Looking to upgrade my headphones from B&W P5

[WillBrink]

Hola. I have used the P5s for some years now, perfectly "ok" but don't stir the soul to be sure.

Looking for recs $1k or under, open or closed over ear, is fine.

Also, whether the headphones recommended would benefit from an amp, so I can factor in the $.

I see Amir has a list of headphone amps ranked, didn't see a list of headphones. Did I miss that?

Thanx all!

 

[RickSanchez]

Here's the headphone index:

Headphone Review and Measurements Index

Headphone Review and Measurements

www.audiosciencereview.com

There's no ranking, however, as there is no score to rank off of. Perhaps the closest you can get to that is filtering by Recommended = Yes. There are two views you can use: the standard index, or the FR. (Keep in mind this index doesn't include the headphone reviews from the last several months.)

In general headphones will benefit from a dedicated headphone amp. But that does beg the question: how are you driving your P5's now?

 

[WillBrink]

Here's the headphone index:

Headphone Review and Measurements Index

Headphone Review and Measurements

www.audiosciencereview.com

There's no ranking, however, as there is no score to rank off of. Perhaps the closest you can get to that is filtering by Recommended = Yes. There are two views you can use: the standard index, or the FR. (Keep in mind this index doesn't include the headphone reviews from the last several months.)

In general headphones will benefit from a dedicated headphone amp. But that does beg the question: how are you driving your P5's now?

Thanx, will look at the index. P5s usually driven via plugged into a Mac laptop as the pre/source.

 

[Leiker535]

Hola. I have used the P5s for some years now, perfectly "ok" but don't stir the soul to be sure.

Looking for recs $1k or under, open or closed over ear, is fine.

Also, whether the headphones recommended would benefit from an amp, so I can factor in the $.

I see Amir has a list of headphone amps ranked, didn't see a list of headphones. Did I miss that?

Thanx all!

I'd recommend the Aeon Closed X considering what you are coming from. It has good adherence to Harman, is very comfortable, lightweight and portable. It might benefit in volume from an amp, but I think a cheap dongle will suffice, just be mindful of ones that have voltage locks related to impedance, as planars will be treated as IEMs and you won't get enough volume unless if you do tricks.

If you're inclined to going open backed, there is a ton of good options. On the cheap there are the Sennheisers HD6XX/650 and the HD 600, and also the Hifiman 400SE and further up the Sundaras and Edition Xs (which is well reviewed but amirm has not measured them yet).

 

[WillBrink]

I'd recommend the Aeon Closed X considering what you are coming from. It has good adherence to Harman, is very comfortable, lightweight and portable. It might benefit in volume from an amp, but I think a cheap dongle will suffice, just be mindful of ones that have voltage locks related to impedance, as planars will be treated as IEMs and you won't get enough volume unless if you do tricks.

If you're inclined to going open backed, there is a ton of good options. On the cheap there are the Sennheisers HD6XX/650 and the HD 600, and also the Hifiman 400SE and further up the Sundaras and Edition Xs (which is well reviewed but amirm has not measured them yet).

Open or closed, don't care, nor portibility. I'd use them via my lap top in my office, either with Roon/Tidal, or music vids on YT. Primary mission is to notice an obvious improvement in the audio, for $1k or under, possibly including an amp if worth it. Not sure what the Mac pro lap top output is, have to look at that one.

 

[Phoney]

Open or closed, don't care, nor portibility. I'd use them via my lap top in my office, either with Roon/Tidal, or music vids on YT. Primary mission is to notice an obvious improvement in the audio, for $1k or under, possibly including an amp if worth it. Not sure what the Mac pro lap top output is, have to look at that one.

Do you use EQ? How do you prefer the bass? Personally I would go for Edition XS, even though I haven't tried it. I love Hifiman, and people seem to really like that one for the price. If you don't need the closed back isolation or want a bass cannon, then open back should be better. If you use EQ and don't want to spend that much, then HD560S is an option for £149. I just got mine, you can most likely tune it exactly to your preference while it also has a decent soundstage. It can handle a bass boost pretty well, you can get impressive amounts of clean sub bass from this cheap open back. The comfort is also great, but beware, some users can't take the clamping force. For me personally it didn't feel all that bad. May depend on shape and size of your head.

