How good are my headphones?

[Jonathan Cox]

I was in John Lewis with my iphone this weekend so thought I'd try a few phones out. Top of pile were the B and W P7 so connected the phone up. ( I remember at an airport trying the smaller version and being very unimpressed.) Admittedly I was listening to death metal Carcass, Necroticism album but it all sounded incredibly artificial was first thought that came to mind. Could this be the transparency of the phones exposing a bad recording or did I more simply hate them, or both? Went home and listened to same track on my Goldring DR150s and they just, to me sounded so natural and nice.

I've been tempted to break the bank and buy some Sennheiser HD650s but worried the improvement may not be worth it, given my obvious preference over the expensive (compared to Goldrings) and very well reviewed B and Ws. Any thoughts appreciated.

 

[dalethorn]

I was in John Lewis with my iphone this weekend so thought I'd try a few phones out. Top of pile were the B and W P7 so connected the phone up. ( I remember at an airport trying the smaller version and being very unimpressed.) Admittedly I was listening to death metal Carcass, Necroticism album but it all sounded incredibly artificial was first thought that came to mind. Could this be the transparency of the phones exposing a bad recording or did I more simply hate them, or both? Went home and listened to same track on my Goldring DR150s and they just, to me sounded so natural and nice.

I've been tempted to break the bank and buy some Sennheiser HD650s but worried the improvement may not be worth it, given my obvious preference over the expensive (compared to Goldrings) and very well reviewed B and Ws. Any thoughts appreciated.

The P7 is fairly neutral, but may have too many brightness factors for black metal etc. The Shure 1540 may be a much better bet, since the HD650 is kind-of in-between.

 

[Frank Harvey]

I haven't tried the P7s with your music genre, but the electronic music I've heard with them has been very good - one of the few headphones I'd actually buy for my own personal use under £500.

If these are for use with the iPhone, the HD650s won't be efficient enough.

 

[Jonathan Cox]

That's great yes the P7s did sound quite bright with the guitars I did like them otherwise. I do have an Epiphany Acoustics amp it only offers slight improvement with my Goldrings using iPhone but I know they're efficient cans. Hard to demo of course so unsure whether to go for them ( HD650s)!?!!??!

 

[MajorFubar]

No matter what headphones you buy the sound from your iphone will be holding them back, assuming it's anything more recent than a 4S. The quality of sound from a iphone peaked with the 4 and 4S, along with their equivalent iPods, and no matter what you read and no matter what anyone else tells you, the 5 and 6, and the current iPods, sound noticeably worse. The only way to get really decent sound from a current iDevice is either Airplay or tap the digital signal from the lightning connector using (e.g.🙂 an external powered USB DAC/headphone amp. And to use that you'll need the confusingly-named camera connection kit, which is a lightning-to-USB adapter.

 

[chebby]

No matter what headphones you buy the sound from your iphone will be holding them back, assuming it's anything more recent than a 4S. The quality of sound from a iphone peaked with the 4 and 4S, along with their equivalent iPods, and no matter what you read and no matter what anyone else tells you, the 5 and 6, and the current iPods, sound noticeably worse.

I've used the 4, 5 and - currently - the 6. (I seem to skip the 's' versions) all with Sennheiser HD-100 MkIIs (cheap but pretty good disposables).

I couldn't say I noticed much difference. At home I always used AirPlay and my main system with speakers.

I bought some B&W P3s and I love them but portability is/was an issue given that I bought them with use in hospital* in mind as well as when out and about in Costas or wherever.

*I was doing a lot of that from late November last year until this month (got 'all clear' on 8th 🙂 ) so my 'second system' was B&W P3s + a 128GB iPad Mini 3 and a 2m recharging cable (much better than 1m when in a hospital bed.)

 

[dalethorn]

I review headphones (had about 150 total, 20 now) and use iPhones a lot. The iPhone 6-plus was the first significant upgrade in sound quality that I've noticed, and I started with the 4, then 4s, 5, and 5s. The iPhone 6-plus still doesn't sound as good as my desktop music players, even when using the Oppo HA-2 DAC/amp, and even when the same WAV file is played on both. Many users assume that the digital output from the iPhone to an external DAC will be pure unmodified data from the digital music track, but apparently that's not the case. Still, using the iPhone's headphone jack, the 6-plus sounds better than the previous generations.

The link below gives a tremendous amount of info on the 6-plus sound quality. Note that where the graph rolls off, the vertical increments are .05 db, about 100 times finer than most graphs.

http://www.kenrockwell.com/apple/iphone-6-plus.htm

 

[hybridauth_Facebook_695780470566066]

The P7's are some of the best portable cans I've listened to, especially with an amplifier. If you plan on buying the HD 650 make sure you have a sufficient amp and try them out first as I personally found them to be too warm and slightly muddy, especially compared to the HD 600 which I felt was the better headphone.

 

[MajorFubar]

Still, using the iPhone's headphone jack, the 6-plus sounds better than the previous generations.http://www.kenrockwell.com/apple/iphone-6-plus.htm

Hold my hand up and admit I haven't heard the 6+, only the 4S, 5C, 5S and regular 6. I wouldn't have expected the 6+ to sound different than the 6, but if it does, so be it, but out of the four I mentioned, to my ears the 4S is so far ahead in terms of clarity, instrument separation and all the other PRAT stuff that some people reel out, it's untrue. Of course I'm talking analogue output from the h/p socket; I haven't compared their digital outputs, I wouldn't expect to hear much difference.

 

[ID.]

The P7s are pretty efficient, and I actually think they have been made with Apple products in mind. I think mine sound really good running off my iPod Classic and my Macbook and I think I may prefer them plugged straight into an iDevice rather than either of my DAC/amps, but I'd have to do a proper side by side test to be sure, although as I mainly bought them for when I'm out and about Ican't really be bothered. Haven't really tried them with my iPhone as I only use it for music when I'm streaming Apple Music to the ATV for my living room system.

I don't listen to metal, let alone death metal so I can't really comment about the style of music or recording. The 650s are definitely much less efficient and sound horrible with my iPhone and iPod. I'm not really so sure that the slightly dark, laid back and bassy sound would suit death metal, so I'd be sure to try them with your music using proper amplification before buying.