Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with audiophile

"Seasoning" headphones?

rwhe — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:17:39 -0800

Is the practice of "seasoning" headphones just supersition? In the Amazon reviews for a pair of earbuds I'm buying, I came across the claim that they sounded awful unless they were "seasoned" first by hooking them up to a constant audio source with a wide frequency range overnight or even for a few days. I googled "seasoning headphones" and came across this claim for some other headphones and earbuds, although it's not widespread.

To me this sounds like either (1) rank audiophile supersition, or (2) someone pulling the reader's leg. That's why I'm coming to AskMeFi. Opinions, please. Better, facts.

Cheers!

How to place a good speaker in a bad corner?

aladfar — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 15:28:20 -0800

How to place a good speaker in a corner? After investing in some decent audio gear, I find that I cannot avoid placing the left speaker in a corner due to space constraints. As expected, this emphasizes low the frequencies on that side and makes the sound stage a bit wonky. Short of moving the speaker, is there any way to mitigate this somewhat?

Save me from the audio snake oil salesmen.

jlowen — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 14:46:07 -0800

I am a budget headphone audiophile with $250 to buy myself a toy. I do not want upgrade my amp or source at this point, would the AKG 701 headphones be a wasted investment? My current setup is an iTunes library full of lossless audio feeding a Headroom total bithead (amp/dac combo) and a pair of Grado Sr-80's headphones. I am attracted to headphones because they provide a much more affordable and accesible audiophile listening environment than speaker setups. Now that the Akg 701 headphones are dropping in price to less than $250, I am very tempted to snag a pair.

I've read alot of reviews and am becoming very tired and distrustful of the sonic snake-oil that seems to be passing for advice in audiophile message boards. Many in the community claim that you need thousands of dollars worth of amps and cable upgrades to create a quality listening environment. I have never seen a decent review of any audiophile grade product that took into account the law of diminishing returns or any measure of restraint.

The fact is that I am never going to upgrade my source past lossless digital audio files and I would very much not like to buy another headphone amp or DAC. Given that would it be a foolish waste of money to buy the Akg 701's? Would I notice any improvement over the Grado cans I already own?

Looking for a Nice, Relatively Inexpensive Turntable+PreAmp

robdon — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 12:12:21 -0800

VinylFilter: Looking for a quality Turntable and PreAmp to fill the needs of a poor audiophile ($500-650 Budget) I've been easing into the world of audiophilia for quite a while now; I've spent my time combing through countless issues of Stereophile, practically live on the Head-Fi forums, and have replaced all of my digital music library with tasty, tasty FLAC. However, after living next to someone with a turntable, and hearing the warm, buttery sound emanating from his turntable rig, I want one. I plan on listening mostly through a pair of DT770 Pro Headphones [80 Ω] (and to a lesser extent a pair of Grados) but will likely purchase a proper Power Amplifier and set of monitors at some point in the future. Just looking for something that will last me awhile and make the vinyl I've had my eye on sound fantastic through my cans.

I've heard fantastic things about the Rega P3, but I feel it might be a touch pricey when you factor in a preamp...

500-650$ Total Budget

I'm getting jittery. And so are my high-res MP3s.

saulgoodman — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 14:06:42 -0800

Why are some of the high resolution MP3s I've encoded recently (at 320 kbps) still turning out with traces of faint, but audible jitter? As I understand it, MP3s encoded at such a high bit-rate really shouldn't turn out with any audible jitter, and most other MP3s I've heard encoded at that bit rate are noticeably cleaner. It might be relevant that I've been using a very old version of WaveLab to encode my MP3s. I've been using fixed rather than variable bit rate encoding methods to minimize the lossiness of the compression. I'm wondering if there have been any significant improvements to the core MP3 compression algorithms over the last few years that I might not be up-to-date with?

The current machine I use for recording and mastering audio hasn't been on-line in close to five years so I've missed a lot of software updates, although I did install an upgrade to XP (I think SP2) a while back. Could it be that my audio codecs are old and inferior? Or does that even factor into it? (I'm a pretty technically-oriented guy, but some of this is a little outside my domain.)

I don't find the issue with my source wave files, so I don't think it's a problem with the wave files prior to encoding, although it's possible I haven't been using the best dithering methods when I mix down from 24 bit to 16 bit (normally I mix down and master in 24 bit, but for these mixes, I've been mixing down straight to 16-bit).

Anyway, what are some other possibilities I might explore to improve the fidelity of my high resolution MP3s?

Is running in hi-fi a load of nonsense?

humblepigeon — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 10:01:17 -0800

Is running-in of hi-fi equipment nonsense? What have been your genuine experiences pre/post run-in? I can just about understand running in speakers because they have moving parts, but I can't understand running-in solid state stuff like amplifiers or CD players.

