Is the return of wired headphones driven by a simple desire for better sound quality or is it part of a backlash against modern tech? Thomas Germain tries to find out.
Only one of my headphones (I own a lot, it’s an expensive rabbit hole) that isn’t a pair of ear buds or IEMs can be powered by a phone or dongle, and I bought that pair specifically because the Nintendo Switch headphone output was super anemic. I have to use a stand alone DAP or stationary amp for everything else.
I own quite a few of those! I leaned a bit heavier into the higher end of the Beyer and Hifiman lines as I prefer their house sound. Many of those you mentioned won’t do well from any dongle I know of. They “work” technically, but they won’t sound right or loud. The Sonys, Focal, AKG K550, and Phillips X1 are probably OK. It’s odd just how well even the high end Focals do from low power output. The Q701, HD650, DT880-600 and HE-560 are all too demanding for any phone or dongle I have ever used, most DAPs too to be honest. Technically I have the AKG K712 not the Q701, but they are mostly just a tweaked later version of the Q701 with nicer pads.
The later he-560s were not necessarily lower end, they sound the same imo (I owned the v1 and the v3), but they had come cost saving things like ditching the wood grain because of returns and cost and more importantly they ditched the evil mini smc connectors for the cable. I actually prefer the headband of the v3 to the v1, but it is a preference thing and you can actually buy both from Hifiman directly and swap them out (I did this with my Hifiman HE-6). The HE-560 v4 sucks though, I really hate that style of headband.
I don’t have pics handy, but I own the HE-400, HE-500, HE-560 v3 (v1 is long gone), Arya, and HE-6 (heavily modded now). The HE-6 is by far my favorite, but it is stupidly hard to power properly. They did a remake of the HE-6. but it has that stupid he-560 headband, so you’d have to mod it to make it decent. It also doesn’t sound quite as nice as the OG, but it’s pretty close.
Only one of my headphones (I own a lot, it’s an expensive rabbit hole) that isn’t a pair of ear buds or IEMs can be powered by a phone or dongle, and I bought that pair specifically because the Nintendo Switch headphone output was super anemic. I have to use a stand alone DAP or stationary amp for everything else.
deleted by creator
I own quite a few of those! I leaned a bit heavier into the higher end of the Beyer and Hifiman lines as I prefer their house sound. Many of those you mentioned won’t do well from any dongle I know of. They “work” technically, but they won’t sound right or loud. The Sonys, Focal, AKG K550, and Phillips X1 are probably OK. It’s odd just how well even the high end Focals do from low power output. The Q701, HD650, DT880-600 and HE-560 are all too demanding for any phone or dongle I have ever used, most DAPs too to be honest. Technically I have the AKG K712 not the Q701, but they are mostly just a tweaked later version of the Q701 with nicer pads.
.
The later he-560s were not necessarily lower end, they sound the same imo (I owned the v1 and the v3), but they had come cost saving things like ditching the wood grain because of returns and cost and more importantly they ditched the evil mini smc connectors for the cable. I actually prefer the headband of the v3 to the v1, but it is a preference thing and you can actually buy both from Hifiman directly and swap them out (I did this with my Hifiman HE-6). The HE-560 v4 sucks though, I really hate that style of headband.
I don’t have pics handy, but I own the HE-400, HE-500, HE-560 v3 (v1 is long gone), Arya, and HE-6 (heavily modded now). The HE-6 is by far my favorite, but it is stupidly hard to power properly. They did a remake of the HE-6. but it has that stupid he-560 headband, so you’d have to mod it to make it decent. It also doesn’t sound quite as nice as the OG, but it’s pretty close.
Sorry for the rambling!