I absolutely love my BD 880s – great cans, and very comfy.
NEVER BUY ANYTHING AT GUITAR CENTER
They were having a sale!
They’re also absolutely only place in the area that carries high-end headphones that aren’t Grado, much less lets you listen to them with your own source.
Protip: Guitar Center will price match almost anything, and most GC prices are well above competition. So if you want something now you can usually avoid looking for a sale and just have them price match (I’ve done it just by browsing for a best price on my phone and showing the salesperson).
Where the sales are nice is when it’s on an item they carry at a reasonable price and you want the extra 10% off or whatever. I used a $100 off of $500 sale to get a desk at a much better price than I would have otherwise.
Now that I finally have a DAC/amp to hook up to my computer, I love the Beyerdynamics even more.
Dude, what DAC/amp did you buy?
iBasso D7. I can upsample shit to 24/192, BITCH.
And, uh, play all those master recordings that I have, or something.
ARISE
Until recently I had an old set of SteelSeries over-the-ear headphones that had an extendable mic – not sure about the model number, but they weren’t terribly expensive. I really liked them. I lent them to my kids and don’t really want to talk about what happened next. Long story short, I need new headphones.
It looks like the 5HV3 is the modern-day counterpart of what I used to have. Anyone have this set? Or want to talk me out of this and into something else? Should I be looking at a USB version over a regular 3.5mm audio jack? My budget is $50-$100ish. I’m all ears! LOL GET IT
Love my Astro A30s, FWIW. $99. Not USB, but your built-in sound hardware is likely much better than the DAC on USB headphones, even if you don’t have a sound card.
These are the best sounding headphones I’ve heard for under $100:
Grado SR80 - $99
Sennheiser PX-100II - around $70
Both of these have a nice balanced, clean, natural sound. Though there is ample bottom end, these are NOT for BASSHEADS.
And I recently got some cheapo Sony earbuds (MDR-EX37B/BLK) for jogging use and could not believe how good they sounded for $14.99 (on sale at BB, regularly $19.99).
Of course, if you want to spend a little more, these are heaven: http://www.amazon.com/Sennheiser-Headphones-Burl-Wood-Accents/dp/B0042A8CW2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1388630961&sr=8-1&keywords=sennheiser+hd+598
Ha! I have those same earbuds! They are amazing for the price. And thanks for the recommendations.
Bonus question: I get some kind of buzzing line noise out of the headphone jacks on my PC and have never been able to resolve it. Would a USB DAC solve this problem? Are there even any cheap decent ones?
Yes, it probably would. I recommend this model. Detailed review here. The 222 is identical to the 202, except it’s red and comes with more software. Same price.
Thanks. After some more research I am actually thinking about going with something like Creative’s external sound card. Obviously it’s consumer grade, but I’m no audiophile so that’s fine with me. I’m just looking for buzz-free output, and this has some nice additional bells and whistles like positional audio and a big volume wheel. I’ll be gaming on it, not listening to Chopin. Anyone want to talk me out of it?
p.s. What is the difference between a sound card and a DAC anyway? Obviously a sound card has to have a DAC in it, right? Is it obvious yet that I don’t know anything about audio?
The Behringer one is $20 cheaper and also has a (small) volume wheel on it.
The creative device doesn’t work on OSX, so it must have proprietary drivers. I would get the model I recommended, but I’m sure the creative one is fine too, particularly if you need the remote.
If we can go back to headphones for a moment, anyone have recommendations for a decent set of Bluetooth? Earbuds might be preferable, but not required. Decent (stereo) sound is required. Thinking they might be nice for iPad/Vita and possibly NVidia Shield usage without bothering those nearby.
I have that, too, and it works like a charm. Makes any headphones into a speakerphone as well.
for prolix: DAC is 1/2 of a sound card…it converts digital to analog only. You can think of it as the sound output side of the sound card.
Some differences between Stusser’s Behringer and the Creative 5.1 Pro are: the Behringer handles stereo only, while that Creative can do 5.1 output by optical (to a home theatre receiver). The remote control that comes with the Creative is not really general purpose…it can control Windows Media Player only, IIRC, plus volume. Finally, the Creative can process 96kbps, if you are into HD audio. Probably doesn’t matter if you are plugging headphones into it.