Best headphone under 500 euros w/o need for amplifier

[somy]

So this thread is pretty much useless now?

What do you mean?

 

[Robbo99999]

So this thread is pretty much useless now?

WUT, don't know what that's supposed to mean, but gotta be more useful than that post of yours.

Thank you I wish there are more options :-(

Well I'm sure there are more options, I spent about 10 mins googling that stuff for you to give you some different headphone options that would fit your large ears. Continue on from where I left off, and see what you can find, and if you like report back with some headphones options you've found and then people can give you their recommendations (frequency response / easy to drive or not / personal impressions).

EDIT: remembered you were keen on the HiFiman Sundara, but I googled that right now and inner ear diameter of the pads is 58mm (https://www.amazon.co.uk/HIFIMAN-Headphone-Replacement-Earpads-Sundara/dp/B07HBB9D7F), so that's too small for you, a little smaller than the K702.

EDIT #2: been having a look through the following site as it sometimes lists "inner pad dimensions", haven't found anything new on there that would fit you, but haven't looked at all of them:
https://diyaudioheaven.wordpress.com/headphones/measurements/nad-viso-hp50/

 

[somy]

WUT, don't know what that's supposed to mean, but gotta be more useful than that post of yours.

Well I'm sure there are more options, I spent about 10 mins googling that stuff for you to give you some different headphone options that would fit your large ears. Continue on from where I left off, and see what you can find, and if you like report back with some headphones options you've found and then people can give you their recommendations (frequency response / easy to drive or not / personal impressions).

EDIT: remembered you were keen on the HiFiman Sundara, but I googled that right now and inner ear diameter of the pads is 58mm (https://www.amazon.co.uk/HIFIMAN-Headphone-Replacement-Earpads-Sundara/dp/B07HBB9D7F), so that's too small for you, a little smaller than the K702.

EDIT #2: been having a look through the following site as it sometimes lists "inner pad dimensions", haven't found anything new on there that would fit you, but haven't looked at all of them:
https://diyaudioheaven.wordpress.com/headphones/measurements/nad-viso-hp50/

Thank you! As I wrote in another thread I like Sundara but I didn’t try ananda mainly because it is out of my budget. Now I saw ananda has much larger ear pads (almost same as hd800) I’m going to try ananda next week. With ananda maybe I can live W/o amp for now.

 

[Robbo99999]

Thank you! As I wrote in another thread I like Sundara but I didn’t try ananda mainly because it is out of my budget. Now I saw ananda has much larger ear pads (almost same as hd800) I’m going to try ananda next week. With ananda maybe I can live W/o amp for now.

It looks like that headphone will be easy to drive and yep it's got those large inner ear pads, lots of space for ears:
https://diyaudioheaven.wordpress.com/headphones/measurements/hifiman/ananda/
It's quite ragged in the mids with the frequency response though, but looks like the treble would EQ nicely and has good bass extension albeit may require some boosting to bring the level up, but shouldn't have trouble with good bass extension:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/l1wivpf8901uflr/Hifiman Ananda.pdf?dl=0
A very expensive headphone though, in comparison to what you were after anyway, about £650 here in the UK. The first link in this post shows it has low distortion, even in the bass, so that's a good feature.

 

[somy]

It looks like that headphone will be easy to drive and yep it's got those large inner ear pads, lots of space for ears:
https://diyaudioheaven.wordpress.com/headphones/measurements/hifiman/ananda/
It's quite ragged in the mids with the frequency response though, but looks like the treble would EQ nicely and has good bass extension albeit may require some boosting to bring the level up, but shouldn't have trouble with good bass extension:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/l1wivpf8901uflr/Hifiman Ananda.pdf?dl=0
A very expensive headphone though, in comparison to what you were after anyway, about £650 here in the UK. The first link in this post shows it has low distortion, even in the bass, so that's a good feature.

Hi, is there any tutorial on how to use eq? Does it require special hardware like a fax with eq functionality or can I do it with software on iPhone and Mac OS? If it’s software I guess i will lose bit-perfect, right? Thanks in advance

 

[Robbo99999]

Hi, is there any tutorial on how to use eq? Does it require special hardware like a fax with eq functionality or can I do it with software on iPhone and Mac OS? If it’s software I guess i will lose bit-perfect, right? Thanks in advance

You're on a mac so I don't know the software solutions for Mac - maybe someone else can chime in, or you can Google it....if you Google it then use the keywords "parametric filters", because those are the type of EQ filters that you want to be applying because they are the most sophisticated/customisable in terms of moulding the frequency response to the exact required shape (you want software that will let you apply at least 10 seperate parametric filters at once). Yes, you wanna be using software EQ if you can, it's most flexible generally. It's Equaliser APO on PC and there are some others too. I think it's possible to remain bit-perfect using software EQ, I'm not sure what the caveats are to that, but the large effects of EQ on the sound quality are far & above the importance of "bit perfect"....but they're not mutually exclusive anyway I don't think, someone else might be able to tell you about that.

In terms of understanding EQ then do some reading around Harman Headphone Curve to understand the principles of that which will also give you an insight into how headphones interact with an individual, as they are different to speakers in this respect. Also read around Q values and Gain Values for parametric filters so you understand some general principles of how parametric filters are configured & how they work in terms of how they change the frequency response. Also read around the meaning of a Frequency Response Curve, but you probably know all about that given that you're here on this site and and Amir provides one in each of his speaker reviews. And then once you got all that you can have a go with trying some Oratory1990's EQ's for your headphone - he has got an industry standard rig which he uses to measure headphones and then he EQ's them, his rig is the same standard as that used to devise the Harman Headphone Curve that we've talked about, which is the result of much research by Harman. Here is the list of Oratory1990 EQ's:
https://www.reddit.com/r/oratory1990/wiki/index/list_of_presets#wiki_full_list.3A

 

[Berwhale]

Gahhhhh. I hope they went to a good home.

