I discovered some good headphones...

[Zahari M.]

Hi Guys

With all the awesome help some of you guys have been giving me.... let me write you a short audio story in return....  seeing as I can't write anything useful about PHP as all you regular guys here are mega hero level and me is just a rank amateur...

But many of us do use headphones and I think I've found a real bargain gem!

I was asked to help a lady friend select a vacuum cleaner the other day here in Kuala Lumpur at a very large electronics and home appliances retail store. Whilst waiting for her to preselect her vacuum cleaner, I noticed that they had a lot of these mannequin heads just beside the laptops section.

As it turned out, they had about 20 heads there and each of them had a pair of headphones on them. I wasn't too excited as they all looked to be plugged in to the display table via a coiled cable.... usually they have crap music fed thru everything

A closer examination however revealed that many of these headphones that had leads attached to them were not actually connected to any device. They were coiled umbilical cords used to prevent what the Australians call a "Five Finger Discount" from happening...

I guess the idea here was that you BYOD, bring your own device.... presumably a tablet, a music source like an ipod or a mobile phone.

In my case... I had my trusty iPhone 4S that I bought a couple of years ago ready n handy with a few well recorded jazz albums that I am readily familiar with.

The headphones here ranged in price from about 20 USD for a budget set of Philiips headphones up to the most expensive pair there which were a set of higher end AKG's that would cost around 600 USD. Just slightly below the AKGs were a lot of mid-high end Sony Pro's.

And so.... since it was early in the morning, and there were not many people there, it was my good fortune that no sales people were "bugging me". I was left all to myself! Basically I got to listen to just about every bloody pair of headphones there! And then go back to the next pair. And then back again!!

I must have spent a good 45 minutes trying them all out! The results of these comparisons were quite interesting to me and I think I have found a cheap but extremely useful pair of headphones. I subsequently went online and ordered 3 pairs! One for my dad. One for me. One for my dads friend. They should arrive at my dads place in a few days. I will reveal more physical information when they arrive. Hopefully they will be identical to what was seen and heard in the shop!

Unfortunately my MBA is running out of batteries and so I will have to continue this story tomorrow.

Stay tuned!

Cheers guys

[Zahari M.]

[Zahari M.]

Sorry for the delay guys. Been so busy having a look at those new fangled page tables

Also.... wanted to shoot some pics and post them up here. Sorry for the somewhat bad quality! But it would draw the wrong attention if it looked like I was taking proper pictures. So these were done somewhat covertly...

The most expensive pair here were the AKG K551s. at 400 USD at todays exchange rate. These were nice headphones but a little bit bass shy. As they were the most expensive, they represented a starting point.

So my own priorities are as follows.... I wanted to find a pair of headphones for my dad. He uses an iPad and listens to quite a lot of things on YouTube. As the speaker on the ipad isn't the best, what I was looking for needed to meet these requirements....

1. Fits around the ears. Not on the ears. Not in the ears.

2. Is comfortable.

3. Not too heavy.

4. Not too tight fitting.

5. Not too loose fitting.

6. Sounds good.

7. is efficient. You can get good sound levels, drive, and bass when plugged into small mobile devices.

8. Doesn't have too stiff a cable.

8. Isn't too expensive.

So as I mentioned.... I listened to nearly all the headphones there!

In a past life, I used to be an audiophile audiofool. I learned many things in that lifetime. Amongst them were that most reviews cannot be relied on. Anyways... here are my impressions using non audiofool terms...

For a base line here, I am interested in things sounding natural and clear. Good fidelity and clarity is what I am looking for in a pair of headphones.

Meaning to say, if I put a friend in the same room with me and I recorded him saying A B C repeatedly,.... if he said A B C to me directly, and then I asked him to stop  talking and then put some headphones on to now listen to a recording of him just saying A B C, then what I am after is a minimal or better still no difference in sound quality.... i.e. When I hear A B C, it sounds identical if it were to come directly out of his mouth, or the headphones...

For those of you who are somewhat into audio, I used to use the original Quad Electrostatic loud speakers and they had this quality....

I mention this for a reason. The whole audio world today is fixated on extra bass... super powerful bass.. blah blah bass... and to me so many of them sound fcking awful.

Out of the 20 to 30 or so headphones there, only 5 of them actually sounded good. Most of them have serious resonances in them. What that means is that they sound very echoey... like you'd experience to listening to familiar sounds in a tunnel or the sound character experienced whilst your busy depressurizing over a porcelain bowl! Or they sound very muffled as thought there are lots of super thick sound absorbing towels placed between the headphone and your ears!

