So what's are your preferences? When choosing earphones, for me the only option is the bose IE2, as they're the only ones that I can wear. Others hurt my ears. Problem is, they sound awful and they're very fragile. I've been through 4 pairs (on my 5th) in the last 2 years.
For headphones? Big bass, great mids and crystal clear highs. Comforts a big point too.
Speakers - pretty much the same as headphones. For that reason, Bowers and Wilkins often fit the bill, along with a jbl sub
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Clarity, purity, accuracy. Not bothered by fashion, colour, brand, size, cost, as long as it does the job.
eg - my headphones are the totally fabulous Sennheiser HD580, large, around the ear type, nothing much by way of isolation, but extremely comfy, and sound amazing.
My main speakers are Acoustic Energy Aegis EVO3s. I demoed over 20 different pairs before choosing these. I was really lucky that I knew the shop manager and he let me demo them at home before finally deciding. My Denon AV1803 is purely functional, it just does what it says on the box. My system is so nicely matched up, I very rarely hear it any more, I just hear the music
Cheers, David
At uni I'm a headphone person, I like pure, neutral sound tending more towards warm than sharp. I've been using DT880s for a couple of years now and enjoy them very much. For out and about I just have a set of earpods that a friend sold me cheap. They're fairly durable which is what I care about in that environment. Where I go mad however is with amplifiers, being a bit of an electronics person I build my own and currently posses 4 different headphone amplifiers - but despite my best efforts I still only have one pair of ears.
At home I like to use speakers too, I have a pair of Monitor Audio BX2s (my 18th birthday present) hooked up to a home-made hybrid amp (kind of a silly design that burns ~60W at idle and I sometimes use it just for headphones) or my Dad's Marantz PM6004, which he no longer uses. Like David I'm very much one for clarity and have to test a lot of things before I'm happy with them.
Mostly I listen for stuff in audio equipment
Earphones - don't use - work of the devil.
Headphones have gone to active - Audio Technica somethingorothers. Sound has great 'presence' and it cuts background sound out. Not an 'audiophile' option but for spoken word stuff like watching movies on the move, can't be beaten.
Speakers - same Celestion Dittons I've had for 30 years. One has had a bad knock so vibrates a bit so I've wrapped an old belt around it. Sorted.
Earphones: None, dislike them.
Headphones: Bose QC15s, bought mainly for their noise cancelling, though they sound alright to my non-audiophile ears.
Speakers: Old set of Infinity speakers I bought about 10 years back, mainly used for films rather than music though.
Well, that, pretty much .... though I'd point out it's subjective.Originally Posted by g8ina
I used to spend quite a lot of money on audio gear. IMF transmission line speakers fed by a Lecson pre/power amp combination, or a Quad valve pair at one point. And a Mitchell Reference turntable, SME3009 arm and a selection of various cartridges, including Stanton, Ortofon and Satin.
More recently, I've been FAR more restrained, not least because age dictates my ears aren't what they were. Still, still got and use the IMFs and the Mitchell, but currently with a vanilla AV Receiver (Kenwood, IIRC, but nothing fancy).
As for headphones, well, three pairs. Sennheiser (5xx, some years back, but I don't rememver the exact model number), and a set of Sennheiser noise-cancelling phones I mainly use for long-haul flights, and my favourites .... a pair of Stax Electrostatics I've had for ages. Earphones? Not my favourite items, but sometimes nothing else will do .... and they're midrange Shures.
Basically, these days, whatever's in my budget, and that gives me what I regard as the nicest sound for the money. But given a hearing issue, high-end gear is, sadly, a bit wasted.
What do you mean by 'big' and 'great' etc.? To my reading you're mostly saying you like good bass middle and highs.. so kind of everything? Which I expect most of us like too
That said I'm slightly against the grain - clarity, accuracy, crystal clear highs.. are not my most important features. I'll take them, and on cheaper sets that's what I'll prioritise (ie not doing very much to the music). For more expensive sets I'm more happy to let them play with things to get a mildly warmer middle (oo-er) and to add some texture.
The only bass I can stand is incredibly tight and well-blended, to the point where you don't actually notice it - any hint of a 'boom' and I'll walk away from a demo (sorry B&W, I know your air-thingy looks nice...). Typically that means I spec for 2.0 at most. When I can afford a good enough system to get the bass I want I'll consider 2.1.
As for highs, again what people describe as crystal clear is too thin for me - I want lightness and texture, but it has to be part of the overall sound, not distinct from it.
Go listen to something like a cello concerto live in a great venue and you'll be disgusted with almost any home system afterwards. Even just that one instrument needs attack, bass and most of all, a warm and textured sound. Get a system right, and it'll transport you back to that concert venue. I'm still waiting(on the other hand, I can afford to go to a lot of concerts for the price of a great home system
)
PS - trying to get a system that sounds great when quiet is also a challenge. Partly we perceive loudness as 'better' anyway, but most of my stuff isn't all that good at very low volumes either.
