rage,

The hd-555'[s do not need to be amped and will sound pretty sweet for unamped headphones. dont waste money on that thing, it looks like garbage imo.

thanks!

ordering the 555's now, and will let you know how they work out.

edit: ok, i was about to order, when i read about them being open as opposed to closed (letting sound in and out). i don't think this would be good for me, so i'm thinking about the 280's instead. any advice?

Yeah thats exactly what i want, just wasnt sure which to get.

why is it worth an extra 300 for the other speakers? i definitely wasnt planning on spending that much, i can think of a lot of other things that i could spend that on.

Any idea why i couldn't find a Hornet on ebay or amazon? Is there no second hand market for them?

PIITM,

I have a pair of grado SR-80's that I loved that crapped out on me, and I'm looking to take the next step. At what level of impedence does one need to start considering an amp? Also, any recommendations for a new set of cans and a USB soundcard?

price range is key here. what are you looking to spend? I would say anything that is good quality and has an impedance>65 should be amped.

$200-250 +/-. If I could find the K-701's for a decent price I'd love to pick up a pair. Open to other suggestions however.

go to www.northernsound.net for the k701s. they have by far the best price i have seen(they dont even post it):

$244.42

I havent seen anyone else come within 100 bucks of this price so i would certainly recommend going to them. At this point, I guess we have reached the limit of your budget. But if you still want a usb soundcard and are willing to spend more, buy the Headroom MicroDAC

Ok well the micro dac is a bit more than I want right now, I can wait a little while (next month) for source. What kind of amp would you suggest for the k701's? I've been looking at the hornet, but will something less pricey like the tomahawk or a portaphile drive them?

spyder,

The tomahawk might not do the job as it was built for people using in ear monitors. I seem to remember the hornet being like 50 bucks more. The hornet is way worth it and absolutely owns the portaphile in terms of sound. I owned both for an overlap of about a month before i sold my portaphile and did lots of a/b listening. If you are worried about price, I imagine you could find a used one cheaper, especially since the initial price for them was $299. I know a lot of people have duplicates since the initial run was all black and they have since come out with a bunch of ******ed chassis colors and people got a 2nd for that and often sold their black one for slightly less than the introductory price. In fact, looking at The Head-Fi For Sale section there is a portaphile selling right now. It is completely maxxed out so it should sound better than mine and is 225. I hope this helps. gl dude.

I ordered my first headphone amp: http://www.meier-audio.homepage.t-online.de/arietta.htm Trip report to come. Has anyone purchased Meier amps via head-fi.org?

are those Ultimate Ears super.fi 3 Studio better than the Etymotic ER6i?

yes imo.

PITTM -I'll be in the market for monitor speakers soon -
Do you think the Usher S520's are one of the best value monitors?
I have to assume they blow away the EPOS equivalents(ELS3's?)

I'm thinking a used set of Von Schweikert VR1's however at 500-600 is the real ticket?? They are always on Audiogon and always sell fast.

yo dude,

as you can imagine, i did a lot of reading and listening before buying the ushers. The place i bought them at also had the EPOS ELS3's which i went there intending to buy. You really have to see them side by side and then you will just say, hmm, the ushers absolutely own the EPOS. The EPOS look like speakers you would actually see on a bookshelf being used as bookends. The Ushers are about twice as deep and 25% taller. Every component is a bit larger and beefier and the build quality is in a whole different league. I was way let down by the EPOS and fell in love with the ushers. I have read many reviews about the Ushers being the best value under 1k and i have actually been considering this company that mods them to make them sound like god speakers.

Regrettably, I cant help with the VR1's as i know nothing about them. What kind of amp are you using? I am shopping for a second one at this point but havent found the right amp/price combination yet.

Well good thing I found this thread recently. My dog got a hold of my SR-80's today and and tore up the cable . Anywhere I can send 'em to be repaired? The cans are fine just need the cable worked on.

