I used to listen to loads, mostly when I was young single and stoned. Then marriage, kids, a career happened and I just didn't have time or lost interest or maybe I just stopped getting stoned and it didn't sound as good anymore, I don't know.
Anyway, in an attempt to rekindle my musical interest I bought myself a set of cheap (by stw standards but more than I would normally pay for such an item) headphones
Having spent a few hours listening to all my old favourite tracks I am a bit under whelmed by the sound. I am not an audiophile by any means and think my Google home produces a good sound!
So, what am I missing? Give me a basic sound qaulity 101. Are streamed mp3s from Google via my phone just not gonna cut it? How should the equalizer be set? Are the headphones just a bit average and am I expecting too much?
What rig have you got?
Rig?
A spliff makes the worst stereo sound fantastic, I think the problem lies there. But life moves on.
You need a proper hifi set up. I believe there's someone on here who can give you pointers.
Streamed mp3's, through a phone, to cheap headphones, will give you the worst way possible to listen to music. This is still OK to some (actually, a lot) of people though.
If its not acceptable to you, then you need to upgrade your set up.
More knowledgeable people on hear (see what I did there) should be able to help.
Depends on the headphones. The quality is so variable and a lot of mainstream headphones have a hollow harsh sound or heavily exaggerated bass to cover for failings in the rest of the audio spectrum. High prices don't guarantee quality either, especially with fashionable brands!
You can get decent sounding headphones for peanuts from Superlux and Status Audio to name two.
Tried some budget closed back Audio Technica's recently, they were shite. TBH there's a lot of snake oil out there and a lot of modern headphones sound worse than designs from 30 years ago.
I really like Google Play for music but for me it's for the car or headphones walking to the station/shops etc or Bluetooth speaker as background noise (cooking, DIY, bike fettling etc).
Those situations are ok because the music isn't the main focus so lower quality is tolerable and I can cost effectively listen to a wider variety than Incan afford to buy.
if I were sitting down to have a proper listen it isn't really up to the job. It is really noticeable if you know the song / album well. I like my metal and the difference between a CD of (say) Master of Puppets and the online version is noticeable even to my untrained ears.
CDs etc do deliver better but need something ok-ish to play through. I use a blu ray player, AV receiver and some large bookshelf speakers. It's not ideal but it is an ok compromise given it is intended to be a jack of all trades setup.
Start at the beginning..
What type/style of music are you listening to?
Here you go these are still one of the best budget headphones you can buy. You''ll see them on peoples heads on TV and in studios. The design dates back to the 80's. Unfortunately the better 7509 are discontinued and the 7506 differs only by warranty and a gold plated jack!
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mdr-V6-Lightweight-Stereo-Headphones-Sony-Black/dp/B00001WRSJ/
A decent stereo amp and a set of decent bookshelf speakers.. But it depends what you already have.
An AV amp is more versatile.
Streaming music is hit and miss.. If the source is crap, you can't really polish a turd no matter how good your speakers and amp are.
Good cables are essential.
Directional, obvs.
I don’t get the whole “quality of sound” thing.
Isn’t it supposed to be about the music? Either it’s good or it isn’t. And if it’s good, then you try to listen to it under optimal conditions.
But good music is still good, even when the equipment sucks.
Maybe the OP just needs to listen to better stuff.
We need to know what you’re using to gain some idea of what deficiencies there might be. Then we can make some recommendations.
Myself, I listen to CD’s played on a Cambridge Audio DVD-99 multi format DVD player, coupled to an old Yamaha DPS-AX2 A/V amp via fibre optic, with an old Sony 5.1 speaker system, or ripped 320Kb tracks ripped into iTunes on my Mac Mini which is connected to the same Yamaha amp via fibre optic TOSLink
For listening outside the house, I’ve got an old iPod 160Gb Classic, which doesn’t get used that much these days, I normally use my iPhone 6+, with MeeAudio Pinnacle P1 IEM’s, (In-Ear Monitors), either with a 3.5mm to Lightning adaptor and the ‘phones own supplied cable, or the same ‘phones with a Shure Lightning cable - MeeAudio use MMCX connectors on some of their earphones, same as Shure do. There is a definite difference between the standard 3.5mm jack and the Lightning connector, there is a DAC in the £10 Apple Lightning adaptor, and one built into the Shure cable, which bypasses the built-in DAC in the phone, which isn’t bad by any means.
I never use any streaming services, I find their financial structure regarding payments to artists abhorrent, so I occasionally buy downloads, but normally CD’s and rip them at 320Kb variable bitrate; having done a number of direct comparisons with Lossless, there is no significant difference between them, listening through my IEM’s. I do use Apple Earpods, their sound quality is pretty good, but there’s no way to block background sounds, whereas my Pinnacle IEM’s have triple-flange eartips which block 26dB of background sound, the same as industrial hearing protection.
I’ve also got a pair of Ultimate Ears TripleFi 10 Studio IEMS, which have three drivers, which sound superb, but are fairly bulky compared to the Pinnacle P1’s, the TFi 10’s are roughly £350, the Pinnacle P1’s about £180.