PPS - currently using:
Earbuds - Sennhieser CX 550 IIs. They're so much more balanced than ones lower in the range - bass is punchy but what I'd call balanced, others may call underpowered
Headphones - Sennhieser Xense - came with the soundcard, basically PC350s. OK, slightly too warm and not quite as deft bass as I'd like ideally - hard to get in fully closed, which are an operational necessity
Home - Don't really have
Last edited by kalniel; 22-04-2014 at 09:17 AM.
A lot of modern speakers are engineered more for appearance and being front room friendly than for absolute sound quality IMHO(narrow front profile being one of them). If you have the time and equipment, building your own speakers can be quite rewarding and you can tailor them to your own preferences.
Edit!!
For headphones I do buck the trend by owning a pair of Grado SR125s. I find they have an absolutely glorious midrange,and the base is not overblown but tuneful. They tend also to sound quite decent through computer audio outputs as they are very easy to drive,although sound better with a headphone amp. The decent Beyers and Senns I have listened to,do tend to be not as bright and not as upfront though,so I might acquire another pair of decent headphones at some point. However,they are not as exciting to listen to and I tend to prefer their midrange balance less and the bass tends to be too overemphasised at times.
Last edited by CAT-THE-FIFTH; 22-04-2014 at 09:22 AM.
That'd be like building a Stradivarius?! No way could I match the professionals.
You might not realise that unless you are buying speakers costing many thousands of pounds,a lot of the speakers are actually engineered for cost,ease of assembly,supply chain and aesthetic reasons. For instance,I was looking at a pair of PMCs a few years ago,which were £1100+ and the drive units were under £200,from a DIY speaker components supplier with their own markup,and that is PMC who use decent parts. Many of the companies use even cheaper drive units.
Many of the famous speaker companies started from DIY roots or from people who worked for the BBC,and DIY builds if done properly can be bloody great. I should know having had some contact with people who do them(they even met some of the people who started some of the first consumer speaker companies),and having done a bit of research myself on the technical aspects of speaker building.
A lot of the playbook used by modern companies in speaker design has been around for a very longtime.
Yes,there are costs,ie, you need the woodworking,soldering equipment already and some measuring equipment(you can buy it off Ebay and they hold their value anyway),and it does take time,but IMHO its worth it,as you could probably still spend less anyway and have a great pair of speakers.
The UK DIY scene is not as big as it used to be. Edgware Road in London used to have loads of DIY speaker components places even 20 years ago(not anymore though)!!
However, in the US the community is more active.
Last edited by CAT-THE-FIFTH; 22-04-2014 at 09:36 AM.
Yeah, in a lot of ways it's quite similar... No-one has ever shown a Stradivarius to be a a good as they're supposed to be. Many modern violins are objectively better, we just listen for certain distortions that the Stradivarius provides. Like tuning an amplifier to produce a large amount of second harmonic, it's not an objectively good thing to do but second harmonic is generally pleasing to the ear (much more so than the odd order harmonics you can mask with it).
In all fairness speakers aren't too hard to build, it's a question, of building the right shaped box for your drivers (doing the physics). The only reason I didn't build my own was because I didn't have time to veneer the boxes to the quality I wanted, although I have built some MDF ones before and it's quite surprising what you can do with £90 of materials (including drivers of course) if you build a pair of bookshelf speakers.
Most modern 'high-end' speakers seem to be ridiculously tall skinny things. They may look bling but for anything other than a tweeter the physics is against them.
For in-ear type, comfort is about as important as sound quality. Mainly because they are more intrusive so you notice it more, and are more likely going to be used on the go, meaning that issues with ergnomic would be more apparent when you move around. None of the IEM have truly impressed me compared to headphones, me so they just need to sound alright, and I've tried two or three that fits the bill. I use them solely for isolation.
Where portability is desired and isolation not necessary, I am a huge fan of the Koss KSC-75 as a dirt cheap option. Grados-like sound, easily powered on portable device and did I mention dirt cheap.
But to answer the question, I like "air" and a wide "soundstage". I also like details and clarity, there is not that much to differentiate at the higher end in my opinion. For air and soundstage though, I've yet to find one that bests AKG. I prefer the lighter side of neutral, over the darker side, and perhaps I do not like bass as much as some. For instance the HD650 has a bit too much bass for my liking for long period of listening. Every now and then, for some types of music, I like pulling out my Grados HF-1. But as far as dynamic headphones are concerned, I am still a big fan of the AKG K701 (Disclaimer: of the one's I've tried - I am curious as to how much the Sennheiser HD700/800 sound. Also, my brief encounter with electrostatic headphones impressed me, but I do not think that I will be getting one soon).
I know relatively little about speakers. Well, one of my cousin sells them, but I haven't had the chance to go and check them out myself. Space is a major constrain, as is the fact that I move often.
Last edited by TooNice; 22-04-2014 at 12:22 PM.
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