Newish to Headphones this is my Journey

AVForums

Help Support AVForums:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Frank007301

AVForums Veteran
*
Joined
Sep 3, 2012
Messages
428
Reaction score
34
Location
Cape Town
Hi all

I am newish to headphones. I have had a few headphones over the years but that was all as a means to an end. Using them on a plane when you could still travel safely, using them for gaming etc.

I started off a few years ago with some on ear B&W P3?s. That was my introduction to headphones. I was very happy with them, I actually met the CEO of Bowers & Wilkins Joe Atkins while wearing them. He came up to me at the BA first class lounge in Heathrow. He came up to me and told me it was his company. I was skeptical until he gave me his business card. He is a very nice guy.

Anyway, after that, I thought the P3?s were great so get something new and for travel I got B&W PX. It was great for air travel but did not sound great.

So I upgraded sooner than what I would have liked. I decided to get a pair of Beyerdynamics DT880 Pro 250ohm. I then found out that headphone amps are a thing because I have this new toy and it is not loud enough. Sooo down another rabbit hole I go.

So after speaking to a friend once again he recommended something that I should look at and ended up getting a Fiio K5 Pro. All of a sudden I was like where did I miss this before. Oh no? where could this go and how much is this going to cost me? While I was looking at the Beyerdynamics I also got recommendations for some Sennheiser HD560?s. Never got around to actually going for a listen. I used these DT880?s mostly for gaming and then listening to some music. For gaming they are awesome. Heavier bass than what I was used to on the P3?s but not too much. A year  has moved on and it was upgrade time again.

This time I was looking at DT1990 and HD660S. It was so difficult to find to find a pair of DT1990?s to listen too. The HD660S were almost on my doorstep at E-piphany. Wow. It was really really good. I don?t know if it was just their song choices but I was sold. Bought the demo pair right way as they did not have another pair in stock. Taking it home and connecting it to my system and more or less the same results as in the shop. Maybe slightly better than the shops but it is probably just because I was in my spot. Only one small issue. I heard a crackle sound in the right ear after a while of listening. Thought that it was maybe the cable or the connection between the cup and the cable. It wasn?t that. Called the guys at the shop and Brent said no problem bring them in let?s test them I have ordered a new pair for you just in case. 10min later I was there and Andre testes them and came to the same conclusion. Time to send it back to Sennheiser. Very sad that I paid all those bucks and I don?t have anything but no need to worry says Brent, here take mine until yours arrive. It being Friday I was very happy I could actually get to play with the cans over the weekend.

So all the testing started between the DT880?s and the HD660s. I thought that there would be a difference but the difference in detail was almost as if there was a piece of cotton wool in my ears with the DT880?s. After hearing that there was such a big difference it made me change my mind about listening to more expensive headphones. I don?t know if I want to hear that difference and not being able to listen to these HD660s the same way again.

So, that is the story up until this point. I would like to tweak my listening a bit more. Maybe better cables, new amp, new DAC, etc. what is my next move here?


P.S. I have added some sound panels around my listening position in front of my PC to get some absorbing in the room for streaming. Don?t know if that has any impact on the headphones though. Just putting as much information as possible on the thread.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Latest posts

Top