understandable,specially with speaker amps I imagine thinks don’t really change the the budget offerings have improved due to more competition in the budget space. . I do wonder though I did see someone ask " is it even possble to get a decent DAC for under $500?" and I personally atribute this to someone who is stuck in the past and hasn’t been paying attention to a more recent market but also makes me wonder how expensive were dacs in the past? in a world wher eyou have topping DACs, schiit, or the khadas tone board.
i couldnt disagree with you more. audio tech has moved forward and has made good or high quality audio cheaper
A weird amount of discussions on speakers became discussions of pairing interconnects
Iron wire lifts and ferrites and stuff
I really wish they ould focus a little more on efficient dynamic headphones though and make that side of the market cheaper. but like I said previously Im gonna comfortably sit here on the more affordabble side of things and wait and see how the market shifts. also cant wait to get my 570’s should be here sometime wednesday
reminds me a lot of “Hey how does headphone A compare to headphone B?”
Answer: get headphone D it’s better
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Im curious, why do people like the m570 so much? It has 7k ringing If I recall correctly and it isnt easily modifiable to fix that.
That really irks me so I make sure to answer the main question first, and then give a suggestion if I think it would be worthwhile second. Too many people just decide to tell someone to get whatever headphone they like without assessing anything
fucks with me too. so I try my best to answer the original question first anf followed by what I would personally do If I was in their shoes while also stating it is entirely my opinion
On DAC’s I don’t really have an opinion, I haven’t listened to enough. I’m somewhat interested in the fact I can hear the difference between the 449x dacs I have and the SU8, and somewhat surprisingly if you look at the supplied graphs for the SU8’s filters, I can hear the difference between those. But it’s all very subtle.
There are people on SBAF, who claim the higher end Schiit multibit DACs sound a lot better than the Modi multibit, so that would correspond to the >$500 number.
My guess is that filter design on delta sigma DAC’s probably affect the sound, and possibly in ways that are quite hard to measure. Multibit and R2R DAC’s are fundamentally expensive to make well, so if you prefer their sound then your probably looking at a premium price point.
But again it’s all incremental, if your spending $2000+ on an amp, they why not listen to $500 DACs.
The one place I have yet to be convinced has significant impact is the USB receiver most cheaper DACs use uControllers, the expensive stuff, seem to use FPGA’s, the only thing I can see that could impact at that point in the chain is clocking the values out to the DAC itself, and an FPGA, could certainly do that with more precision.
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very true if I had the disposable income to do so I would probably do the same
The m570 is using the same driver as the Sendy Aiva. A headphone that many people believe has the sound quality of a 1000$ headphone. but Monoprice figured out how to manufacture it for 300$. So the buzz is hey you could get a 1000$ headphone for 300 bucks lol.
If Monoprice succeeds in cloning high priced headphones for so cheap they could cause them to lower their prices. which can be quite exorbitant
To me, the big change in audio has been the move to clean and neutral. I don’t know that that was ever a goal pre-2000, but I may be wrong on the timeframe. If anyone was trying to achieve that, I don’t know that the public was necessarily looking for it. Also, as transistors and caps are replaced by chips the size of the components are shrinking and the costs are lowered by the cheaper manufacturing process. I’m amazed at some of the audio that comes out of the small devices on my desktop, but I don’t necessarily know that’s it’s better. Just different.
I was going to buy a Linn Klout amp from the 90s off of a friend before I stumbled into an amazing vintage Marantz receiver. The Klout is ugly and bulky by modern standards, but the power it puts out and the sound it delivers are awesome. A modern amp replicating the same things would almost definitely cost $2k+. I bought the 1974 Marantz 2325 from an elderly neighbor for $300 after insisting she let me pay her that much, and they sell for $2k + on ebay regularly in the condition it’s in. It’s massive, weighs 50 lbs, the sound it puts out is definitely not “neutral”, and it may be the best headphone amp I own let alone how well it pushes my speakers. I’ve been enjoying the experience so much, I am now regularly looking at craigslist and estate sales for more vintage stereo equipment. Not just anything, but the stuff that was top of the line at the time that people just want to replace with a bluetooth speaker and have no clue about the value. I doubt I’d buy headphones from the 70s, 80s, or 90s, but amps and speakers I would at least consider. If you have any interest, or want to know what to look for, headfi has a 1200 page thread on vintage receivers. If you don’t have your heart set on a specific model, and accept the fact that you may need to pay to have it serviced, you can get some of the best deals in audio if you are patient and lucky enough to check craigslist at the right time:
I feel as though speakers have been good for a long time but headphones are still improving. So a more recent headphone could still be better than a older more expensive one while speakers I feel have more character so when you buy vintage it’s more of an experience
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wait. I’ve read that the M570’s aren’t as good as the B20’s that are also a clone of the Sendy and it’s not as good as them either.
where’s all the ‘goodness’ of the M570’s suddenly coming from?
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well thgey aren’t as good but also significantly cheaper sorta like the 58x not as good as the 660 but almost there and significantly cheaper. also backed by Monoprices great warranty and service.
Aiva pads are also fairly inexpensive compared to most pads, and the aiva pads are very comfortable and fairly high quality
Yeah I wouldn’t really want to buy any headphones older than an HD600. It seems like that’s when the tech just changed for good. And yes, in regards to the vintage amp, it has a very different tonality than any other source I own. Sounds like tubes, but no tubes involved. I don’t know that it would be the best for modern music, but for classic rock, Motown, things like that, it’s totally my preferred device
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I have to say I have been loving my Sony MDR-R10 Bass Heavy and it still holds up for sure
Yeah I guess I should say I would have to consider older headphones on a case by case basis. Buying vintage from craigslist I probably wouldn’t get to try anything, but I would take a chance on something if the price was right. A lot of the Koss headphones are 90s designs too
Yeah I can agree with that. Most vintage headphones do not hold up lol