I would say that one of the best sounding headphones in that group was the Audio Technica ATH-M50 CWH. It sounded very "clear" with very clean and nicely weighted bass. It had a good balance to the sound. But it was not the most comfortable and being white... it's going to look grubby very quick! I think they sounded comparable and in some ways just as good as the AKG's mentioned earlier and they were 230 USD. Not bad considering that they are almost half the price of the AKG's!

What were a very nice sounding and very comfortable pair of headphones were the Audio Technica ATH-TAD500 headphones. These worked out at around 120 USD.

But the great news was that I found these headphones... the Audio Technica ATH-TAD300 headphones. They sound great, and meet all the criteria I set above. The fact that I got them home delivered to me in Malaysia by shopping online locally and paying 34 USD is simply amazing!!!

So guys.... there you go. The Audio Technica ATH-TAD300 headphones at 34 USD are an amazing bargain. Sure there are better headphones in every which area that you want to compare them at. But then... they wont be costing 34 bucks! If you loose them, then no worries..... get a new pair.

Hope that helps someone out there.

By the way... I was at the Sony shop after this... and their were many headphones there that feature super duper extra bass. Most don't sound that great. But there were one or two that had really weighty bass that also provided really great mid range clarity. Not something I commonly hear. So there are a few hidden gems in the current Sony lineup if some of you need that extra bass.

Cheers!

[Joss]

As a sound engineer I have been using Beyer DT100s for decades. 

I swear my head has changed shape to fit them better.

I have tried all kinds of alternatives, some hugely more expensive, but they all end up sounding artificial somehow.

I will probably be buried wearing them.

[ryan]

My brother has some Audio Technica ones and I like them. I haven't used them next to others, so don't have a good comparison, but I did find them very comfortable and with very nice sound. I personally use Grado SR-80s and Vmoda Crossfade LP. I'm mixed on the Grado headphones... they sound great, supposedly excellent, but I think for someone else's preferences. I love the sound of the Vmoda headphones though. They are heavy on the bass and soundstage for sure, but in a way that's real / you can feel, like you are in a movie theater... makes me forget I'm wearing headphones. Honestly though the best value I've seen for headphones is with these Panasonic earbuds. Both my wife and I use them to replace our mobile phone earbuds, and the incredible sound that comes out of those $8 earbuds is hard to believe.

[renobird]

@joss I had a set of those (they broke a few years ago) for working on demo stuff at home. They are great!

@ryan I had a set of the Grado SR-80s. I used them for a week or so and ended up returning them to amazon. They just weren't comfortable enough to wear all day.

I've had these KRK KNS8400s for a few years now, and I love them. They are super comfortable, and the response is super flat. If you want lots of bass, go for Beats by Dre or whatever... 

[ryan]

You are right the SR-80s really aren't comfortable for very long periods. Though they don't bother me too much. Mine are old enough that the foam surrounds have started to disintegrate (which is apparently normal) so I've got to order some new surrounds, or whatever they are called. The main reason I still use the Sr-80s is because they are open air and I can still hear when people need me (lots of interrupts when you've got little kids). Otherwise, I have a strong preference for the sound of the Vmoda headphones, but they really do isolate you from the rest of the world to the point where I'm no good to anyone else when I've got them on. I bought the Vmodas because Amazon had them on a $50 lightning deal last year (they are usually like $130), otherwise I wasn't in the market for them. 

I have tested out the Beats by Dre a couple of times just because they are always around in stores to try. Even on the $300 monsters, maybe they are comfortable, but the sound doesn't suit me (which is good, because I'd never spend that much). Maybe they've got bass, but it sounds and feels like plastic headphone bass rather than real bass, to my ears at least. These kinds of flavored cans (including Vmodas too) I suppose are more subjective to the individual than flat ones. 

[Zahari M.]

Hi Guys!

Didn't know you guys are appreciative of good sound n gear... awesome!

Gee... there are some brands you mention here that I have never even heard off!

Ryan - I tried on a pair of those Grado's a couple of occasions many years ago and my ears found them
physically very uncomfortable after a while. Actually I have actively avoided any headphones that sit on
ones ears as a result of that Grado "experience" and only go for ones that go around the ears. Perhaps my ear lobes
are more sensitive to external physical pressure then other people ears...?