 

[WillBrink]

Do you use EQ? How do you prefer the bass? Personally I would go for Edition XS, even though I haven't tried it. I love Hifiman, and people seem to really like that one for the price. If you don't need the closed back isolation or want a bass cannon, then open back should be better. If you use EQ and don't want to spend that much, then HD560S is an option for £149. I just got mine, you can most likely tune it exactly to your preference while it also has a decent soundstage. It can handle a bass boost pretty well, you can get impressive amounts of clean sub bass from this cheap open back. The comfort is also great, but beware, some users can't take the clamping force. For me personally it didn't feel all that bad. May depend on shape and size of your head.

I don't use EQ, but I think I will start. After reading the review on the Sundaras, and the price, I ordered that. The review concluded with some EQ, it was a go. I downloaded the EQ app called Boom that was recommend for Mac OS, and will follow the recommend EQ settings via the review as a good starting point, unless you recommend a different one?

Amp wise, the specs of the Sundaras would suggest the Macbook pro more than capbable to drive it, or do you think there would added benefits from say Schiit Magni 3 or Magni Heresy (not totally clear on the difference between those models ...) would be worth the added $?

 

[Phoney]

I don't use EQ, but I think I will start. After reading the review on the Sundaras, and the price, I ordered that. The review concluded with some EQ, it was a go. I downloaded the EQ app called Boom that was recommend for Mac OS, and will follow the recommend EQ settings via the review as a good starting point, unless you recommend a different one?

Amp wise, the specs of the Sundaras would suggest the Macbook pro more than capbable to drive it, or do you think there would added benefits from say Schiit Magni 3 or Magni Heresy (not totally clear on the difference between those models ...) would be worth the added $?

I definetly recommend EQ, you can get great sound for a good price with a bit of EQ correction to solve any problems you have with the frequency response. Very hard to find a headphone that matches your personal preference without any EQ correction, no EQ limits your options a lot. Sundara seems like a great option too! Seems like they can be a bit bright and bass lacking without EQ, but they respond well to EQ and should be great with a small fix. Hard to recommend an EQ setting for subjective listening, but either Amirs EQ or oratory1990 EQ is definetly a good starting point. How many bands does the Boom EQ have? Do you have a dac? Not sure how the Heresy or 3+ performs without a dac, but Heresy seems better than Magni 3 from the review on ASR. Also I personally can't tell how much an amp or dac will matter over the macbook, so I will leave that to others. But keep in mind that you should use a preamp setting in the EQ to prevent clipping after boosting, and that will mean that you will need a bit more power to get sufficient volume and performance. If you use Amirs EQ then you will have to put a -8db preamp setting to make up for the 8 db bass boost, and this will mean that the rest of the mix will be 8db lower than what it was without EQ, meaning more power needed to reach desired listening levels.

 

[WillBrink]

I definetly recommend EQ, you can get great sound for a good price with a bit of EQ correction to solve any problems you have with the frequency response. Very hard to find a headphone that matches your personal preference without any EQ correction, no EQ limits your options a lot. Sundara seems like a great option too! Seems like they can be a bit bright and bass lacking without EQ, but they respond well to EQ and should be great with a small fix. Hard to recommend an EQ setting for subjective listening, but either Amirs EQ or oratory1990 EQ is definetly a good starting point. How many bands does the Boom EQ have? Do you have a dac? Not sure how the Heresy or 3+ performs without a dac, but Heresy seems better than Magni 3 from the review on ASR. Also I personally can't tell how much an amp or dac will matter over the macbook, so I will leave that to others. But keep in mind that you should use a preamp setting in the EQ to prevent clipping after boosting, and that will mean that you will need a bit more power to get sufficient volume and performance. If you use Amirs EQ then you will have to put a -8db preamp setting to make up for the 8 db bass boost, and this will mean that the rest of the mix will be 8db lower than what it was without EQ, meaning more power needed to reach desired listening levels.

The DAC is via the lap top as the source. According to the Mac specs:

"When you connect headphones with an impedance of less than 150 ohms, the headphone jack provides up to 1.25 volts RMS. For headphones with an impedance of 150 to 1k ohms, the headphone jack delivers 3 volts RMS. This may remove the need for an external headphone amplifier."

The impedance of the Sundaras is like mid 30s I believe. Would I still benefit from a headphone amp? I'd have to use a 3.5mm to ? Adapter

What Mac OS base EQ is used/recommended here? Might be worth a new thread?