I'm currently just using some JBL E-45BT's.
Not from what i can see, 712's seem to sell used for around £130-£150, around the same as x2. Much prefer the look of the x2's. I don't need the best of the best, will the X2's get the job done? Or are they just really that bad?
Can't find actual frequency response charts for those JBLs, but they're fashion model so likely have strong bass.
No Fidelios in this site, but this comparison shows well bass differences of cans I have:
http://graphs.headphone.com/index.p...e=30&graphType=0&buttonSelection=Update+Graph
Didn't check prices of used stuff, just that rainforest place has new K712 at £167.
For ease of driving it's weaker output mobile devices which could certainly have some problems.
But standard integrated Realtek drives 250 ohm Beyers past hearing safe volume.
(that test with ALC892 equipped basic mobo was actually my first time of using integrated sound card and expectation bias of bad sound/interference got trounced)
AKGs are roughly same, needing less voltage because of lower impedance, but drawing higher current for similar electric power per dB.
Anyway Xperia Z3 Compact drives both well.
You just couldn't get to badly hearing dangerous SPLs.
If you want I could check tomorrow how that ALC892 drives K712.
It's high dynamic range recordings/signal with low average signal level with lot higher moments/transients that could cause problems.
Games just avoid that:
I mean it would be annoying if with gunshots/explosions at comfortable level you wouldn't hear much anything else, while adjusted for other sounds explosions/gunfire would make your ears ring.
I certainly prefer "unrealistic" compressed dynamics for more balanced sound...
Because of very low impedance Fidelios don't need much voltage, so they would work well with that single AA(A) battery operating device.
Impedance seems to have 30% bump at resonant frequency of driver:
https://www.innerfidelity.com/images/PhilipsFidelioX2.pdf
So they would prefer minimal output impedance to avoid boosting bass, just like for keeping electric damping factor good.
Damping factor is measure of how tightly driver can be controlled by signal (source) with low damping damping factor meaning driver might not follow signal that accurately.
In that low impedance cans are actually more demanding than higher impedance cans.
Not to mention high sensitity low impedance cans being lot better for hearing most background noise/interference of integrated sound card.
and if i want to improve sound quality i can add an AMP or DAC later down the line but don't want to have to buy one straight off the bat.
For gaming/movies "DACs" don't have anything over sound cards with more functionality... Including built in D/A converter alias DAC:
Because neither headphones or your ears would understand ones and zeroes aka voltage on/voltage off.
And if game has good sound engine, binaural simulation with good headphones gives very nice feel of distances.
Settings aren't best, but first minute of this should give good sense of different distances of gun shots besides direction:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1_20T8x_OI
It's not that Beyer/Fidelio level is bad, but AKG simply shines in that binaural sound stage size and distance separation.
While with bad closed headphones immersion is around "head in bucket under water" level...
Though again standard stereo speaker mix makes even best headphones give "sound inside one ear/sound in center of head" immersion.
Headphones simply can't create spatial cues needed by brain for "3D sound", while bad cans can't reproduce those cues of binaural sound.
