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Showing 1 of 1509 conversations about:
Massdrop x Sennheiser HD 58X Jubilee Headphones
Odus
45
Feb 20, 2019
Had mine arrive today, and while I'm still a bit jaded about the shipping (if I waited 1-2 minutes, it would have shipped the day I ordered it, rather than ~4-5 days later), but eh, they're here.
The quality is great, and I'm incredibly pleased that I bought them. I actually didn't notice a difference at first. I'm not an audiophile at all, I have a meh pair of speakers/sub that I've used for 10+ years, they were $40 on sale from Newegg and you can't find the brand anywhere - if that helps give you an idea of how I've treated my audio quality over the years. I usually just assumed they were bad, but I didn't realize how bad they were until I turned the volume up on the Sennheisers - that's where I really noticed a difference.
I can very clearly hear the lyrics from nearly any song. I sort of assumed it was a stylistic choice to make some words a bit mumbly? Not sure, and it's hard to fully explain what the difference is, but I'm very much enjoying my music right now. I think I set my expectations too high for a pair of headphones, though. I kept reading about wide or short soundstages, and assumed that I would be able to close my eyes and give you a pinpoint location of a sound a few feet away, and honestly, it still just feels like the music's right next to my ears. That said, I'm not disappointed at all, and would happily buy these again. Fantastic deal. I'd be interested to compare these to an actual "audiophile-grade" pair of headphones and see if there's truly a $10,000.00 difference.
I'd 100% recommend buying these if you are on the fence about spending $150 on a pair of headphones. Listening to music straight from my laptop has never sounded better, and I'm genuinely enjoying my music much, much more than I was before.
NeoTheLizard
108
Feb 20, 2019
OdusIf you feel that they could use a bit more width in soundstage, I can happily tell you that I had a lot of success in alleviating this by getting an amp and upgrading my source.
It's still not super wide, but definitely enough that I basically went from "the sound is right outside or inside my head" to "the sound is coming from 10-50 meters away.
Results are obviously going to vary depending on what exactly you get, and I'm not saying you should get a hybrid tube amp just because it works for my setup, but getting a Little Dot 1+ and outfitting it with the much revered Voshkod tubes was what made the big "wow, holy shit" difference for me. I also upgraded to a different sound card, which added a bit more width in addition to that, but that obviously won't be relevant to you if you're using them on your laptop.
There are most likely plenty of choices, just wanted to share my experiences and let you know that they can actually get wider with the right equipment. Because once they did in my case, they basically became like the best thing, as if they weren't amazing already :)
Odus
45
Feb 21, 2019
NeoTheLizardI seriously appreciate not only the advice, but the specific recommendations for upgrades/Amp. I'm still incredibly new to this and prefer getting recommended items over taking my chances on a random guess with some minor research. I'll definitely keep an eye out for that Amp!
I'm building a new pc, and should be done in a week or so, and I imagine even the onboard audio on my mobo will give me a slight boost in performance over my laptop. I'm at work now, but I'll check out that amp/tube when I get home. Any other beginner friendly /budget items worth looking into?
NeoTheLizard
108
Feb 22, 2019
OdusNo problem man, though you should be aware that I'm pretty new to the hi-fi scene myself. It's only really been a little less than a year since I started experimenting with stuff, and the aforementioned Little Dot is notably the first and only dedicated amp I've tried myself. I can tell you that it works great with the Jubilees, I just can't speak much on behalf of all the other choices there are, as I haven't heard them.
I tend to spend a lot of time reading before I make (what to me is) expensive purchases, though, so I'm aware of the things people generally recommend.
Have you seen ZeosPantera's guides on Reddit? They can probably tell you more about the different budget options than I could. Be aware that he is a divisive figure in the audio world, though, and has a tendency to create hype, sometimes for things that people will debate whether truly warrants that. The thing about deciding what to get is primarily down to whether you feel something is missing, or should be better. Since it sounded like you thought the Jubilees could use a bit more width in their soundstage, you might want to keep an eye out for amps that have a tendency to widen that.
If the motherboard you intend to purchase for your new PC is a recent model, an external DAC probably won't be necessary. I know the external DAC/amp combo is a term swung around almost everywhere, but to be honest the built in DACs of modern motherboards usually are pretty good, at least good enough that I don't think you will hear a notable benefit by moving from that to a *cheap* external DAC. A friend of mine finished building a micro-ATX Ryzen build a couple of weeks ago, and to be honest, the onboard audio was surprisingly good.
I myself use a sound card as my DAC because my motherboard is a pretty old model and the onboard DAC is crap, though sound cards are also commonly discouraged due the risk of electrical interference from other internal components (something that I've never had problems with, though).
However, in my local area these things are dirt cheap if you buy them used, even former top-end cards, whereas even the lowest end external DACs are a bit pricey. I really doubt it would be worth it in my case, possibly not in yours as well.
Also, apologies, I visualized the distances for myself a bit, and I think I overshot the distance thing a bit. It's probably more like things are coming from five to somewhere like 15-25 meters away. It's still enough to make things sound a hell of a lot more natural and, above all immersive, than it did before I got the Little Dot and the ESI Prodigy though. Listening to the soundtrack from Kentucky Route Zero as I'm typing this is like being submerged in the sound, like, I've had this setup for more than a month by this point, the amp for almost two, and the honeymoon effect just keeps on going, it's insane.
DougS63
11
Mar 3, 2019
OdusI had these back in the day, and if it was't for the fact that my old pair wore out after twenty years I wouldn't have bought the AKG K812's later, but frankly I like BOTH headphones, and I plan to get this pair just to see if they (
Sennheiser ) improved on the design !!
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