When I first got some monitor headphones, I listened to one of my favorite classical orchestra albums, and for the first time I could hear the wood of the stage floor creaking and the score pages flipping. In a moment of silence I could hear the faint sound of birds tweeting in the distance (it was recorded in an old Italian building, a large cathedral possibly, so maybe some birds got in? Idk).
You can’t just say that and not provide the album’s name
Album schmalbum. Which headphones are this good?
We are spoilt these days - there are lots of options. You can get that level of resolution from $20 in ear monitors. But, if you’re after that level it’s not just the headphones - it’s the whole chain (assuming you’re listening to digital):
- you need a decent DAC - again, it does not need to be expensive - a $10 Apple USB-C to 3.5mm adaptor will do it (but the built-in one in your laptop, or older phone, may not).
- you need decent, or preferably no, compression. Turn up the bit-rate in whatever streaming app you’re using or preferably use CD or uncompressed (FLAC).
- perhaps most importantly, and most overlooked, you need good source material. Lots of music out there has been horribly recorded and/or mastered. With low quantity reproduction this isn’t an issue, but once you’ve taken care of the rest and you’re spending time really listening to your music you will find yourself from time to time thinking “this sounds horrible”, and you know you’ve done everything at your end and it turns out you’re listening to a bad master. There are forums dedicated to discussion about the relative merits of various versions of different recordings.
It’s a huge rabbit hole, which stereotypicaly is very expensive - but doesn’t need to be.
I’ve only scratched the surface, but with my old, damaged, ears there’s no point digging further.
Ah sorry. It was early music ensemble Modo Antiquo’s recording of Corelli’s op. 6 concerti grossi.
Found this on youtube. Would you mind confirming it’s what you were referencing?
Yeah that’s it. It was originally two albums (concertos 1 to 6 and 7 to 12). It’s a very special recording because several of the concertos have hypothetical reconstructed parts for woodwinds and brass that are thought to be missing in the surviving manuscripts.
but be careful you don’t fall into the audiophile hobby trap
Too late for me :(
It’s easy to get caught up in. I find value in some different tech or approaches, like trying planar magnetic or open vs closed. But most of that can be found at reasonable prices.
If people want accurate sound reproduction, a decent set of monitor style headphones are their best bet. My favorite headphones are my audio technica studio monitors. They weren’t expensive but they give great sound reproduction which is what I’m interested in.
All the super expensive stuff is a combination of specific tuning, fancy materials and tech, or an appealing design coupled with heavy marketing and fomo exploitation.
So for anyone looking for general advice from someone that was almost sucked into audiophile land…
Quality matters for sure, but not up to the level some audiophiles say. Biggest feature that someone getting into better audio would observe is open vs closed back. It changes the soundstage noticeably. After that, decide if you prefer flat tuning (accurate to original recording) or something different. I actually really enjoy bass boosted for certain EDM but I don’t like that for much else so I don’t own any bass boosted headphones anymore.
Fitment is a whole other topic. I’m just talking about over ear headphones here.
Good news is, since you aren’t breaking the bank, you can get a new pair if you don’t like what you get and decide something else suites you better.
Edit: good source quality matters too.
My music taste changed when I went from crappy headphones to good ones (AKG K702)
Being able to listen to each instrument individually rather than a soup of noise really make a difference.
Rock the Casbah has a Nokia ringtone in it and it drives me nuts. I wish I never noticed it.
It’s sort of off beat too, I feel ya.
It’s a spectacular sensation, even if only concerning minute differences.
I’m about at the end of my current set pushing 6+ years. If anyone knows, what’s out there that’s worthwhile without breaking the bank?
Hifiman Edition XS have had some pretty crazy price cuts, but quality control is weak. For IEMs, the CrinEar Daybreak and Truthear Pure are insanely good. If you like Harman, the Truthear Blue 2 are also great, though the treble can be sibilant for some.
Koss Porta Pro is as fancy as it gets for me and they sound awesome to me
Used them for years, now they have a crackle if volumes too loud. Will probably get another pair once it’s too hot to wear full over ear outside. They really are perfect for me.
Their cable is prone to breaking rather easily, sadly. If you’re comfortable with a soldering iron, I’ve heard that fixing them up isn’t too difficult. Never ventured that far personally, but it may be worth a shot
It got overshadowed for me by the world of cheaply recorded live performances/mixes where/if artists take a slightly different approach.
Can confirm. Some sets are so clear and “correct” they make recordings like that sound worse.
I once had the opportunity to wear headphones for audio engineers. This was quite an experience. They even offer custom models adapted to the measured shape of your ears and stuff like that. Priced were rather steep, though.
I’ll never have the kind of money necessary to own a high end set of cans ($500+).
Beyerdynamic or Audio Technica are my companies of choice and of course they sell super high end expensive stuff but also their $100-$200 bracket is still amazingly good (like the DT-990 Pro).
I’d rather invest that money once than buy new headphones every year.Add FiiO to the list. They’re currently eating everyone’s lunch.
Currently using a fiio headphone Amp with an old pair of beyer dynamics I found used. Great little product.
You don’t need $500. You can get good audio for half of that. Probably less. Definitely less if you ship second hand
The recent $25 Moondrop Old Fashioned, for example, have some of the best vocal reproduction I’ve ever heard!
FLACs through a half decent DAC and amp in something like an LG phone sound amazing on $100 audiotechnicas
“🎵A new fantastic point of view…”
Then after you buy a bunch of hi-fi audio equipments you realised it’s all just placebo. So you keep the pair you liked the most and combine a dinky phone with headphone jack and micro sd card slot you then proceed to sell off the junks you’ve accumulated all these years.
Honestly for headphones this is the case. There’s absolute crap low to mid segment. But there is really really good stuff mid segment. The main quality factor for headphones to me is how comfortable they feel for you, physically, on your ears. Supergood sound but bad feel = very unpleasant.
I can only imagine that you’re assuming that to be the case, or your hearing is damaged worse that mine - because I can’t imagine anyone that has heard decent audio reproduction saying that. And I’m not being some audiophile snob - you can get decent reproduction from a $10 DAC and $20 IEMs if you do a bit of research before buying.
Alright, I’m gonna be frank here. I’m just a casual albums enjoyer whose comfortable with a bt dac around 50 bucks and under, paired with an atypical iem ranges £20 >. As long as I can enjoy my tunes and the teensy bit of details from aforementioned things. It’s pretty pointless to just craved for kilobucks or more hi-fidelity toys if all you’d receive is a tuning ranging from decent(as with the cheapo pair you’re currently own) to Ultrasone’s Edition 10 treble. Sure, the more premium sets has better soundstages and yeah, it sure can make some people cries when they can hear just a little bit more of “the details” they haven’t notices before. But idk, it feels scammy when you wanted to scratch the itch with an expensive stick that function just the same.
Also fuck you for assuming I have hearing damages. My ear can steel hear what my neighbours from across the street shit talking about.
You can pry my tube amp from my cold, dead hands.
Really happy with my Shure 440A’s.
You’re good around $100 for in-ear/earbud.
I just landed what seems to be a dream job for me, and possibly my first truly stable job since college, I start tomorrow. Part of me wants to reward myself so I’m looking at the Focal Bathys MG right now… Going to have go find a way to try them out first. I already have some great headphones so I’m not sure if the difference would be worth it.
