General purchase advice: Ask your questions/for advice here!

Think of detail retrieval like the voice of a well trained singer. The really masterful singers (think Freddy Mercury, Whitney Houston) could hit, with perfect accuracy, like 6 or 7 notes in under a second. Now imagine different voices that can do that at different vocal ranges. One person excels at detail in the upper registers but has a kinda husky lower voice. Another has a chocolatey lower range that gets thin and strained up top. Others are superb everywhere.

Then you add dynamics. Some people like Freddy, Whitney, or Ariana Grande could BELT the upper notes without missing a thing. Or they could thin their voice and make it high but gentle. Others can sing super low but their voice goes quiet. Then there’s Barry White who BOOMED the low notes if we wanted.

Then there are dynamics. How well can a singer swap between gentle and powerful full notes?

Headphone transducers behave a lot like these voices. The more expensive units SUPPOSEDLY have performance across several of these areas. But you can always find gems in any price range that excel at at least one or two areas.

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Are you certain that the source doesn’t contain fart-like sounds? I mean, I do listen to Parliament, and Mothership Connection does contain some awesome bass fart sounds.

Seriously, “desktop subwoofer”? :phone: If you want bass and slam, you have to pay a little bit. Entry level for a modest subwoofer is $600-1200, anything less than that and it’s suitable for TV or YouTube, not music. And no, I’m not being snotty about price. You CAN make your own, but bass is produced by either designing a smaller driver to make large excursions, or using a larger driver to move more air. Neither one is cheap, it’s physics.

For entry subs, I think of things like
JL Audio Dominion d108 or d110
Focal Sub Air
Bowers & Wilkins ASW610
Martin Logan Dynamo 600X or 800X
Sonus faber Gravis 1

There are others, but I’ve heard most of those and they don’t sound muddy or farty. If I find I need a sub when I get speakers set up in my office, I’ll probably pick one of those, assuming that Magnepan doesn’t get its act together and get over some covid-related (they say) parts delays that prevent manufacturing the .7. If I get the Maggies, and I need more bass, it’ll be a panel, not a sub.

:phone: I apologize if this sounds harsh. I re-read it, and realize that it could be taken that way. When I wrote it, it was sort of in surprise, I know there are “desktop” speakers with little subs for under the desk. In fact, I had a Klipsch 2.1 system years ago for presentations I did for small groups at work. However I never thought of it for any real music. Part of the culture here is to try to be nice all the time. Again, abject apologies if the tone (pun intended) is off. Note added next day - @pennstac

When I did some side-by-side testing of my TH-X00’s between my phone, decent PC sound card and m9xx, I could barely tell the difference. Maybe that’s a symptom of how easy they are to drive / V shape, or the type of music I listen to and (most likely) my own ability. Which is fine, as I budget and plan around that.

My DX7 Pro arrived today. I picked it because I’ve read it is fairly transparent, drive almost any headphone, no noticeable distortion and was within my budget.

Only issue is that with high impedance output, so it’ll be interesting to find out if I can pick up the damping factor with my TH-X00’s, or anecdotal comments of power affecting planars.

The intention was to go out and buy some tube plugins, which I figured would give 80% of value for 20% of the cost of actually tube rolling. I liked this thread for different software tools that I’m keen to experiment with DSP, EQ and other Plug-Ins

Then after a few months of experimenting and understanding what I like / don’t like, I can then go buy more focused equipment with more confidence

If there’s alternative approaches that are cost effective, happy to hear about them

— Regarding the subwoofer comment, since as a new user I can’t post any more replies —

My setup is the Kanto Tuks + Sub 8. Budget at the time was <$1500

I didn’t have a balanced DAC/amp, so studio monitors were out.

I was also constrained by the height for speakers (they need to fit under my monitor), and I liked how the Kanto’s was an all-in-one package so that I couldn’t stuff it up. i.e. I just need to tweak the hresholds

After owning them for 6 months and my audio journey progressing, I’d obviously be doing a different set up now. Thanks for those entry sub links. I’ll save those for future reference.

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Looks like this is @Ricardo’s first post on here but it looks like he posted this on the wrong thread. I’ll quote his post here so that he can get more suggestions.

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Hi all, any suggestions for a “cheap” iem with a sound signature like Variations or Helios? I would like to try something similar before buying them.

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I see. It seems a bit complicated to have to audition to simply have a trial for a headphone that I want to try/buy. Can I just pay for it, and then if it does’nt work out,return it?
Thanks
Tom Jackson

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That’s what I try to do when purchasing - return policies encourage more experimentation.

You can do this Tom but you are always better off asking upfront if its from a shop. Online, places like Amazon have very good return policies

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What’s the simplest way to add a “quality” balance control to a speaker system?

I’m thinking of getting a power amp for my speakers, but I need a balance control. I don’t have a perfect speaker triangle and will not reorganize to make one. My vintage stereo receiver has a balance control, but power amps don’t.

I can use a headphone amp as a preamp, but don’t want another dedicated preamp. The cheaper ones are sketchy while the good ones are overkill. I’m thinking of inserting a volume control/attenuator between the preamp and power amp for just one channel. Good method? Any better options?

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Something that has come up regarding home auditions of headphones, IEM’s, is covid. Some dealers are leery of loaning out headphones and IEMS during these covid times.

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I would suggest two simple inline attenuators, one for each channel. These can even be small and located behind the amp for a “set and forget” type situation.

You can DIY them pretty cheaply, just pick up two decent pots.

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Something like this Headphone attenuation adapter | DIY-Audio-Heaven

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No, I was thinking more of an attenuation pot, allowing fine adjustment and not just a fixed level.

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Search repeatedly brings up this Nobsound premium model with an Alps27 pot.

I’d plan to use either the left or right side and leave the other open. With this setup only one side could be adjusted, but I know it’ll be the left channel.

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I was thinking just buy the Alps pot, without the box or anything. Maybe I have made too many guitar effect pedals :smiley:

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I’ve thought of that, but at $46 I’m not sure if one could buy the pot, the case, the connectors, and the knob for much less.

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Monitor1--behringer-monitor1-passive-stereo-monitor-and-volume-controller another $45 choice

Or just buy the pot and make your own Parts Express Speaker L-Pad Attenuator 100W Stereo 1" Shaft 8 Ohm

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How many dB are the channels levels off?

The Behringer has a lot of features for that price, and versus other items in the Big Knob pro-audio segment. I only wish it had 2xRCA instead of one 3.5mm TRS output. However, it has other uses too.

“A lot” – I have my receiver balance knob cranked to 3 o’clock (right). Unfortunately the right channel is both farther away and farther back. The sound isn’t bad at all after adjustment.

My friends… another question as I look for a solution to something specific.

What are the best (several options if possible as I know “best” is loaded) cans that will be at near full potential without any amplification whatsoever? In short, if you only had, let’s say, an iPhone and a set of headphones. . . what headphones would those be?

Also, no EQ allowed. The simplest quality setup you could muster with zero effort.

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