Sound Quality and Expensive Headphones

[user-removed]

Hi guys,

Been a spotify user for longer than I can remember now, definitely more than a year probably approaching two, within a day of getting it I subscribed to premium and stopped buying cd's and never looked back! Love the service!

The thing is, until now my headphones have been cheap - first standard iphone buds then a pair of E10's in ears from sound magic - which are superb!

I now work from home so I am considering buying some top end headphones - these B&W P7's to be precise:

http://www.whathifi.com/review/bw-p7

My concern is this - are these headphones going to show up quality issues in spotify content? A lot of my music is downloaded but I do use the radio function over wifi a lot as well - the last thing I want to do is sink a small fortune on cans to be left deflated by a worse sound experience.

If it is I'll probably go for a cheaper set that are more forgiving - any thoughts?


Cheers,


Mike

[Peter__ · Accepted solution]

It really depends on how good your ears are really! I normally struggle to hear the difference between 320kbps and lossless on my good headphones, but my brother can tell straight away the difference.

[user-removed]

Excellent point - I opted for a pair heavily reduced in price akg k550's (retail 250, on amazon for 106 quid from an authorised akg dealer).

I can live with that, is less than a third of the B&W cost so an easier pill to swallow!

[jeremygoh]

Some people can hear the level of detail from the music, with the higher quality - some people claim they can hear the wider soundstage and the better bass... But who knows, this is yet another mystery to be solved.

[oostcoast]

Even if you can hear the minute differences between lossless and lossy audio of good quality, it doesn't matter. You aren't going to hear any of that when you are casually listening to music, it just fades away. The only thing you can consider to (further) improve the sound is to use an headphone amp. I've used one for a while and it does improve the sound of my headphones, dt770 with a high amperage, but I didn't like the hassle of having to stuff another thing with wires into my pocket. I recommend the headfi forums if you want to look into that sort of thing.

[user-removed]

yeah i spent ages looking at headfi forums and it was all way above my head - i am in no way shape or form a audiophile.

that being said, my AKG's came yesterday, as promised by amazon prime - i immediately gave them a test and noticed an improvement over the sound magic E10's - the bass is more true (less thumpy) and the highs less shrill.

The most important thing, though, is the reason i bought them - comfort, the in ears would do my head in after a while, these AKG's have massive pillows for ear cups, they are almost the size of a CD and hella-comfy.

I also set my streaming quality to extreme and re-synced all my music at the same level.

I'd recommend the AKG's and E10's to anyone - one for in the home and one for on the go (i'll still be using the E10's for dog walking/gym/etc)..

I recon £106 delivered is a nice price point for a excellent set of headphones, i wouldnt want to pay 260 quid for them, in hindsight.

[Erland_88]

The "scary" thing is also opening yourself to a new world, when you are already happy with what you have.. it can make you broke 🙂