I’m new to audio stuff in general so i might ask something dumb or seems obvious.
I’m currently using a gaming headset and looking to upgrade to a headphone, looking for neutral mids, bright highs, and just a little bit of bass(if that makes any sense). Comfy is a big factor as I using headphones almost 24/7. budget is around 2500HKD(~320USD)
For now, the akg 712 pro and Sennheiser hd650 seems the best option, I don’t know if this is the place to ask but, I also need amp or amp/dac combo suggestion, budget will be around 1200HKD(~150USD). I can use the amp for a bit then buy a dac later.
Thanks and sorry for bad grammar in advance
Hi. Welcome to HFGF!
That sounds like a dead ringer for Beyerdynamic DT-880 600 ohm. You should be able to obtain those worldwide. They’re typically under 200USD. HiFiMan Sundara would also be an option, but might be getting outside of your price range, although if you find it on sale it’s possible.
If you go with the DT880 you’ll have a little more $ to put toward an amp and/or dac. The amp is the more essential of the two. If your budget is tight, you can always get just an amp and use your computer’s analog output to feed it. A standalone DAC will give you improved sound, but not near to the magnitude that the headphones will, followed by the amp. However, given your budget, I would suggest looking for a Monoprice Monolith Liquid Spark amp. It matches really well with the DT880. You can pair it with any budget dac, really: SMSL M100, SMSL Sanskrit 10th Anniversary Ed, Topping D10/D10s or E30, or even Monolith’s own Liquid Spark DAC which was just launched. Figure ~200USD for that amp + dac stack. A slightly cheaper option, if you can find it, is the Fiio K5 Pro amp/dac. It’s 150USD and combines amp and dac. I prefer separate amps and dacs when possible, but this is a strong contender if budget and space demand.
Last thing:
If you research the Beyer DT880 you’ll likely read/watch that it takes ridiculous amounts of power to run it. It does require an amp, but it’s power deman has been vastly oversold by some reviewers (cough Zeos cough). Any of the amp options above will power the DT880 just fine.
Is a fine headphone but doesn’t really meet your requirement for bright highs. Senn’s HD6?? series are more relaxed in their presentation with rolled-off highs. Don’t hesitate to ask more questions and please let us know what you decide!
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I can get that but what’s the difference between it and DT-880 pro?
that’s way over my budget
The monoprice liquid spark is not available locally for some reason, so here’s some option I find: Topping L30, Ifi can, fiio k5 pro (jds lab is not available) or any other suggestion i can find, currently i might get the ifi can just because of the looks
Sounds like a dt 880 600 ohm to me maybe a tygr but if you like a bit more bass and brighter treble the 990
Huh, I thought they sold that pretty much everywhere.
The pro is most commonly 250 ohms. That’s still a solid headphone. The 600 ohm will be slightly more refined in its sound. Generally the gray/silver versions are considered better sounding than the black versions too.
The Topping L30 and iFi CAN are both solid amp options. I’m going to tag @M0N here to say which one would be a better match for DT880 or if he has a better overall idea than me.
There is both a 600 ohm pro and premium edition (sometimes just called edition), and the premium has a bit less clamp and a straight cable with a bit more comfortable headband, whereas the pro has more clamp and a coiled cable, they pretty much sound the same
Personally I would prefer the ifi zen can here but I think you might want to balance mod the 880 600 later on if you go with this amp. I think the ifi might be better at spatial recreation, timbre, impact, and also may pull more low level detail, but the topping is more neutral and might have more headroom with quieter tracks. I would assume a schiit magni 3+ isn’t an option either?
unfortunately no
What is that? And how do I do it?
If there’s no more other option or suggestion then I’ll get the ifi can
If they sound the same then I’ll get the dt880 600ohm, and side question, I can add a headband if the stock one isn’t comfortable yes?
It would be taking apart the headphones and rewiring them to allow for a balanced connection. It’s not easy and it isn’t something most people will do to be honest. The zen can does sound good single ended, but you are going to be missing out on a bit of performance since the 880 cannot be balanced without modification, but it’s not needed and the zen will still sound good without having to modify the headphones imo
Hmmmmm with the pro the headband padding can unbutton and you can put replacement padding on there, with the premium you would have to go with something like a zmf pilot pad or other similar solution to change the comfort of the headband. In an extreme case you could try to transplant the cups to another headband assembly but that would be a lot of work. But imo the 880 600 premium is pretty comfortable and doesn’t really need a headband change
I mean the normal 880 600
So I’ll get the:
Beyerdynamic DT-880 600ohm
iFi zen can
iFi zen dac(?)
If there’s anything to add let me know
A fine list. You don’t really have to stack the Zen CAN with the Zen DAC. They’re an aesthetic match and have the ability to connect to each other balanced, but it’s not essential to pair them. Any budget dac should be fine for the CAN amp. The Zen DAC does have a pretty strong price/performance ratio though. You will also sacrifice optical and coaxial digital inputs, if that matters to you.
As far as DT880 balanced modding, we have a whole thread for that:
Let us know how it all turns out and enjoy!
What’s that and how much I’m missing out if I go with the ifi dac? Is there a more well rounded option?
There are a handful of ways the digital audio stream from a computer/CD player/DVD player/etc can be sent to the DAC for conversion to an analog signal. At the price range and for the the application you’re looking at the 3 common connection types will be usb, optical (also called Toslink) and coaxial. Optical uses a fiber-optic cable to transmit the signal via light. USB and coax use regular wires to move electrical signals. Coax uses a standard RCA type connector. USB is the highest bandwidth connection and also allows for DSD (an alternative hi-res audio signal type) and MQA (a way of compressing hi-res audio most commonly found in some Tidal streams) signal transmission. Optical and coaxial top out at 24 bit 192khz stereo audio (which is plenty). Optical and coax don’t require computer drivers. Optical helps if you’re computer has ground loop noise because it’s electrically decoupled from the computer. However, these are infrequent.
Since you didn’t know what those things are you probably don’t need them. In which case the Zen stack is as good an option as any for you.
I prefer open-back / semi-open cans, the wide sound stage gives virtual surround in games much more depth and precision IMO and there are very few gaming headsets under $100 that are not closed back - only one that comes close would be HyperX Revolver, which is ported giving it a bit of a wider sound stage similar to the JVC HA-RX700 (which I have and largely prefer, due to to the incredible bass response and flat signature).
I tend to switch between those JVCs and a Samson SR850 since the velour pads give me much more comfort during long sessions, the pleather pads tend to get a bit warm over time. My “good” headphones (Logitech G930) i would recomend to read the review here https://www.reviewsed.com/logitech-g930-review/ It is pretty much tied to my AVR since I find budget studio cans are well enough in sound quality for gaming and streaming music.
As far as surround sound, some games have it integrated into the game (e.g. “headphone” settings in the audio options), windows 10 has “sonic” spatial sound you can enable, some integrated realtek have it in the audio output options, 3rd party software solutions like Razer surround as previously mentioned and better sound cards (also previously mentioned) like the Sound Blaster Play!3 also support vsurround (which I am currently using, SBX is my favorite so far since it sounds good for games and movies and can adust the level of surround to your preference)
I finally got everything together, IM AMAZED, these sounds so f-wording good, (pardon my lack of vocabularies) these sound so much opener, like everything have a position, the high end is super clean and detailed, the mid is clear, not underpowering not too noticeable but good none the less, the low is not overpowering yet enjoyable, just the right amount form me, and with the ifi zen dac i can turn on truebass which spices things up quite a bit, listening to song have never been so fun for me, thank you everyone and their suggestion!
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