After getting my Seinnheiser HD600, what's next?

[jasonhanjk 0]

Ater comparing music with my crap Panasonic, it is a total new sensation. By testing the music using MP3 running on Audigy Platinum, it is enough to drive the HD600 (not too loud please).

 

Now as a newbie, does a good amplifier boost the performance if I continue to listen to MP3.

Or a better performance will be achive by listning using CD and an amplifier.

 

Please help, thanks...

 

FYI. HD600 selling $440 at Hung Brothers, pay cash.

[Blues 0]

definately cd player and amp

mp3 (esp those 128 kbps one) just doesn't cut it.

 

[jasonhanjk 0]

definately cd player and amp

mp3 (esp those 128 kbps one) just doesn't cut it.

Yup. MP3 only plays frequency that the human ear can hear as a way to compress music.

 

What about this config:

Use a CD player and play a CD.

Connect the CD player directly to the Audigy card.

Using the Audigy as an amplifier.

 

Will the result be same as cd player and amp?

Thanks

[Northern Oak 0]

Sharing a lesson I've learnt for the past month:

 

Components of Importance on Sonic Features (Descending Order):

1. Quality of CD recordings

2. Source, be it CD player or Sound Card

3. Dedicated Headphone Amps (Tube Amps give you more room as you can tube-roll)

4. Headphones

5. Interconnects

6. Cone tweaks (Dampen Resonance)

 

The ideas behind these:

 

If you give trash to your hi-end headphones, don't expect it to turn trash to gold (except in some limited situations).

 

Quality of CD recordings have always been overlooked and under-estimated. I suggest trying Huang Hong Ying XRCD2 Digital K2 Recordings "The first taste of loneliness" and you will "FEEL" the difference.

 

Sidenote:

IMHO, regarding Sound Cards, since it is slotted in the motherboard, you may be subjecting the source to a wider exposure to Electro-Magnetic Radiation and Interference.

Edited May 1, 2003 by Northern Oak

[Firefox 0]

Yup. MP3 only plays frequency that the human ear can hear as a way to compress music.

 

What about this config:

Use a CD player and play a CD.

Connect the CD player directly to the Audigy card.

Using the Audigy as an amplifier.

 

Will the result be same as cd player and amp?

Thanks

Not very true... Most MP3's have a cut-off frequency at about 16KHz to 18KHz. Only custom settings or good encoders would set the cut-off at 19.2KHz.

 

A dedicated headphone amp is still better than the Audigy's onboard amp, which is similar to a cmoy.. But with more crappy opamps.

 

IMO, a simple Cmoy with 2 nice Cerafines/ Silmics & an AD8620 or BB OPA2134P opamps would fare much better. Just hook up a nice source (at least a PCDP) unlike an Audigy(2) and your good to go.

[jasonhanjk 0]

Wow. Thanks for te tip, some jargon need to know...

 

PCDP?

Cmoy?

[Northern Oak 0]

PCDP -> Portable Compact Disc Player

Cmoy -> A DIY amp designed by Chu Moy of http://www.headwize.com/

[Blues 0]

pcdp- portable cd player

cmoy- the name of the amp

[jasonhanjk 0]

kk, got it.

 

Just checked some forum, Creative Audigy sucks.

Something about re-sampling problem.

 

May want to try out some DYI amps

[Firefox 0]

LoL... Too bad. 'My' META42 is not done up yet. Still wondering how many buffers I should order and throw in the amp as well. At least I've the choice of AD8620 or 2 * OPA637P'B' to put in. Maybe I should sell it off once I've finished the enclosure and gotten the buffers.

[evil-zen 0]

Sharing a lesson I've learnt for the past month:

 

Components that will make the biggest impact on sonic performance (Descending Order):

1. Quality of CD recordings

2. Source, be it CD player or Sound Card

3. Dedicated Headphone Amps (Tube Amps give you more room as you can tube-roll)

4. Headphones

5. Interconnects

6. Cone tweaks (Dampen Resonance)

actually i do not think that sources make as much differences as headphones. headphones should be slotted into 2. and push others down.

grados, sennheisers, akg all sound way different from each other. even diff models of each brand can sound very different. if headphones like beyers 770 that has strong bass, no sources can change much of it. one should search for the ideal headphones first before settling down to tweak sources, amps etc to your liking.

