Headphone crew

are there any better alternatives?

Maybe the Ultimate Ears?

Replaceable cables is a big plus. I got about a year out of my E2s and once the cable died, that was it. Seems such a waste.

[Macc]

I'm now officially bang into these things

I decided just to dive in and start working on them, bearing in mind the MUCH warmer sound and so on.

Did some mastering yesterday, checked the masters against other things I have done and other pro things and they sounded good! This was especially the case on the better mixes, so obviously I still have to learn the real detailed biz on them.

Then after several hours I put the old HD-270's on... They sounded rubbish! All smiley and narrow and stuff.

I never thought I'd see the day. Shows that your ears can adjust a bit quicker than you think

Yep they are bloody nice!

do the hd600 block out sound from outside much? and can you use them from an ordinary headphone hole?

i live far too close to all the music shops in central london

so to answer my own question, no and yes

they compare sufficiently to the sony fontopias i was using for monitoring before

need a better output for the laptop now but i can't use firewire

is a decent usb soundcard with headphone port worth it? can you get dedicated usb headphone amps?

incidentally i had some beyerdynamics, dt150 or 250 or something i think, and they were pretty nice until i lost them, not as good as the hd600 though and quite uncomfortable. lots of bass though

ideally, i'm sure macc et al will correct me if i'm wrong, you'll need a usb soundcard (to get better sound quality than onboard sound)AND a headphone amp (to handle the h'phones impedance properly).

my colleague at work built his own headphone amp iirc, and he said it only cost 20 quid or so, so i'll ask him for details tomorra.

Make sure you try the HD 650's as well, Tyler.

Anyone else of those of view who bought new cans lately have anything to report?

I still have my 595's, but I'm considering buying a different pair. I've been noticing a bit of biased sound lately.

*link removed cos it is so long - Bob*

Make sure you try the HD 650's as well, Tyler.

too late already bought the 600

this graph and the fact that people on head-fi seem to prefer the 600, plus they are £100 cheaper (and cheaper than the in ear ones i was considering) made my mind up

*link removed cos it is so long - Bob*

they seem to have made my apples built in headphone out have less noise somehow

before whenever the machine started playing sounds you could hear some noise kick in all of a sudden, now you can't hear that at all.

they seem to have made my apples built in headphone out have less noise somehow

Wow, I just tried it on my macbook pro headphone out and found the same thing. With my other headphones, I get lots of artefacts tailing on for a second or two whenever I stop playback (in any app, iTunes, Live, whatever) but it doesn't happen with the 650s. How odd.

yeah its weird

i think it must turn off the audio out completely when its not doing anything, because if its quiet then a program makes a beep or something you suddenly get some noise that carries on after the sound for a while, then switches off all of a sudden

its pretty bad with cheap in ears but completely absent with the hd600's

could be cos they're less sensitive impedance wise?

i dunno...

[Macc]

could well be the built in socket simply being woefully short of power to drive the cans, that...

it has to be said that running the 600/650 off a standard built in laptop soundcard jack socket is well, a complete waste


i've noticed that now i am getting used to the 600's and they (and the amp) have had a couple of hundred hours, mixing the midrange is much easier than it ever has been. they're soooooo fucking honest. it's amazing!

so i have this roland tr808 sample pack i've had for ages (its in the many drum machines zip too)

i noticed a while ago that the bass drums seemed to have some NASTY aliasing type noise in the decay but assumed it was in the samples.

got an e-mu 0202 for the 600s and listened to them again and its gone i think my laptop must have the worst soundcard ever

[Macc]

All built in soundcards are shit.

Choices for best closed back reference class headphones anyone?

[Macc]

Dunno about best, but 280's will serve you well...

About to grab some new headphones myself, need em for production..was gonna go for the RH-200s..reading all these good things about HDs is makin me think twice tho, cant afford them tho!
Here they are > http://www.roland.com/products/en/RH-200/index.html

Didn't really wanna spend more than £85-90 on a pair! Any recommendations???

I have a pair of Ultrasone PROline 750's and absolutely love them. They have a really nice response Bass wise and no need for a pre-amp either

600

[Macc]

From the SPL website:

"PHONITOR
120V Headphone Monitoring Amplifier



When the team around our senior developer Wolfgang Neumann started the project of a headphone amp,
everybody felt it is time for some new ideas in that area.

Now, a few years and some cans later, the name of our new beauty already implies the key feature:
with the Phonitor, headphones become a full alternative to monitoring speakers.
To allow for control of sound impressions comparable to speakers in a room, the Phonitor offers new parameters such as Crossfeed, Speaker Angle and Center Level.

Based upon our high-performance 120 V technology, the Phonitor aims at users demanding the highest sound quality.
As the flagship of a new sort of headphone amps we call Headphone Monitoring Amplifiers, further headphone amps in standard technology
will follow soon, e. g. a RackPack module.
Availability of the Phonitor is scheduled for May 2008.

Looks good! Any idea of a price estimate?

[Macc]

1600 Euros

Although it is the mastering grade super high voltage 120V version - there will probably be a pikey cheap arse version at some point too

Fockin' hell..