There is a noticeable variation between the different earphones I use, but there’s more variation in the actual recordings I listen to, and it’s very noticeable with a decent set of ‘phones; the old computing term GIGO applied just as much to recorded music as it does ordinary digital information, if you don’t know it, it stands for Garbage In, Garbage Out!
Maybe you need some new music?
Try switching to ecky.
I don’t get the whole “quality of sound” thing
Depends what you mean by quality. Blind listening tests showed over and over that people can't tell the difference between different bitrates of mp3 once you get past about 150. Most of the time when people say they can hear a difference in the quality it isn't about high or low quality it is about tonal quality. Records tend to have a warm rich tone, CDs, which produce sound which is more accurate, tend to be brighter and sharper.
It also doesn't help that modern music is recorded " hot" meaning they push the channels to the max just below the point of distortion.
Having said that I did notice my speakers sounded better when I made my own cables from 100% copper core quadshield rg6 with compression fit connectors.
A crappy smartphone and some overpriced headphones not need an overpriced ‘filter’ to make the tunes come alive.
I don’t get the whole “quality of sound” thing.
Isn’t it supposed to be about the music? Either it’s good or it isn’t. And if it’s good, then you try to listen to it under optimal conditions.
But good music is still good, even when the equipment sucks.
Maybe the OP just needs to listen to better stuff.
Amen brother.
Currently listening to a load of old soul on youtube on these:
...and I'm quite happy. Mind you, some of the original recordings are such poor quality it doesn't really matter.
I blame the volume limit on modern headphones and portable music players. Everything sounds better when it’s on the cusp of exploding your eardrums.
First of all, make sure you are wearing the appropriate clothing for your location. You don’t want anybody to think you’re anything less than immensely wealthy and well-connected. Even if you are, in fact, a bit of a donkey.
I don’t get the whole “quality of sound” thing.
Isn’t it supposed to be about the music? Either it’s good or it isn’t. And if it’s good, then you try to listen to it under optimal conditions.
But good music is still good, even when the equipment sucks.
To an extent. I'm no audiophile and suspect the law of diminishing returns strongly applies but I forgot my earbuds on a trip one time so picked up a cheap pair in duty free, and they were so bad the music was virtually unlistenable.
In visual terms, imagine going to the cinema. Of course you want seats 1/3 of the way back and in the middle so it's right in front of you. If you got given a seat at the end of the front row - you'd be watching the film at an angle and you wouldn't enjoy it as much but it'd still be a decent film. These buds were like being given a shit seat and then being told you had to watch it through a pair of safety glasses that someone has been at with a sandblaster. You could make out shapes, but that was about it 😉
I blame the volume limit on modern headphones and portable music players. Everything sounds better when it’s on the cusp of exploding your eardrums.
Here here! I miss proper loud gigs as well. The only place I can get proper volume these days is in my car but then as a 40 year old bloke in a Jag listening to dirty Berlin Techno at volume I must look a proper knob... oh well, I am at least nearly enough not to care what people think.
I sincerely hope you dress in the correct footwear for the experience although...a Jaguar... hmmmmm.... hope one doesn’t park it directly outside ones’ club. You wouldn’t want a rig like that to lower the tone.
OK, I`ll try to answer some of the questions.
Headphones are JBL E65BTNC
Phone is pixel 2
Music is on Google Play.
I listen to trip hop, jazz, funk, garage rock, blues.
I know the source and equipment, maybe with the exception of the headphones is not hifi equipment but I thought it would give me a better sound than it does.
How SHOULD an equalizer be set? Is it jet play around with it to get a personal preference? Or is there a standard setting that should make everything sound good?
20 years ago when I converted all my cds to mp3s there was a belief that 128 was effectively lossless as the human ear couldn't hear the parts that were being trimmed out to achieve the compression. Is that actually true or was it BS back in the day?
128 I can hear a difference on a lot of music, especially if I know it well. A bit above that and I don't think I can, 320 I very much doubt I'd hear any difference in a blind test Vs lossless, but I've never tried.
A lot of my music comes through Google Play or my own CDs ripped lossless, through a Sonos to a reasonable amp and floorstanders. The convenience of streaming means I listen to a lot of different music and enjoy it, it may only be excellent quality Vs perfect, but is good enough for me.
Even [i]I[/i] won't go as low as 128kb/s and I believe it's all about the [i]music[/i], not the sound quality!
I was listening to minidiscs yesterday on LP2. Shocking.
The bitrate on streamed and downloaded music is good enough that I can't hear the difference/it doesn't bother me. All my CDs were ripped at 320 but some stuff I've acquired/dj mixes and the like is as low as 128 and it's fine if it's not critical listening. Someone said they could teach me what to listen for but it would ruin much of my listening so I was better off ignorant.
I'd suspect the headphones are the weak link. £100 will probably buy you a good set of phones but with bluetooth and noise cancelling at that price you're asking a lot. I was given some reasonably expensive Skullcandy headphones a few years back and I found them exhausting - the frequency response was seriously messed up overloaded bass.