@Jimbob54 They're on for £1070 again...

https://en-uk.sennheiser-outlet.com/

 

[Jimbob54]

@Jimbob54 They're on for £1070 again...

https://en-uk.sennheiser-outlet.com/

Good spot. Be a hell of a Christmas present to myself

 

[DrFlimFlam]

would a DX3 pro v2 be decent to drive the sundara? Or would I need to replace the amp dac combo?

Also, would changing the dx3 be worth it for the sundara to a d50s+atom?

 

[makatech]

What do you think the best HiFi quality headphone under 500 euros which can be driven satisfactorily by MacBook without the need for external DAC/AMP?
My list consists of:

• AKG K702
• AKG K712 pro
• Sennheiser hd 660S
• Hifiman sundara

Any other options?

If you are lucky maybe you can find Kennerton Magni for 500 euros, they are really good and super easy to drive.
https://kennerton.org/magni/

Kennerton = Fischer Audio i think.

(You can thank me later, the Magni is a good one) ;-)

 

[fieldcar]

Just to add my 2 cents. I can drive my he4xx and monolith m570 to decently high levels with an earstudio hud100 with either my phone or laptop. Otherwise I use the usb-c apple dongle dac at work for a $9. It drives my old sennheiser hd555's to moderate levels very well. I don't expect much out of a laptop's 3.5mm jack even if it is apple. I could be wrong though. Good luck choosing a set of cans.

Hud100 is on sale direct from radsone.
https://earstudio.store/products/hud100

 

[somy]

Mission accomplished In the end I bought Hifiman Ananda during 1111 campaign.
Thank you all for the suggestions!

 

[ej0304]

Mission accomplished In the end I bought Hifiman Ananda during 1111 campaign.
Thank you all for the suggestions!

Hi OP, I was in the exact same boat as yours, looking for a nice pair that doesn't require dac/amp. (actually I registered the account just so I could ask you)

I have been itching on the Ananda but didn't quite pull the trigger because of the infamous qc issue, if you don't mind, how did the Adanda turn out for you? any QC issue, how does it sound?

 

[TechEnthusiast]

Why not give Sivga Phoenix a try. Extremely easy to drive, open back, well reviewed, and priced at $255 on Amazon.

 

[Aldo]

Hello to all
I'm surprised not to see it appear on this Audio Technica feed?!
I listened to several headphones to decide it including Senneheiser, Focal, ...
I was disappointed by the overall balance, especially the bass, which overplays the music to be flattering to the listener ...
The ATH msr7b is of a formidable balance at all levels for a reasonable price. There are certainly better, but for my part I found the true qualities of an audiophile headphone.
In my opinion, it's a good idea to listen to it before buying in this price range ...
Good Sunday to all

 

[ej0304]

Why not give Sivga Phoenix a try. Extremely easy to drive, open back, well reviewed, and priced at $255 on Amazon.

I'm not sure about well-reviewed, because all this time I've been looking for a headphone no one mentioned it until now

thank you for bringing it up and I'll definitely take a look

 

[somy]

Hi OP, I was in the exact same boat as yours, looking for a nice pair that doesn't require dac/amp. (actually I registered the account just so I could ask you)

I have been itching on the Ananda but didn't quite pull the trigger because of the infamous qc issue, if you don't mind, how did the Adanda turn out for you? any QC issue, how does it sound?

It depends on what you mean by QC issue. If you refer to some copies have bad quality comparing to others, I don’tsee any. If you mean suboptimal design (same for all copies) I have to mention two things:
1) the cables aren’t in the best quality, it’s fragile and the sound changes when it’s blended
2) when adjusting size the black rail around the head band will lose some paint (basically scratches by the locking machnism)

Re sound quality, I wish it had more bass for certain type of music, but for most music I listen to it easily outperforms Headsets in similar price range (HD660s for example.

So far I don’t regret

 

[ej0304]

It depends on what you mean by QC issue. If you refer to some copies have bad quality comparing to others, I don’tsee any. If you mean suboptimal design (same for all copies) I have to mention two things:
1) the cables aren’t in the best quality, it’s fragile and the sound changes when it’s blended
2) when adjusting size the black rail around the head band will lose some paint (basically scratches by the locking machnism)

Re sound quality, I wish it had more bass for certain type of music, but for most music I listen to it easily outperforms Headsets in similar price range (HD660s for example.

So far I don’t regret

that's fantastic to hear, glad you enjoyed your headphone well

the QC I meant was about people complaining the headphone breaking apart after several days/weeks/months of use, most common thing I heard is that one side lost sound

 

[somy]

that's fantastic to hear, glad you enjoyed your headphone well

the QC I meant was about people complaining the headphone breaking apart after several days/weeks/months of use, most common thing I heard is that one side lost sound

Ok, I only used it for less than 1 month so far no problem, and I think the build quality is high (metal construction, leather etc.)

 

[magicscreen]

Grado SR60e
Zeos has a wall of great headphones but he is using this SR60e. Go figure.
Z review headphone wall 2020