Rab WOT? Moderating Team 10,981 Member For: 11y 11m 4d Gender: Male Location: Frankston, 3199 Posted 30/01/19 06:56 AM Share Posted 30/01/19 06:56 AM Note: this thread is a split from another thread - the discussion seems to start from nowhere I can freely admit - I've got a slight problem with headphones lol It started when the house had me, the misses and 4 kids (baby up to late teen) leaving bugger all space or time for me to kick back and relax with some tunes or play games at a decent level. I had a very good 5.1 setup for the TV/lounge and a great 5.1 setup for the PC, but it wasn't until the kids had gone to bed that I could finally get a chance to put my feet up and have some "me time" After much research (and finding this thread in a different forum https://www.head-fi.org/threads/mad-lust-envys-headphone-gaming-guide-10-25-2018-creative-aurvana-trio-added.534479/) Looking for something that'd be great with both movies, games and music I bit the bullet, spent what I thought at the time to be a stupid amount of cash and got myself a set of Sennheiser HD598 headphones and an Astro Mixamp (makes the 5.1 audio from movies/games into a processed stereo signal that creates virtual surround in the headphones, giving front, left, right and rear cues - makes the sound appear to be coming from all around you, instead of just from the 2 speakers on your ears.) It was crazy - the way it opened up the audio and the virtual surround it processed was unbelievable. I was hooked. Enemy sneaking up on me behind my left shoulder? their footsteps now came from behind my left shoulder. Explosion happens 100m over to the right? it now sounds like it's happening 100m to the right, not at my ear. Lord of the Rings DVD - bloody hell, that sounds better than it ever did on my decent (for the time) 5.1 setup in the loungeroom. With music I wasn't using the Mixamp, just onboard sound, but with a decent pair of headphones, a decent copy or CD of the songs and I was hearing stuff in music that I had no idea was there before. Backup vocalists I had never heard before in songs that were played everyday, separation of instruments, vocals and performers that blew me away etc From there I was happy with the HD598's and Mixamp for gaming/movies etc, but just knew I had to get something better for the music listening. Next stupid amount of money later (how little did I know back then lol) and I had Sennheiser HD650 headphones and a separate Dac/Amp to use them with (the HD650's need more power than onboard or the Mixamp would supply and onboard audio is usually pretty mediocre to begin with) With that I was well and truly hooked - both on the idea of headphones for music and headphones for gaming. Since then I've collected probably about 20 sets of headphones (open, closed, wireless, noise cancelling, IEM's, portable etc) and a half dozen or so Amps/Dacs etc Have even got myself an expensive tube amp that I've still got to put together from it's components - soldering etc (it's on the to-do list) Last purchase was a STAX L500 with it's energiser (electrostatic headphone - uses a different form of amplification than normal headphones) - I think I'm done for a long time now (other than the Smyth Realiser A16 mentioned below in the thread) Next step up that I'd want to head would be the higher end STAX - about $6K for the headphones and $10k for the amp/energiser - maybe one day :S Current main setups are: Gaming: Creative X7 DAC/Amp for VSS using the HD700 or HD800S headphones Music: Sennheiser HDVD800 DAC/Amp or Woo Audio WA7 tube DAC/Amp with either the HD800S or Audeze LCD2 headphones or the STAX L500 and the 353X energiser. Travelling: Audeze iSine 20 IEM's, Sony 1000XM2 (bluetooth noise cancelling headphones) and an XDUOO XD-05 dac/amp Wandering around home: Sennheiser RS185 wireless Laptop gaming: Audeze Mobius (new fantastic headphone that has inbuilt VSS and headtracking - the sound continues to come from the screen even when you move your head) Each (or any) of the above setups and also take the VSS processing from the Creative X7 and feed it into whatever dac or amp I want. As mentioned later - I'm awaiting the delivery of the Smyth Realiser A16. Once that turns up and I've tried all the headphones with it I'll be free to offload a great percentage of them. The gear I sell off may give me enough cash to look at the $15k STAX setup I lust after I know I've spent far too much money on headphones and but most were bought either 2nd hand, from overseas or during deep sales/clearances - most of what I paid will be recoverable when I go to sell. Either way - I'm more than happy - am getting fantastic sounds for a fraction of the price I would have had to spend getting a full room setup to sound nearly as good for me - and don't need the dedicated space or room. Pfft - go headphones Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rab WOT? Moderating Team 10,981 Member For: 11y 11m 4d Gender: Male Location: Frankston, 3199 Posted 30/01/19 07:19 AM Author Share Posted 30/01/19 07:19 AM Am waiting, waiting, waiting on this to turn up https://smyth-research.com/ Paid for in 2017 - am sitting here tapping my toes. Hopefully this year lol 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bloodycrashboy Feeling the Love :-) Bronze Donating Members 4,421 Member For: 11y 9m 29d Gender: Male Location: Not in Cairns anymore Posted 30/01/19 10:12 AM Share Posted 30/01/19 10:12 AM Pfft - go headphones You've got headphones Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rab WOT? Moderating Team 10,981 Member For: 11y 11m 4d Gender: Male Location: Frankston, 3199 Posted 30/01/19 10:18 AM Author Share Posted 30/01/19 10:18 AM 5 minutes ago, bloodycrashboy said: You've got headphones A set or two Did a rough calculation the other night - am above $20k on gear for the ear muffs :S 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bloodycrashboy Feeling the Love :-) Bronze Donating Members 4,421 Member For: 11y 9m 29d Gender: Male Location: Not in Cairns anymore Posted 30/01/19 10:23 AM Share Posted 30/01/19 10:23 AM I think you need to come clean with your addiction Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rab WOT? Moderating Team 10,981 Member For: 11y 11m 4d Gender: Male Location: Frankston, 3199 Posted 30/01/19 10:29 AM Author Share Posted 30/01/19 10:29 AM Yeah - I'm not buying any more til my $US27k DAC arrives 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bloodycrashboy Feeling the Love :-) Bronze Donating Members 4,421 Member For: 11y 9m 29d Gender: Male Location: Not in Cairns anymore Posted 30/01/19 10:32 AM Share Posted 30/01/19 10:32 AM I think you got ripped https://www.themasterswitch.com/best-dacs 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rab WOT? Moderating Team 10,981 Member For: 11y 11m 4d Gender: Male Location: Frankston, 3199 Posted 30/01/19 10:37 AM Author Share Posted 30/01/19 10:37 AM Pffft Schiit (was only joking on getting an expensive one - am sorted for what I need) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bloodycrashboy Feeling the Love :-) Bronze Donating Members 4,421 Member For: 11y 9m 29d Gender: Male Location: Not in Cairns anymore Posted 30/01/19 10:41 AM Share Posted 30/01/19 10:41 AM what about The Realiser A16 ??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rab WOT? Moderating Team 10,981 Member For: 11y 11m 4d Gender: Male Location: Frankston, 3199 Posted 30/01/19 10:51 AM Author Share Posted 30/01/19 10:51 AM They have the A8 - it's legit The A16 is twice as good - obviously A8 was about $8k Went kickstarter for the A16 - paid about $AU1,500 Have no qualms about it coming, nor it's abilities - just the date. Honestly - if you get the time while in Melbourne - drop in for a listen to my headphone setups - they are crap loads better than $xxk speaker setups and work in normal lounge rooms The A16 will extend that to $xxxk setups and 16 speaker multi channel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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