s truly great in the bass region. And they cost significantly more than $500. EC Zana Deaux, EC Studio are two wonderful examples. I can't help with a migration path on an upgrade to the LCD2 or 800 unfortunately. Perhaps that is one path, Schiit stack notwithstanding.

 

Hello,

I'm looking for advices and i know my taste are not considering very audiophile. Anyway, ideally i would like an semi open back recommendation with a good bass response.
That's where it gets complicated. My daily driver is a Shure 1540 (it is considered bloated, but I can compromise).
Then it gets weirder because i tested the following cans :

- Bought a set of THX00 and find it to aggressive and not as bassy as i expected it to be
- I often use a Meze 99 and like much more than the later but only for short listening sessions and not for every type of music. I've seen mostly bad reviews for it here as opposed to the the THX00.
- I tested the HD800s and dismissed it rather quickly. This is not fun enough for my taste.
- Before owning the 1540, I bought a Final Audio Pandora IV and hated very much. Thin bass, worst comfort ever (no clamping + a protuberance which hurt my ears after 20mn)
- Tried for a long time a NightHawk which was not too bad, but not too good either
- Lately I have listening sessions with a Focal Elear which is good but, lacking in subbass. It's almost fun but not quite there.
- I also had a lent Sony 1AB for a couple of months, which had the more bass of them all, but too closed for my taste and not very detailed either.

Basically the bassy cans did not appeal to me, the top of the charts one was not even in my top 5 picks. But i still want a new pair of headphone.

Any suggestions ?

 

You've mentioned a bunch of different headphones but you don't seem to have mentioned your sources, or the rest of your rig. Are you just going to drive it out of a smartphone? And what's your price range?

 

My source is a Mojo with Spotify and some FLAC with VLC.

Budget wise, i'm searching for something as good as my Shure and up to 1200€.
The headphone will be used in a work environment.

I'm very ecclectic in my music choices but while I work I tend to listen mostly to trip hop/edm/lounge songs or classical pieces. Which are kind of totally opposite in sounds requirements.

What do you mean by the rest of my rig ?

 

Curious what OS for VLC and what driver for the Mojo. I quite like the 1540. Oh, and free Spotify or the better one?

 

The Valhalla 2 has super good synergy with the HD650. Vs Jotunheim it is noticeably wooly in the bass and slightly veiled with worse macrodynamics, but way better sound stage, microdynamics and sense of realism. The Val 2 can't really handle electronic music or hypercompressed overly busy modern productions very well but for more naturalistic or spacious music I think it is streets ahead and makes the Jotunheim sound flat and dull. It is not lush and I would say probably has slightly less body than the Jotunheim (which is a bit thick in the lower-mids). It's a super good deal so long as you don't spend excessive amounts on tubes.

 

@Garns You are the man! Fantastic and appreciated response.

 

I'm using the Mojo and VLC on Mint LMDE without driver and the better Spotify

 

Been a while since I used Mint or Linux, but not sure if it supports ASIO, probably not, just Class USB native drivers like Mac. Best sound I ever got via Mojo was with ASIO under Windows. But driverless with Linux, I presume. VLC was always a bit warm for me but that was on Win. So, I am not able to help much here, sorry.

Maybe try Deadbeef player on Linux, that gave me a bit more open sound than VLC.

 

Have you tried the TH-900? It's not perfect, but it definitely does bass well, and it's not too picky in terms of sources.

You may be better off with two separate headphones: one for bassy music and the other for classical.

 

Oh, i may have misunderstood something then, I read somewhere that driver were unnecessary on all OSes but Windows.

I Will try Deadbeef because it's the first time i've heard of it.

 

I had the TH-X00 which i found to be uncomfortable, agressive treble wise, and not that bassy compared to my Shure. Is the TH-900 close to the TH-X00 ?

I'm coming around the idea of having different gears for different music. Closed back for bassy, Open back for more technically exigeant music. Still, it's a shame because some classical pieces take another dimension when the bass can follow (only heard that with speakers though).

 

Hey guys, need some help:

• I’d recently bought a pair of WE 396a’s for my MJO2 - love em
• My 2-year-old thought they were toys and destroyed one a week or so ago
• Luckily Brent had one left that measured as a match for the original set, so I’ve got that replacement coming in next week

Now my issue is I had burnt in the original pair for 50HRs and the new replacement will of course be on 0HRs.

Would it be safe/ok/not dumb/ to:

• Have the new WE396a in one channel of MJO2, and either nothing OR a LISST/crap tube in the other channel
• Then leave the amp on for a couple days (no load) to burn the newbie in, thus matching the survivor from the first set?

And yes, I have asked Schiit tech support, twice over the last week. No answer at all - so leaning on you all for some help.

Thanks!

