@shenanagins1091 wrote:
You can’t tell me that’s not the sexiest piece of equipment you’ve ever seen?
Yup…Great lookin’ boat anchor…:smileyvery-happy:
Use that thing as a boat anchor, it’ll just get red rings in a month or two anyway.
It adds more “fullness” to the sound, gives you the option to use more power-hungry headphones(of all sizes…there are small power-hungry ones too) to their capability, can actually conserve your sansa’s battery life if you listen loud. Your player is much less likely to experience clipping from pushing itself too hard. With small, bargain 'phones like you’ve mentioned using, amps aren’t usually necessary. But I know of a couple people with $1,100 custom-mold IEM’s that use them with amps, too.
@marvin_martian wrote:
It adds more “fullness” to the sound, gives you the option to use more power-hungry headphones(of all sizes…there are small power-hungry ones too) to their capability, can actually conserve your sansa’s battery life if you listen loud. Your player is much less likely to experience clipping from pushing itself too hard. With small, bargain 'phones like you’ve mentioned using, amps aren’t usually necessary. But I know of a couple people with $1,100 custom-mold IEM’s that use them with amps, too.
That’s interesting. If the expensive head phones are so much better, why do they need an amp and not the cheap ones?
Ahh Sony, why???
@shenanagins1091 wrote:
I’m telling you how I’d rather spend $400 since, and if you have a problem with that, tough luck. It’s cool though, more PS3s sell than $400 headphones. Too bad Sony MP3 players aren’t as good. The Walkman used to be the best thing on the block. I’m not sure what boat you’re going to anchor with a gaming console, maybe a toy raft
Message Edited by shenanagins1091 on 03-13-2009 05:44 PM
Actually, the Sony MP3 players these days are pretty good, asided from not having memory expansion. They are losing millions of dollars on the PS3, however, because of enormous development costs.
@shenanagins1091 wrote:
@marvin_martian wrote:
It adds more “fullness” to the sound, gives you the option to use more power-hungry headphones(of all sizes…there are small power-hungry ones too) to their capability, can actually conserve your sansa’s battery life if you listen loud. Your player is much less likely to experience clipping from pushing itself too hard. With small, bargain 'phones like you’ve mentioned using, amps aren’t usually necessary. But I know of a couple people with $1,100 custom-mold IEM’s that use them with amps, too.
That’s interesting. If the expensive head phones are so much better, why do they need an amp and not the cheap ones?
Because they’re putting out so much more goodness:stuck_out_tongue:
The Xbox 360 is sold at a loss too, the Wii probably is as well. I just hate how the Sony MP3 players look, I like the Sansa UI better.
I like my mp3 players to look more like an mp3 player and less like a cell phone, for the record. All good mp3 players sound good, it depends on what headphones you use. Most people can’t tell the difference and just could care less.
@marvin_martian wrote:
@shenanagins1091 wrote:
Ahh Sony, why???
I hear they sound way better than iPods:wink:
That’s not saying much.
@shenanagins1091 wrote:
@marvin_martian wrote:
It adds more “fullness” to the sound, gives you the option to use more power-hungry headphones(of all sizes…there are small power-hungry ones too) to their capability, can actually conserve your sansa’s battery life if you listen loud. Your player is much less likely to experience clipping from pushing itself too hard. With small, bargain 'phones like you’ve mentioned using, amps aren’t usually necessary. But I know of a couple people with $1,100 custom-mold IEM’s that use them with amps, too.
That’s interesting. If the expensive head phones are so much better, why do they need an amp and not the cheap ones?
The expensive headphones are less efficient than the little IEMs, so an outboard amplifier is needed to drive the 32 ohm or higher big phones. A headphone amplifier has a higher available voltage to drive the bigger speakers more efficiently. This also equates to longer run time for the Fuze, as it “thinks” it’s driving a wee set of earbuds.
Open air phones like the HD series Sennheisers or the Grados need a bit more push. As you can see, the little FiiO is teeny. There are bigger amps out there, like the Portable Devices machine, or the ones pictured above. Lots of choices.