Thanks for the tip on those Panasonic ear buds Ryan. Awesome! I shall seek them out! Your right. At 8
bucks they would seem to be an excellent bargain and would make for a great gift item too! There are
a few people who I can see myself giving them to if they sound good...

Just bought your Pro Cache module. It's taken me nearly a year to build my website... oh the shame of it!
Look forward to firing it up soon! And love the form builder module. I bought that maybe 5 months ago but never really
used it till last week when trying to set up a contact form. Option C and an hour later and I had myself an awesome
contact form. Great stuff Ryan!!

Renobird - Those headphones you linked to look very interesting. Never heard of em. Those are exactly the kind of headphones
and generally audio equipment I am interested in! I will try and seek them out although I don't think they are available here
in Malaysia.

Renobird & Joss - Quite some years ago, I bought some AKG's. These are the 501's. They have really been bashed about over the years
as I carry them in my back pack wherever I go on a daily basis. Usually to a cafe or coffee shop as I like to work
from these environments as opposed to home. A cup of good coffee a day is nice and with internet radio... aahhh!

When I bought them, they were not very popular as they don't have much apparent bass. But AKG promoted them at the time more as a
set of headphones for the classical music lover. They are very comfortable and they sound wonderful. Wonderful in that they are
very very transparent - unusually they do not achieve this transparency by a skewed high frequency response / artificial highs.
I would meet quite a few people with all sorts of high end - designerish headphones and these would always keep their own.
Sometimes the owners of these designer-ish headphones acknowledged that my 501's are perhaps better then theirs.

One thing about them is that they are somewhat hard to drive so some mobile devices just don't have enough voltage / current
output to make them work properly. And they aren't very energetic phones. But for human voice, baroque music,
chamber music, solo instruments, brass, woodwinds, acoustic guitar, harpsichord, interviews, training videos and background
listening.... they are awesome! At the time of purchase I also bought a spare set of ear pads.

Bad things? The only bad things about them were that the 501 labels that were stuck on where these "gold anodized AKG 501 labels" and
they very quickly fell off! Also the cable relief where the cable enters the headphone wasn't very durable. After a couple of
years it progressively broke up. After a couple more years the cable failed there. But it wasn't too hard to open it up and just
cut it, dress up the tips and resolder the cable back on.

For strain relief, this time I just tied a single knot on the cable and
stuffed it in the housing I did not change the cable, but I did notice that the copper in it was beginning to oxidise quite a
bit. I would like to replace it with a new cable that has similar physical properties but this is a lil hard to do here. I went to a
well known dedicated headphone shop but they are still audiofools there. Their concern is more how the cable "sounds".

All the replacement cable offerings they have are so stiff or some "young punks" shade of neon or coiled up to the buggery as a spring....

What I did admire about the first good pair of Beats Audio headphones that I saw was not the audio quality but rather it had a
female socket on it so that the headphone cable was instantly replaceable. I thought to myself one day I will modify my 501's
with a socket in it so that I can readily swap the cable if it fails...

A question... Maybe you guys can help me on this audio question.... maybe not! But I will still ask... ha ha!

I want to be able to do some short high quality video interviews using a combination of a simple video camera, but a good audio recorder
and a couple of good microphones.
 
So I want to look for some good audio gear to help me do this. And so I would like to buy myself an audio recorder.

Now... I am somewhat of a fish out of water / dinosaur. These days, everyone here (Malaysia) in the industry assumes recorder mean only two
things.... they push you towards a usb interface for your computer. Or you buy a Zoom H* type recorder! That's what the few pro audio shops
that we have here carry and do. All their customers are happy with this.

But I am not.

The reason is that I come from the days of 3 head analog tape machines. And whilst I bought one of those Zoom H2 recorders when it first came out,
I have over the passing of time come to absolutely hate their interfaces.

There is an elegant simplicity to the operating of an old tape recorder in that you had a play and record button.

If you wanted to record, you just moved the necessary PHYSICAL buttons and they looked and stayed "out of place" signalling you at
any time the exact mode your device is operating in! When you were recording, you knew you were. You never suffered a "non recording"!!

Screw all this deep software menus operational shit with cheap skate fragile micro miniaturised sliding switches is what I say!! I would like to
be able to operate this recorder WITHOUT needing my glasses on.
 

So my question would be, Joss and Renobird, do you or any of your mates have any suggestions on any good standalone digital recorder
that would suit my needs? One that was easy to operate, writes the recording to an external media card and has a couple of XLR mic inputs.

Just wondering....

Cheers guys!