Hi, to preface this, I’m am not an audiophile and entirely new to the concept of HiFi audio.
I’ve owned a pair of Philips SHP9500 for a while now and am satisfied with the sound. They sound good to the point that I can’t imagine what a better sounding pair of headphones would sound like. The music is clear and detailed from what I can tell. My pair of qc35 has more bass but I would say sound similar, although I’ve never listed to them side by side.
I’ve done a 128 bitrate vs 360 bitrate vs lossless audio test and to be honest I can barely tell the difference between 128 and 360. In a real world scenario I would Never notice if my audio suddenly switched between the two.
Anyways,
This holiday season I decided to spend some money on nicer headphones and ordered Sennheiser 6XX with a Topping DX1 amp/dac.
They haven’t come in yet but I’ve been looking around the internet trying to gauge the difference in the listening experience that I am going to have (if any) but I’m not really finding anything. Both headphones have good reviews and according to rtings.com, the 6xxs have comparable characteristics, if not worse in certain areas. Even some extremely expensive headphones that are apparently known for their sound, have very similar ratings.
My question is: Is hifi audio purely down to preference? Will the average person have any chance of distinguishing higher quality audio? Was there any point in me upgrading my headphones?
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6xx are better, don’t look at rtings, here on reddit you will find all the experiences and real information you need.
Rtings has a bit of a reputation of jumping to conclusions and iffy rating methods.
The SHP9500 and 6XX are a night and day difference to me. The 6XX has a very smooth treble representation, and I percieve it as sounding “more detailed” for lack of a better term.
The SHP9500 on the other hand has rather rough sounding treble, and even after experimenting with EQ, it always sounds grainy and harsh in comparison.
Now, the 6XX is a little more “narrow” sounding, but for me personally, I find much of the appeal of Soundstage loses luster after a while, and the other qualities of the 6XX shine much better
What does a smoother treble entail? Do instruments sound more detailed? Does this effect vocals in any way?
You may find an upgrade buying a headphone, you will not find an upgrade in digital audio codecs. Youtube already uses a transparent codec (Opus 192kbps), there’s nothing above.
Don’t trust rtings ratings, they are dodgy. Their measurements are ok but that’s about it.
My first good set of earphones was the B&W Pi7 and at the time I thought they were great until I bought a Meze 109 Pro and a Sennheiser HD 600 and I thought those were great until I got the HE1000V2. My audio end game is actually all three of these headphones. Now that I go back to my Pi7s I now hear how bloated the bass really is compared to my great set of headphones.