I listened to the Stax electrostatics for many years, loving the open sound, and not disturbing the household late at night. The high voltage power supply and cables were impressive. And I could trade them for a decent car. In my youth, the expense was a secondary consideration.
Today, with my daughters running about, they get priority, but Daddy can be quite happy with a Sansa and a few goodies!
Bob :smileyvery-happy:
@neutron_bob wrote:
@shenanagins1091 wrote:
@marvin_martian wrote:
It adds more “fullness” to the sound, gives you the option to use more power-hungry headphones(of all sizes…there are small power-hungry ones too) to their capability, can actually conserve your sansa’s battery life if you listen loud. Your player is much less likely to experience clipping from pushing itself too hard. With small, bargain 'phones like you’ve mentioned using, amps aren’t usually necessary. But I know of a couple people with $1,100 custom-mold IEM’s that use them with amps, too.
That’s interesting. If the expensive head phones are so much better, why do they need an amp and not the cheap ones?
The expensive headphones are less efficient than the little IEMs, so an outboard amplifier is needed to drive the 32 ohm or higher big phones. A headphone amplifier has a higher available voltage to drive the bigger speakers more efficiently. This also equates to longer run time for the Fuze, as it “thinks” it’s driving a wee set of earbuds.
Open air phones like the HD series Sennheisers or the Grados need a bit more push. As you can see, the little FiiO is teeny. There are bigger amps out there, like the Portable Devices machine, or the ones pictured above. Lots of choices.
I listened to the Stax electrostatics for many years, loving the open sound, and not disturbing the household late at night. The high voltage power supply and cables were impressive. And I could trade them for a decent car. In my youth, the expense was a secondary consideration.
Today, with my daughters running about, they get priority, but Daddy can be quite happy with a Sansa and a few goodies!
Bob :smileyvery-happy:
I’ve only read about the Stax electrostatics…what is so different? (in layman’s terms please)
I had these monsters. They were quite nice, very open sounding. Instead of a magnetic driver, they use a pair of mesh grids with a mylar diaphragm between them. A high voltage is applied to the flimsy sheet of mylar. As the electrical charge is equal across the “plate”, it stands rigid, supended between the grids.
Now, if the audio signal is stepped up and is used to modulate this high voltage, the plate moves back and forth to equal the change in potential. A regular speaker uses a floating coil and a surrounding magnet to modulate the cone back and forth. With an electrostatic driver, you have a plate of ridiculously low mass that responds to, in effect, Coulomb’s Law.
When I had the Stax, I would also listen daily to Soundlab A-3s, so the headphone simply had to be up to par with…Frankenstein’s Monster:
These are the A3s. They move a huge volume of air, and sounded wonderful. But they could be traded for a Porsche.
Children have tempered my youthful tastes. I have a set of Infinity RSII monitors waiting for new speaker surrounds, and 1600W of amplifier to drive those inefficient 2-ohm beasts. Someday soon.
Bob 
@neutron_bob wrote:
I had these monsters. They were quite nice, very open sounding. Instead of a magnetic driver, they use a pair of mesh grids with a mylar diaphragm between them. A high voltage is applied to the flimsy sheet of mylar. As the electrical charge is equal across the “plate”, it stands rigid, supended between the grids.
Now, if the audio signal is stepped up and is used to modulate this high voltage, the plate moves back and forth to equal the change in potential. A regular speaker uses a floating coil and a surrounding magnet to modulate the cone back and forth. With an electrostatic driver, you have a plate of ridiculously low mass that responds to, in effect, Coulomb’s Law.
When I had the Stax, I would also listen daily to Soundlab A-3s, so the headphone simply had to be up to par with…Frankenstein’s Monster:
These are the A3s. They move a huge volume of air, and sounded wonderful. But they could be traded for a Porsche.
Children have tempered my youthful tastes. I have a set of Infinity RSII monitors waiting for new speaker surrounds, and 1600W of amplifier to drive those inefficient 2-ohm beasts. Someday soon.
Bob
I’ve got nothing to say but wow!!
@marvin_martian wrote:
@shenanagins1091 wrote:
it still amazes me how people have that much music, especially if they legally purchased it.