[fishball79 0]

Actually performance is affected by the intricate reaction between the headphones and the amp. This is less apparent with headphones cos either you use one cos ur headphones aren;t loud enough or you dont cos you think its loud enough.

 

Amps give proper drive to cans so even if you have very efficient grados is playing sufficiently loud, the use of a headphone amp (in this case, one designed for high efficiency cans) will literally 'open up the sound'

 

If you have cheap cans, a good amp would improve it this much. If you have good cans the improvement with the same amp is even more.

 

I'd think you'd benefit more immediately with an amp. I used to listen to music on HD580, X-Cans on my PC, that was my first hifi.

[Blues 0]

I agree.. headphones first, then come to amp, last is source

even mp3 can let you listen to the difference of beyer dt770 and let's say AT-w1000

this is my way of upgrading and I feel the immediate difference when changing the headphones

 

the proper way should be source , amp then headphone, but either way both would end up on the same path.

[Northern Oak 0]

My 2 cents:

 

For me, the reason why I came up with that order is simply because how the signal path travels, as shown below:

 

Source -> Amp -> Headphone

 

It's the domino effect, if the first stage falter, the second stage will go as well and so on.

 

 

 

However, I do wish to put in something else. I somehow seem to think that different stages affects different aspects of the music.

 

The source comprise of the transport and the DAC. The role of the DAC is to get the digital bits of 1010 from the diss and then convert it to analog signals, hence DAC Digital Analog Converter. Thus the source will provide detail, accuracy, timing, tonality or in fact, whatever bits of sound that has been recorded. This is the first place where everything can go wrong.

 

This signal is then passed on to the amplifier. The role of the amplifier is to simply amplify the input signals. It get crappy signals, it delivers crappy signals. Pracitcal amplifiers tend to affect the transients, the attacks, the loudness, the brightness of sound but at times, a poorly designed amp will also affect the pitch, the tones etc. This is the second place where things can go wrong.

 

The headphones usually affect the brightness, the extension of bass and treble, soundstage, imaging etc. I prefer to thnk that the latter two have to do with the design and build of the amps, i.e. the physical properties.

 

An example that relates to the early topic, if you want to hear a clear, high treble, you must first have the source that has a wide bandwidth, as an early roll-off would definitely affect the treble, likewise on the bass. Then you must have an amp that's capable as well. Finally, you would have the headphones that able to reproduce the sonic effects. However, if the source has an early roll-off, you wouldn't hear the trebles, unless you have an amp that has a frequency response curve that's biased on the highs or if you use an equaliser.

 

Another thing about that sequence of source-amp-headphone is that you may spend less on upgrading equipment. A story I've liked to use is that :

 

The source is the foundation of the building, no matter how good you can build the windows, the roof, the walls, a shaky foundation will eventually pull the whole building down. Get the roots right and the tree will grow.

 

okay, enough of the blabbering. Sorry for being so long-winded. All the above are just my humble opinions and just for everyone's info, the previous path I took was : Headphone -> Amp -> Source. Now that I know its demerits, I would always tell everyone to follow the Source->Amp->Headphone.

[jtfoo 0]

LoL... Too bad. 'My' META42 is not done up yet. Still wondering how many buffers I should order and throw in the amp as well. At least I've the choice of AD8620 or 2 * OPA637P'B' to put in. Maybe I should sell it off once I've finished the enclosure and gotten the buffers.

Go for the OPA637 if you're consiering it. I've tried Opamp rolling between OPA2134, AD8620, AD797 and OPA637. To me, I finally chose OPA637 as the opamp for my meta42. It's clearly ahead of the rest imo. For cost efectiveness, the AD8620 would be a good choice, as I liked more than the OPA2134. While AD797 sounded terrible. Maybe it wasn't meant for audip application.