Bi-amping: How to using cheap t-amps?

humblepigeon — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 10:16:32 -0800

Bi-amping two cheap Sonic Impact T-amps — is it worth it? I've got two of the notorious Sonic Impact T-amp amplifiers on order. I'm not into audiophilia at all (which is why I'm asking this question here rather than on an audiophile forum). But I really want a clean and distinct sound, and my current amp isn't providing it. I listen to mostly classical and am mostly penniless.

I have Wharfedale Diamond 9.1 speakers, that have bi-wire connections on the back, and my plan is to simply use two line outputs from my CD player for each amp. Wiring from amp then goes to either the low or high posts of the speakers (amp 1 = high inputs, amp 2 = low inputs).

I don't intend to use a preamp because they're too expensive. I'll just adjust the volume of each amp in unison.

Will this work? Is it wise?

Does anyone know of an audiophile/hi-fi club in the St. Louis area?

Bengston — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 22:31:07 -0800

Does anyone know of an audiophile/hi-fi club in the St. Louis area? I have recently become interested in DIY Hi-Fi and being a college student with little electronics experience I am looking for a way to get myself better acquainted with everything before I start to spend too much money. The internet has been a great resource, but having some real people around me who know what they are doing and would be willing to provide me with some direction would be very helpful.

Turntable owners vs. Audiophiles

njm — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 18:12:47 -0800

I received a new turntable for Christmas. I’m having a hard time following the owner’s manual and on-line resources that explain how to achieve the best possible sound quality. If my LPs play fine, to my ears anyway, how important is it to perfectly adjust the cartridge, tracking force, azimuth, etc.? Besides offending obsessive audiophiles, do I run the risk of damaging the records or turntable? I spent a lot of time making the recommended adjustments yesterday, but it’s far from perfect. Although I have a big record collection, I never went overboard with the upkeep described in the links reference above. Is there any reason to start now?

Do I need a special power cord for my hi-fi system?

zembla3 — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 09:15:33 -0800

Does it make sense to use a special power cord for hi-fi equipment? I'm a novice hi-fi enthusiast, and I've read that you should replace the stock power cords that come with your audio equipment, using designated hi-fi power cords (like those made by AudioQuest or Cardas) instead. But I'm wondering if laying out all that money will actually make an appreciable difference in sound quality to someone who isn't an audio engineer. My hi-fi system consists of a Cambridge Audio receiver & CD player and Hsu Research's Ventriloquist 6.1 speakers and subwoofer. My speaker cables & interconnects are AudioQuest.

Is headphone "burn-in" real?

Prospero — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 07:30:37 -0800

Is there any evidence to support the idea that headphones need to be "burned in" to sound better? A couple of months ago I purchased a pair of audiophile headphones (Audio-Technica ATH-A900s, for what it's worth). They are the first expensive pair of headphones that I've owned, and so I was amazed by how well they sounded right out of the box, compared to the $50 Sony headphones that I was used to.

Strangely enough, though, last night I was listening to the Audio Technicas and thought, "You know, these things sound really good. Even better than usual." Now, one fashionable audiophile explanation for this would be that after a good deal of use the headphones have been "burned in"--that some amount of time of use ranging between twenty and several hundred hours is necessary to allow headphones to reach their full potential. However, that sounds like it may possibly be audiophile voodoo to me, like the idea that coloring the outer edge of a CD with a green magic marker will increase fidelity. It seems equally plausible to me that after many hours of use my ears have "learned" to listen to the headphones, and that I've gotten better withe practice at interpreting the message that the headphone's speakers are communicating (if that makes sense).

So is there any evidence to support either of these hypotheses?

Best HiFi Magazine?

Mean Mr. Bucket — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 18:37:16 -0800

What are the best hi fi magazine(s) for someone like me? I love music, but I'm somewhat a speaker/hifi novice. I don't want to build my own speakers, I'd just like to be competent to purchase a decent pair at my local audio store. Paradigm? Monitor? etc.

portable digital audio(phile)

andrew cooke — Sat, 08 Apr 2006 07:57:24 -0800

best solution for portable quality audio? my priorities are:

few things/low weight
excellent sound quality
low price

and this will usually be used while travelling with an ibm x31 laptop.

i'm thinking of a pair of grado sr60 headphones (not that expensive, fold flat, reasonably efficient), and i assume i'd use lossless encoding (probably flac), but i'm not sure what to do about a source. given that i'd rather avoid a separate headphone amp with the mp3 player, am i unlikely to hear any difference between different players and the laptop? if i go with the laptop is there any way to have the thing play music while closed in a bag and consuming as little power as possible (i can install xp, solaris, or linux)? without a player i guess i wouldn't mind carrying around a small headphone amp to use when near a mains suply - but what about power (this will be used in 220V and 120V environments)?

capacity is not a big issue - half a dozen cds is fine - and i'm aiming for (but don't expect to reach) the quality of low-end audiopphile stuff (for example, currently have an arcam solo with b&w speakers and nice (but big) sennheiser 'phones at home).

this as much for use in hotels and distant offices as for actual travelling; i don't listen at high volumes and haven't had complaints about using open-backed phones in the past.