Some of us have been around for a while and bought a lot of CD’s, and not everyone rips at 128kbps mp3, or 64kbps wma.
Shenanagains1091: I have 103,000 Songs. Translate that to about 10,000 Legally aquired CD’s or Digital Downloaded albums. And thats only a part of what I hope to accumulate. There are probably 3-4 THOUSAND albums on my List that I want (Most are rare, out of print, or imports).
@marvin_martian wrote:
@shenanagins1091 wrote:
@marvin_martian wrote:
It adds more “fullness” to the sound, gives you the option to use more power-hungry headphones(of all sizes…there are small power-hungry ones too) to their capability, can actually conserve your sansa’s battery life if you listen loud. Your player is much less likely to experience clipping from pushing itself too hard. With small, bargain 'phones like you’ve mentioned using, amps aren’t usually necessary. But I know of a couple people with $1,100 custom-mold IEM’s that use them with amps, too.
That’s interesting. If the expensive head phones are so much better, why do they need an amp and not the cheap ones?
Because they’re putting out so much more goodness:stuck_out_tongue:
They Dont NEED an AMP. Mine sure as heck dont! BUT if I wanted them to play louder then I would add an Amp. Marvin likes what they do for his player. Me I dont.
Shenanagains you have refered alot to my $400 IEMs tonight on here. I think you need to know who I am in order to understand why I NEED $400 phones. I have been a working profesional musician for the past 8 years, I started drumming at age 4. I dont hear as well as I should because of 17 years of exposure to unsafe audio levels. This is remedied by my use of IEM phones. The Shures are pretty close to the TOP of the line in performance use IEMs. When I bought the SCL-5 I was playing alot of live shows in venues where regualr monitors were not available, so I was using my fuze as a monitor. I needed the sound. When I retired the fuze from that job for a self contained monitor system, the Shures retired with it and became regular headphones that get used on stage on occasion. When I took a job that required me to listen to hours of music uninturupted music, even durring meetings and formal gatherings, th shures which ar clear and almost invisible when in my ears were the logical choice. So If you feel that in my case $400 is too much to spend on the only product on the market that meets my needs thats fine but I dont care to hear about it. BTW, the PS3 sells about equally to the Shure SCL-5.
@conversionbox wrote:
@marvin_martian wrote:
That’s interesting. If the expensive head phones are so much better, why do they need an amp and not the cheap ones?
Because they’re putting out so much more goodness:stuck_out_tongue:
They Dont NEED an AMP. Mine sure as heck dont! BUT if I wanted them to play louder then I would add an Amp. Marvin likes what they do for his player. Me I dont.
My new Panasonic headphones are really efficient, and don’t need the amp, it seems. But my Koss and Sennheisers do benefit from the amping…not just for volume, but a fuller sound at the same volumes.
@conversionbox wrote:
Shenanagains you have refered alot to my $400 IEMs tonight on here. I think you need to know who I am in order to understand why I NEED $400 phones. I have been a working profesional musician for the past 8 years, I started drumming at age 4. I dont hear as well as I should because of 17 years of exposure to unsafe audio levels. This is remedied by my use of IEM phones. The Shures are pretty close to the TOP of the line in performance use IEMs. When I bought the SCL-5 I was playing alot of live shows in venues where regualr monitors were not available, so I was using my fuze as a monitor. I needed the sound. When I retired the fuze from that job for a self contained monitor system, the Shures retired with it and became regular headphones that get used on stage on occasion. When I took a job that required me to listen to hours of music uninturupted music, even durring meetings and formal gatherings, th shures which ar clear and almost invisible when in my ears were the logical choice. So If you feel that in my case $400 is too much to spend on the only product on the market that meets my needs thats fine but I dont care to hear about it. BTW, the PS3 sells about equally to the Shure SCL-5.
Still seems kind of odd that a system that plays Blu Ray movies and games, has built in blue tooth and WiFi, has media server capabilities, built in web browser, a fantastic processor, among other things can cost as much…as…well, headphones. I was just throwing a number out there, it wasn’t referring to anything particular.
