What's your audio setup?

[Biscuit]

I may look into replacing the 990s with 770s - do you use them for gaming at all?

If you don't like the 990s then you wont like the 770s mate. They are pretty similar sound with the main difference being open/closed.

I found them good for gaming, excellent clarity and quite flat (in my opinion the bass wasn't OTT and Im not a big fan of bass...) which makes them very effective for positional audio.

There are many options available at that price point, perhaps look at AKG?

[Lowe]

Part of lessons in 6th form and university included measuring our hearing responses. Mine was about 26KHz. School kids often use ultrasonic ring tones so that older teachers can't hear when the kids get a text message, and some shopping centers have been known to use ultrasonics to break up places where youths congregate. So over 20KHz is actually quite common, though as I said at my age very unlikely.

But then there is the misunderstanding of Nyquist points. There is no information above the Nyquist rate, sure, but the thing is as you approach half the sample rate you tend not to sample the peaks of those higher frequencies but somewhere on the edge so the result is that there is attenuation long before you get to 22KHz. My DSP lecturer (who did the most amazing rant mid lecture on why CD was rubbish and a missed opportunity for something good thanks to a poor choice of sample rate back in 1988 ) referred to this as "sampling droop". So from something like 16KHz you are losing information.

Hmm, I have glasses now that my eyes are fading, I wonder if anyone has looked at doing hifi hearing correction...

There's no nice way to put this, but unless you're the Darwinian next step then there's no way you were hearing that high. More than likely your transducer was distorting giving you false harmonics or 'rattles' at a lower frequency. The Mosquito units you're referring to that help break up groups work at either 8KHz or 17KHz depending upon the age range being targeted. 17KHz is the 'teenager' frequency.

http://www.movingsoundtech.com

With regards to Nyqvist, yes and no... I know what you're getting at, and obviously the alias filters etc need a bit of frequency headroom in order to avoid causing problems. But, from a musical point of view, there's not really that much up around 20KHz that's actually musical. Sure when I look at my recordings of cymbals at 96/24 there's energy way into the 30k region and a little more above, but it's not worth capturing. Peaks in music get smoothed out with dynamic compression, and as I mentioned before with the bit depth thing, the dynamic range in most music is fairly small, and 16 bits already more than covers that.

When recording the extra bit depth gives you a little more headroom in order to capture dynamics and also ensures you don't get close to hitting the 0dBFS limit and clip your signal. But by the time the music is produced, mixed and mastered you're looking at a different beast entirely, and what we have in CD is already more than sufficient.

/edit - anyhoo we're sliding off topic here. One for another day

[Lowe]

I may look into replacing the 990s with 770s - do you use them for gaming at all?

I've got a pair of 770's which I use at work/home. They're not bad really, just a slightly 'scooped' response. Lots at the top and bottom with little in the middle. Great for gaming though.

[MrRockliffe]

I enjoy the sound of the 990s, although slightly lacking on bass and highs are a bit too harsh.

AKGs sound signature seems to be similar, but with even less bass so I probably won't be looking there.

[Lowe]

Perhaps try the Focal Spirit Professionals. I had those on demo for a little while and liked working with them. Very flat response which gives the impression that they're unable to deliver much bass, but once you get used to them you realise that's not the case.

[Biscuit]

In my experience, the thing about a flat set of cans is that they are relatively predictable, this means that if/when you use an EQ in your playback software of choice, you can get the results you desire much easier. Consumer focussed headphones are a bit more tricky to deal with as they have characteristics built into them, trying to compensate for it when listening to music that they werent designed for (classical music on a set of Beats , for example) never gives you the exact sound you were looking for.

[Marenghi]

speakers: logitech z5500 5.1
soundcard: auzentech prelude using fan made drivers as Auzentech are no more, really need to move the sound card up to the top of the upgrade list

[MrRockliffe]

I ended up going with the 770s in the end - 80 Ohm version. I wasn't sure whether my Fiio E07K would be able to deal with powering 250 Ohm headphones properly, plus if it ever broke I'd be completely out of luck.

[deejayburnout]

my audio setup is simple in the house.....



My creative speakers that i use on my PC. about 10 years old but going strong.

My shed setup for my decks is a bit better




2 x Vestax Vinyl Turntables
2 x American Audio CD Turntables
Pioneer DJM 700
2 x Samson Reslove 40a active speakers

[MrRockliffe]

If you don't like the 990s then you wont like the 770s mate. They are pretty similar sound with the main difference being open/closed.

I found them good for gaming, excellent clarity and quite flat (in my opinion the bass wasn't OTT and Im not a big fan of bass...) which makes them very effective for positional audio.

There are many options available at that price point, perhaps look at AKG?

After doing a bit of reading, it turns out that the 80 Ohm version of the DT 770s is bass heavy, where as the 250 and 600 Ohm versions are quite neutral. Which version do you have?

[Lowe]

I have the 80 - and yes lots of bass

[shaithis]

Denon AVR X2000
SVS PB10 Sub
Kef IQ7 Fronts
Mordant Short MS902 surrounds
Mordant Short MS905 Center
Mordant Short MS903 Rears

[MrRockliffe]

I ended up canceling the order for the DT770 as for half the money I could get a gaming headset that does the job. However, I have a pair of IE80s and I cannot get the right one in my ear without causing extreme pain, so theyre going to have to go back (they were a replacement for many squeaky HD8 DJs they've replaced for me)

[Biscuit]

I have 80s, but I have never found them to be that extreme on the bass front. Perhaps in comparison to other analytical cans they have more, but we aren't talking about a set of headphones that are massively unbalanced.