AKG cans

[Blackdawn]

Hi, Would the AKG K 272 HD Headphones be good for HiFi use? How much better would they be compared to my £25 Sennheisers? Also what would be a good amp for these? How do they compare to say Grado SR125i? I'd prefer closed back for isolation of noise.

Cheers

 

[idc]

The likely hood is that the AKGs will give you more detail and soundstage than the Sennheisers and less attack and dynamics than the Grados.

What is your setup? That will make it easier to recommend an amp.

 

[Blackdawn]

Thanks idc. Well at the moment I just have some lossless WMA files which I play on my desktop through the realtek onboard sound card (has optical and coaxial output). I just use the headphone out on the desktop. It sounds pretty good through my Sennheisers. Next plan is to silence my graphics card.

Basically, will I see much difference between my £25 headphones and some that cost over £100? like the AKG's 271's. Also plan to get a headphone amp and separate DAC if I go down this HeadFi route. Would be nice to use the cans with my normal HiFi sometimes.

Out of interest does it matter what type of lossless files you use? Which offer the best sound Q? WMA, FLAC etc?

Thanks for your help.

 

[idc]

If you have a way of silencing your graphics card, then a good one will perform as well as an off board DAC. If you go down the head-fi route there are various DAC/amps available, of which the cheaper ones are also portable.

In casual listening you can get £25 (or less) headphones that can sound very good, such as the Sennheiser HD201 and AKG K44. Jump to £100 ( a good but achievable price for the K271 MkIIs) and you will get slightly better sound and more comfort, which in itself is very important. In audiophile listening you get a bigger more detailed sound with the better headphones.

Lossless is lossless and blind testing does not back up claims of being able to tell which codec is supposedly better. So IMO it makes no difference which one you use.

 

[Blackdawn]

Thanks idc, very useful information. I want to remove my gaming graphics card as its noisy so would replace it with a cheap one without fans. I have some Sennheiser e150's at the moment and I like them for casual listening but really like the look of the AKG 271 or 272 headphones. Not sure of difference. What headphone amp would suit these best without paying a fortune? The MF M1 is too pricy..

Which of the lossless formats would be most future proof?

Thanks again.

 

[idc]

Have a look at the Firestone Audio range of amps and combined amp/DACs (£150 to £200 approx) and also older MF X-CANS/V2/V3/V8 off ebay (£100 to £400 approx).

I would say all lossless formats will be future proof as with the exception of Apple most music managers will cope with most formats and you can easily get converters to change from one to another.

 

[Blackdawn]

The Fubar IV and plus version look very nice. The upsampling on the plus version is meant to give a more natural sound. Does anyone think there would be a noticeable difference between the two versions? Also the low frequency response goes from 40Hz. As a lot of headphones go from 20Hz would there be a lack of low frequency? Whats the reason for not having a response of 20Hz - 20KHz?