Awesome headphones

[Asus]

Bought some Grado SR60 headphones yesterday. The design is very simple but they sound so clear. And they bring out a lot of different sounds that I was not hearing before. Awesome pair for $70. Sound so much better than my Sennheiser PC150 headset (~$50), especially for music. Might get a clip mic and stop using the PC150 headset all together.


I've tried my brother's Sennheiser HD280 pro's ($100) and they sound good too but they are closed headphones. He uses them for when he records. Closed is good if you don't want to hear anything else but they make your ears hot and they seem to have a lot of resonance.

Thinking about getting a dedicated sound card with good DACs to get away from my onboard sound. Probably not Creative.

[El DeBarge]

I've had a pair of SR-60s for 3 years and loved them.  I recently decided to get a bit more into hi-fi, so I upgraded to a pair of Sennheiser HD 580s with a headphone amp, and I can't believe how much better the sound is.  Don't get me wrong--the 580 and headphone amp cost a heckuvalot more than the SR-60s, but they sound commensurately better.  For me, in both headphone cases, the overwhelmingly common application is music listening not gaming, though. 

Enjoy the SR-60s, they will treat you well!

[Asus]

I'm not sure but I think the headphone port on my Logitech Z2300 speakers has a headphone amp. Probably not any where close to a stand alone but it sounds better than from the back of my PC.

How much are the HD 580's?
/googles
OH yeah. ~ $300? Those better be good. hehe
What headphone amp do you have? Might get a good quality one and see if it helps these SR60s at all. Do you listen from your PC? What sound card do you own?

I've been eyeing some sound cards (Auzentech, bluegears, m-audio).

[Asus]

I tossed the M-Audio idea out the window. Their 5.1 sound card is missing a couple features even though it has good quality sound. Better quality than the 7.1 card. hehe
The good Auzentech cards are out of stock. The old is not in production anymore and the new one with the X-Fi chip is all bought out.

Decided to pick up this one. I'll see how it is although the reviews say it's excellent. The Asus Xonar D2 caught my eye because it also had good quality and had hardware acceleration in games with the OpenAL API (which is supported in Vista unlike EAX). But for twice the price...
Bye bye onboard.

The card supports ASIO too (skip the Windows mixer to hardware). Bit-tech had a thing on it last month.

[El DeBarge]

...
How much are the HD 580's?
/googles
OH yeah. ~ $300? Those better be good. hehe
What headphone amp do you have? Might get a good quality one and see if it helps these SR60s at all. Do you listen from your PC? What sound card do you own?
...

I got my HD 580 from a dude selling brand new ones on eBay for $180, shipped.  For the headphone amp, I have a Headroom Total Airhead ($110, shipped), with an iPod lineout between the iPod and the headamp.  My source is an 80 gig iPod Classic with most of my stuff ripped to Apple Lossless.  Like I said before, overwhelmingly the application is music listening rather than gaming, so I haven't optimized for the gaming headphone application.  The Total Airhead has a cousin called the Total Bithead that acts as a nice quality USB sound card.  It costs more than the Airhead and it jettisons the ability to use an A/C adaptor (both the Airhead and Bithead are portable, using 4 AAA batteries for that purpose) in favor of the USB soundcard feature. 

When I got my headamp, the first thing I did was a bunch of before-and-afters with my SR-60, since that's what my ears were used to.  It did help the sound, with a noticeably enhanced (better separation, not just plain louder) bass.  I also noticed a bit of a midrange clarity boost, as well.  It also lowered the the small bit of hiss/noise you get from jacking directly into the ipod.  Whether that would be worth the cost WRT to the SR-60 is a tough question.  I can say that I'm very pleased with my HD 580/Total Airhead headphone/headamp combo--way worth the cost to my ears. 

I've read that a very good sound card does a credible job at being a decent headamp--you might not need one if you are always jacked into the comp with your nice soundcard.  If you don't do weird sound editing, its entirely possible that the Headroom Total Bithead is a good thing to research for your needs. 

[Asus]

$180 is even better! Guess the places I looked at were out of date on price. I already ordered the sound card. Should be here Monday (newegg+fedex = speedy delivery). I think I'm going to search for feedback on the built-in headphone amp on my Z2300 speakers. See how they measure up other headphone amps.

Sounds like you got an awesome setup listening from your ipod.
<jealous

[El DeBarge]

If Xero has another shindig at his place at some point, here, I'll be sure to bring it buy so you can take it for a spin.  A bit of downside to both the SR-60 and the HD 580 is that they are quite open unsealed headphones.  You'll hear anyone around you as loudly as you will the music yer listening to.  So listening to either headphone in the main gaming pit while everyone is gaming, farting, belching, etc probably won't show off the capabilities of either one.