 

It wouldn’t be a technically bad thing to do. But it makes no sense to do from a tube perspective. 50 hours is nothing in the life of a tube (unless you kid gets a hold of it). Just throw the new tube in with 50 hour tube and go!

The WE396A tube is my favorite tube to use with my MJ2/HD650 combination.

 

@lossendae
Maybe look into the ZMF headphones offerings. I am thinking of the dynamic driver series: Eikon, Atticus, Auteur.
Eikon has very good sub-bass without bloated mid-bass + slightly dark tuning. Don´t know how it would fare with a Mojo, though... Eikon can be a bit touchy with amps. Might also be over your budget, except when buying used.
I am selling mine (in Germany) by the way; as I will get the new ZMF Auteur...

 

Elsewhere, I once said something like driverless with Linux and was, correctly jumped on by people who pointed out no-such-thing-as-driverless. I'm not up to filling in some of the technical details, as they did, but it is more a case of drivers included. Linux (and Mac, I think?) had the USB Audio Class 2 drivers included, for a long time, but Windows did not, and thus, vendors needed to provide them.

Sadly, it is still sometimes necessary to ask Will It Work With Linux? Because, apart from the USB-Audio-Class stuff, manufacturers may still throw in proprietary stuff. These days, seeing "class-2-compliant" should be enough, unless looking at complex soundcards or external audio interfaces that require software to control their features. Just for example, and, proviso, I have not not been keeping up to date on this: I understand that you would be ok with an RME Adi 2Pro, but not so much with a Lynx Hilo.

Out-of-the-Box (Ubuntu-based?) Linux , at least for those who want something that just-works-without-geekery, has something called Pulse Audio. Many people want to get rid of it, as (again, I may be wrong/out-of-date) it has similar problems for the audiophile as the WIndows mixer has [had?] such as intrusive unwanted resamplng (so you can hear your system beep at the same time as your Mahler). Pulse audio can be stubbornly difficult to be rid of, at least, without geekery.

I would hope and expect that studio/audio distros have these problems solved. I've been using KXStudio for so long now that I have completely forgotten most of the whys and wherefores. I came into Linux (and Linux audio, having just one PC) at a time when there where many difficulties, especially if one wanted to use a Firewire interface. I had a Firewire interface. After hair-loosing, tooth-grinding frustration, I discovered KX, and, wonder of wonders, it made the whole JACK thing, without which I could not use Firewire, just work. I've stuck with it ever since.

All that aside, I use DeadBeef, as I have no need or wish for more complex stuff with built-in huge-library-management and other functions which may be useful to many. Whether this works with Pulse Audio refusing not to run or not, I don't know, but I either use the JACK plugin if I want to do EQ and stuff, or select ALSA plugin, device BLAH-X Dac with No Software Conversions. As far as I am aware, this sends the audio to the device with the least possible interference.

 

I've read approximatively the same as you Thad, except for the part of Pulse Audio having the same resampling issue as windows.

Now, i didn't dwelve too much on the issue as I use my gear at work and don't want to have an exclusive driver for my DAC. I unfortunately must be able to hear background notifications, terminal beeps, slack alerts and skype plops because most of the non-developers use either a mac or Windows.

I am trying DeadBeef (for the first time) and will try your trick but I don't think I'll be able to use this feature at all time.

 

I've seen the Auteur being cited in the upcoming Klipsch HP-3. I'm really curious about it. First time I've also heard of ZMF. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

Even though I am a retired Unix sysadmin, my interest in techie-ing fell off a cliff and has declined even more in the 15 years since then, so don't rely on this but...

I think that, if you are going to point your media player directly at ALSA/device, it will take it over exclusively. Your work requirements, mean that you have to use an audio mixer so you will hear all that other stuff. Don't worry, you'll probably be fine with Pulse Audio or however your distro does this mixing

 

@Ishara, my two cents....I've owned almost every Audez'e headphone (except the LCD 4 (too costly) and the EL Series) and the LCD 2.2 revision 2 (pre-fazor) is a keeper (with the caveat that the drivers are still intact). There is a mad scientist on our forum (he is from Vietnam ) who modded my 2.2 to sound even better. I have the HD 800 with the SDR and the cork mods (please refer to the appropriate threads) as well.

Now, in my experience, I use different amps for each of these HPs. I've found any Schiit SS amp to play very nicely with the LCD 2.2, the best in my opinion being the Jotunheim. For the HD 800, the best amp I have is the EC ZDS (tube amp). You could try the Schiit Vali 2 as a very good starting point. The point I'm making is that you may have to think about separate amps for different types of HPs, especially if you want to extract the proverbial water from a stone (and you want to keep both His).

Yep, it will cost money so it requires patience and saving. Good luck.