I've got a pair of Sennheiser HD25s that I love (picked up for a well under £100 on eBay) which sound lovely to me.
I’d suspect the headphones are the weak link. £100 will probably buy you a good set of phones but with bluetooth and noise cancelling at that price you’re asking a lot
That's sale price, they are normally £180 and reviews are generally very positive about the sound quality.
GPM also streams at 320kbs, and I am sure I heard somewhere that if you upload your own library at a lower bitrate, if the song you want to listen to is available at a higher bitrate on GPM it will automatically play the better quality file.
I sincerely hope you dress in the correct footwear for the experience although…a Jaguar… hmmmmm…. hope one doesn’t park it directly outside ones’ club. You wouldn’t want a rig like that to lower the tone
Of course I don't park it outside the club - the valet does!
The headphones connected by Bluetooth to the phone is probably the weak point.
You could try a USB DAC/headphone amp and connect to your phone. Then use a wired connection to the headphone amp.
You don't need to spend an absolute fortune on the DAC, you would probably notice a difference even if you only spent £20 or £30.
I recommend: decide on your maximum affordable budget, get down to your nearest Hifi shop and try out different makes of headphones, get Spotify onto your phone, link your ‘phones to your mobile with a good quality cable.
My recent experience suggests that an intervening DAC will lift the SQ, but given the extra expense, it might be a good idea to think about it later...
The headphones connected by Bluetooth to the phone is probably the weak point.
You could try a USB DAC/headphone amp and connect to your phone. Then use a wired connection to the headphone amp.
You don’t need to spend an absolute fortune on the DAC, you would probably notice a difference even if you only spent £20 or £30.
Any recommendations?
See above.
I was listening to minidiscs yesterday
Best physical format for music in my opinion. I loved them.
reviews are generally very positive about the sound quality.
I've not checked but audiophile reviews or tech reviews? Last time I looked there seemed to be a lot of headphone reviewing done by people who knew nothing about sound qualilty.
Streamed mp3’s, through a phone, to cheap headphones, will give you the worst way possible to listen to music. This is still OK to some (actually, a lot) of people though.
A lot of kids are happy enough just playing the music through the phone speaker, regardless of whether anyone around is happy to listen.
Anyway, decent buds (not the ones that come with the phone) or proper headphones can improve phone output, but it depends a lot on the phone hardware. Majority of phones sound terrible but with the use of a decent equaliser it can improve it a lot. Annoyingly Android doesn't have a system level equaliser but you can get apps to do it. Spotify has a built in equaliser which works well (I use it for car audio and did transform it to a crap experience to fairly okay for a car).
Though my headphone socket has broken and I can't get the jack to stay in there now. Am looking at USB audio. Needs to be USB-C I think (mine is) and then there's complication as to whether there's a DAC in the phone USB output, in which case a passive adapter is okay (but could be crap DAC in the phone), or get an adapter with a DAC in and then depends on the quality of it plus reading around it seems like there are incompatibilities with some phones. Additionally you might want to charge the phone while listening to something and you can combined charge and audio adapters, but my experience of charging phones while listening to audio is potential for interference, especially in the car.
Bluetooth audio isn't always great. Limitations there in compression etc and then the quality of the DAC in the headphones.
Whats the issue with BT then? Why would an analogue cable sound better?
You can’t beat the experience of personal comparison.
Get yourself down the shop.
Any recommendations?
I bought this for a 2nd system in my workshop, it performed really well for the money, however, I didn't use it as a headphone amp, just to feed a hifi.
If you want to spend a bit more this always gets good reviews. Never used one myself.
https://www.richersounds.com/headphones/headphone-amplifiers/audioquest-dragonfly-black.html
Don't waste money on fancy cables and stuff.
Some Android devices need USB Audio Player Pro to output digital audio through the USB, others don't.
http://www.extreamsd.com/index.php/products/usb-audio-player-pro
But I have already bought my headphones.Like I said before I`m not an audio snob and my own ears are probably not good enough to appreciate high end stuff. All I want is something that sounds "good enough" to me.
Reading others posts it sounds like a DAC could be a good investment in the future, and a cable will be better than BT.
You can’t beat the experience of personal comparison.
Get yourself down the shop.
Very true.
However, it's the opposite of what the resident STW audiophile did.
Well quite. Being as my nearest Hifi shop is so far away I’d have to get on a plane, I had to resort to published reviews and advice from like-minded audiophiles on the Cult Of NAIM forum.
Fortunately, it worked out fine. When I lived in the U.K., personal auditioning was my preferred option, of course. What’s your point, BTW?
Don’t waste money on fancy cables and stuff.
Unless of course, having heard the difference, you don’t consider an improved SQ from better quality equipment to be a waste of money. And stuff.
In my V70 with the Premium Sound System upgrade from Dynadio.
https://www.dynaudio.com/car-audio/in-car-audio-the-history