Cans for £100?

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Here's a few :
  • Audio Technica AD700
  • Grado sr80i
  • Sennheiser hd595

Can't really say much about them personally, never heard any but they're regarded as some of the best ~£100 cans :):cool:
 
Soldato
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If you want open Goldring DR150.

If you want closed Goldring NS1000 (and if you want to use them with noise cancelling off a FiiO e5 amp). All the headphones Tr Insanity mentioned are very good headphones; however, they currently overpriced in the UK. Additionally the angled drivers on the ATH-AD700 and HD595 make them less suited to the Xonar's Dolby Headphone mode than the Goldrings I mentioned.
 
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Uriel is bang on the money there. TBH I wouldn't want to use the Grado's for gaming, although they are superb for music. Goldring's would be a much better match with a Xonar. I use some DR150's with a Xonar Essence, which also uses Dolby Headphone, same as the DX, and it's a superb combination. The HD595's are likely to be superior for music, but for gaming, as Uriel said, they are not the best pairing with Dolby Headphone. Sure, they will work, just like the Goldring's will work fine with a Creative X-Fi, but the way the phones are designed, makes the Goldring's more compatible with Dolby Headphone, found on Xonar's, and the HD555/595's are more compatible with CMSS 3D found on X-Fi's.
 
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Victor SU-DH1. It's a dedicated semi-portable (I say semi because battery life is depressingly short) headphone amp / Dac / Dolby Headphone receiver. It has DH1, DH2 and DH3 like the Xonar series. Will take analogue pro-logic, or optical in for stereo PCM (up to 24 bit / 96 khz), Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS 5.1.

As a headphone amp, it actually drives the Goldring in NS1000s very well - considerably better than the FiiO e5. I A/Bed it against a Xonar D2 for Dolby Headphone use and it was very close. The Xonar was very slightly cleaner but otherwise the SU-DH1 came fairly close to matching it as a source. It played a big part in my decision to switch from the Xonar to an X-Fi Prelude.

I would recommend it for music, movies and single player gaming. For competitive multiplayer I would hesitate though. There is a very slight delay when using the unit - so although the directional aspect is great - it might cost you a fraction of a second reaction time.

JVC also do an SU-DH1 but it only takes batteries. The Japanese Victor unit will take a 500mA 3v mains adaptor.

I got mine imported for about £70.

For competitive gaming I will sometimes switch to CMSS-3D Headphone on my X-Fi, as there's no delay. The Astro Mixamp reputably has a newer DH chip and apparrently doesn't suffer from the delay like the SU-DH1. It only has DH2 though.

Edit: By the way - the only grados I've tried with Dolby Headphone are the bottom of the range iGrados. They didn't quite have the bass control to pull it off. However, the sound signature suggested to me that it would work well if it was better controlled and more detailed. Maybe higher end grados would work well? I'd hate to use them for plain stereo gaming though.
 
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Cheers for that, was looking at something for the bed room pc which has a generic sound card, cba to spend £70 on it though as I dont use it often enough, E5 will prob do!

I'm loving the xonar, still awaiting my goldrings to compare DH via my current cans....

My bro was looking at the astro mix amp at £99 its not bad but he couldnt find out anywhere if you could connect it to his xbox 360 to make that sound better with dolby headphone & also use voice.
 
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Good points made Uriel & Marsman, the headphones I posted are much more music orientated.

I think I may pick up a set of NS1000s and see what they're like compared to my HD555s for gaming (360 only though & no mixamp etc) & music. Could do with some closed cans too :p
 
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Good points made Uriel & Marsman, the headphones I posted are much more music orientated.

I think I may pick up a set of NS1000s and see what they're like compared to my HD555s for gaming (360 only though & no mixamp etc) & music. Could do with some closed cans too :p

Without Dolby Headphone, I think you may end up preferring the HD555's soundstage presentation for gaming.
 
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Without Dolby Headphone, I think you may end up preferring the HD555's soundstage presentation for gaming.

Possibly but the HD555s seem a little odd. I can tell which general direction things are happening but not so much the distance or whether they are behind or in front. That may be because of the angled drivers though. Oh i've done the "foam removal" mod too :p

I also drive them with no amp, just straight from the RCA outputs, is it worth getting a cheap amp for them? I think they're the low ohm version. :)

Thanks :D
 
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I can tell which general direction things are happening but not so much the distance or whether they are behind or in front.

That's because you're listening in stereo with no surround virtualisation. Your headphones can only present the info they're given. With stuff recorded IRL you may hear other directional cues, depending on how it was recorded, engineered and mastered

For computer games it's simulated. There is no rear or front info unless something creates it. Most games have pure left and right volume panning. The ones that do better are few and far between.
 
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That's because you're listening in stereo with no surround virtualisation. Your headphones can only present the info they're given. With stuff recorded IRL you may hear other directional cues, depending on how it was recorded, engineered and mastered

For computer games it's simulated. There is no rear or front info unless something creates it. Most games have pure left and right volume panning. The ones that do better are few and far between.

:( I guess I was asking for too much then :p
 

C64

C64

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shopping list

Goldring ns1000 £50 delivered
FiiO E5 amp £14.49 delivered
3.5mm Stereo Jack to Socket Headphone Extension GOLD £1-£2, I got a 1m extension but wish I'd got 2m + now so bare that in mind, the ns1000 lead is 1m long only !

wont regret it at all I can pm /email you where i got my e5 last month for that price so you know it's legit and not some broken thing or fake if you want.
can use the e5 amp for mp3 player as well = bonus.

Don't know why or how but the ns1000 sound amazing through an e5 amp it's like they were made for each other.
 
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I was just looking at an E5 to buy, think it was about £12 off an aution site if you have another link please PM me C64 :)

My dr50's will be here monday i will also use these to hook up to listen to the TV which could use the e5's help. would the xonar d1 benefit also from the e5 connected to dr50s?
 
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Bought the Goldring NS1000 for 47.99, hopefully better then these sony mdr-xb300's i have here!

What diff will i see from non amp to amped using the dx card? is it just how loud they go?
 
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