I'm not sure yet as I'm shopping for everything - unfortunatley I sold my whole system a few years ago - Musical Fidelity A300 integrated and JM lab Daline 3.1's - transmission line floorstanders with a small overall footprint (big, big mistake selling those)

I'm prolly thinking a Creek 5350 SE or maybe even the Red Wine Audio Signature 30 - a battery powered integrated which is supposed to be amazing.

http://www.redwineaudio.com/Signature_30.html

I don't want to deal with seperates. My source will most likely be PC audio (lossless secure ripped files into a very good USB DAC like Wavelength's Brick. here's a review of that piece

http://www.onheadphones.com/product-...k-usb-dac.html



cheers

Creeks are awesome amps. However, this morning, i woke up and found a gem. I found someone selling a used musichall mambo for $550(they retail for $1400). I has a built in SACD DAC, 50 watts of class a power and looks [censored] AWESOME. This is suuuuch a sick find and I am really excited about it. A creek 5350 SE is a bit out of my range, but i had been considering something from their EVO series. That red win audio amp looks ridiculous and i wanna hear it.

[censored].

This is what I get for not reading 2p2 lol. I went to best buy because my BOSE headphones brole (wire ripped). Dude reccomends SHURE earbuds so i take his word for it. I got the $150 ones he said the $250 ones weren't worth it.

Basically sounds like there is no bass whatsoever. Plus after 2+ years of not wearing earbuds i feel weird with something in my ear.

Sigh.

EDIT: I got the SHURE SE series, is the E series just better?

yep, shure e series is much better and probably way cheaper anywhere online. however, if you dont like having stuff in your ears you wouldnt like the e series anyways.

i used to have earbuds and then just made the switch one day, just awkward to get used to.

Thanks i'm gonna return these today (hopefully) and pick up a higher end e-series model.

my new speaker amp:

i just wanna say that i love these AKG K 26 P headphones i got last year as recommended by PIITM. great hip hop headphones that are good size.
http://www.headphone.com/products/he...akg-k-26-p.php

Hey, I don't think this specific set of circumstances has been brought up yet.

I am a hearing aid wearer and so can't wear the in-ear headphones. I also can't tell the difference between good and great headphones (although I could tell a decent difference between 40 dollar headphones and the Bose Triports I'm currently wearing (yeah I know now, Bose sucks...)). Anyways, my Triports have broken for about the 8th time and now the padding is falling out of the ear cups, so I've decided it's time to get new headphones.

Requirements: LARGE comfortable ear cup (that fits over my hearing aids - any pressure on the hearing aids starts to hurt after a while), decent sound isolation (both in therms of outside noise and allowing me to crank up the volume with bothering others), and a price range of $50 - 200.

Anything that's much higher quality than the Bose headphones, I'm sure I won't be able to tell the difference in sound, so it's not important that I get the BEST sound for that price range - comfort and sound isolation is more important.

Any thoughts? Thanks for any help.

I bought the Sennheiser PXC450's like i said i was going to. I've had them for a few weeks now and i absolutely love them. I'm hearing things in songs that i have never heard before. They are good at reducing back ground noise even when you don't have the noise canceling on. You can turn the PX450's noise canceling on and off. Which is a huge plus over the Bose Quiet Comforts, where noise canceling is always on, and you can't use the headphones at all if the proprietary rechargeable battery dies. I haven't tested the noise canceling in a suitable environment, but i will be taking an international flight at the end of this month. That will be the true test. They are extremely comfortably. They have very soft leather around the ears and on the band that rests on your head. All leather pads are washable and replaceable if needed. The audio cable is also replaceable, though i don't know how much it costs, still its nice knowing your 450 dollar headphones aren't useless if the cord get damaged. The construction seems very solid, nothing feels loose or flimsy. The only thing i could complain about is how expensive hey are. They retail for $450, which is what i paid. I have heard people suggest that Sennheiser jacked the price up on these to give people the impression that they are better and more luxurious then the Bose Quiet Comforts. In a lot of consumers minds high price means better quality (worked on me, although they are clearly much better then the overrated Bose headphones). If you can get past the price, these are sweet headphones that deliver tremendous sound quality with noise canceling when needed.