I have always been interested in Music and audio and I truly appreciate any instrument that can reproduce a good recording, be it speakers, amp, receivers etc. I also realized that one can go nuts on trying to achieve the perfect sound and that the 'law of diminishing returns' do exists.
Since last couple of months, I have been going crazy over high-end headphones. It all started in October 2011 just before leaving for India. I started thinking of ways to cope with the long flight and then the idea of a nice pair of headphones started taking shape.
When I reached the airport, the first thing I did was buy a pair of AKG K518LE which sounded very good. I tried a bunch of IEMs as well (shure, westone) but they sounded so thin and treble heavy and I am not even a bass-head. Much later would I find out that probably they didn't fit properly in my ears and that was what was causing the lack of bass.
Now, before I bought AKG 518LE headphones, I had not read any reviews on them or even knew they existed. In fact, I didn't have much clue about AKG. I found that these headphones sounded better than any other that I owned till that point. Bass was adequate and everything sounded crystal clear even in the flight. Sound isolation was very good.
However, these headphones were very uncomfortable. I have a large head and these headphone would clamp on my ears like a vise and get very hot.
Anyway, my search for headphones continues while in India. I kept reading various reviews and then finally everything boiled down to Ultimate Ears 700 and Jays Q-Jays. Both had similar specs (Dual balanced armatures). Jays was way more expensive then the UE 700 ones so I thought I'll buy the UE 700 and thats what I did.
The issue was that I was in India and UE was going to be delivered to my US address. So, I went out and bought another pair of earbuds in India, Klipsch S4 (white). That was a very good buy, I think. The Klipsch S4 are true value for money. They sound excellent and are priced quite cheap compared to other headphones in the market.
Of course, UE 700s have a different sound signature and with the comply foam tips, I found that UE 700s are definitely a level above the Klipsch, not to say that they are much smaller.
Before all this started, I had a pair of Apple earbuds that came with my iPhone, a Sony MDR-CX280 (INR 1800 in 2002) and my wife own a Sony MDR-XD200 (INR 1750 in 2005). I had just added 3 more headphones to this collection within a span of 3 months.
It ends here... NOT !
I think I was very satisfied with UE 700s. However, I revisited the old Sony headphones that I have had for many years.
The problem was that now I had an experience of a very good pair of headphones. These Sony headphones sound good, but they don't even come close to the AKGs or the UE and not even the Klipsch.
So, now I wanted a pair of full sized headphones for home. As I began my research, I started reading more and more about headphone amplifiers and why they are needed for certain headphones. I was almost convinced that I needs an amp and a DAC before I came across NwAvGuy's blog. What an eye-opener it was.
I knew for a fact, that I can tell between a bad sound and a good sound. I can also tell if a certain reproduction is bass heavy, muddy or very treble focussed. However, I can't tell the difference between a 256 kbps and a 320 kbps audio file played on the same earbuds/headphones.
Maybe I was getting sucked into the audiophile craze that has become a sub-culture.
In any case, I kept researching on the headphones and one day I found out AKG Q701. Now, they are expensive and I deliberated on them for a long time before I went out to Magnolia AV and tried them out along with a pair of Sennheiser 598. Those headphones just blew my mind.
If you have never had a chance to hear these, do yourself a favor and go to your local AV shop and try them on. It was like sitting in a large room with some musicians playing in front of you. You can hear the bending and release of acoustic guitar strings and the fingers sliding.
And I like to hear that.
AKG Q701. I ordered them after 3 days. And they are arriving today.
Coming back to the research on Amps that I was doing; when I was listening to AKG Q701 in Magnolia, I looked at some of their instrumentation and they have serious hi-fidility systems on which they let you hook up the headphones. I am yet to hear the AKGs at home, but I think I was sold on the fact that I need to try out the headphones I own with a headphone amplifier.
Headphone amplifiers are very interesting gadgets. There is an entire sub-culture of DIY guys who just build their own amplifiers. One of the reasons is cost. Another reason is the DIY satisfaction.
So, I thought I'll also build what has been built over and over again, a CMoy amplifier. I bought the cheapest soldering station and multimeter etc. that I could find so that the cost of building the amp doesn't go too high. Instead of a protoboard, I chose the PCB from JDSLabs (www.jdslabs.com). I ordered the parts from Mouser and JDSLabs and they are yet to arrive.
I'll post further updates on how the CMoy project goes. If it is successful, I think I am going to try and build a desktop version of the Objective 2 amp ( http://nwavguy.blogspot.com/2011/07/o2-headphone-amp.html).
