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Topic: Best portable music products, and opinions on DAC + Sennheiser MM 450? (Read 5789 times) previous topic - next topic
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Best portable music products, and opinions on DAC + Sennheiser MM 450?

Hey all,

I have a laptop and do alot of traveling. After alot of googling and getting advice from my betters here I have narrowed down my search to a FIIO E7 OR a HeadRoom Total BitHead Portable Headphone Amp & DAC to go with my laptop.
Next step is a pair of quality headphones. I thought I would have to go wired and I was looking at spending around $400. Just found the Sennheiser MM 450 Bluetooth Wireless Headphones. They look phenomenal! Are they really audiophile quality in Bluetooth? Reviews I have read show they are close to it. I like that I can attach a wire if they aren't quite as good as they say wireless wise. They seem to go great with

Any ones two bobs on which is better out of the two DACs/amps?

How have owners found the Sennheiser MM 450's? Keep in mind I'm low end audio here with a DAC under $200, a laptop and I just need some sick headphones. Like I said I travel and the portability of those phones seems amazing. They seem to go great with mobile phones as players which is what I'm currently doing with a smartphone and flac combo. If I got a Cohen media player in the future would these can be less ideal?  Would the bluetooth be rendered useless?

Cheers all

Best portable music products, and opinions on DAC + Sennheiser MM 450?

Reply #1 –
On the headphone amp subject, I've had both of those and the E7 is smaller and works just as well as the Bithead, I think it's cheaper too.

I still have the E7

Best portable music products, and opinions on DAC + Sennheiser MM 450?

Reply #2 –
The bluetooth conection will bypass an external DAC. The DAC you will hear is the one built into the headphones. Last I looked at bluetooth audio, the highest quality available was A2DP - that uses lossy compression.

Best portable music products, and opinions on DAC + Sennheiser MM 450?

Reply #3 –
You may not need a DAC or amp.  If you're not getting noise from your "soundcard", a separate DAC is unlikely to sound better.  And, if you're getting enough volume with your choosen headphones, you shouldn't need an external amp.

Quote
The bluetooth conection will bypass an external DAC.
...and the amp.  With a wireless connection, the headphone obviously has an amp built into it.    Active noise cancellation also requires the headphone to have a built-in amp.


$400 is a lot for headphones...  I'd recommend listening before spending that much.    (It's probably worth the price to get bluetooth in a good-sounding headphone, but I'd still want to hear them 1st.)

Best portable music products, and opinions on DAC + Sennheiser MM 450?

Reply #4 –
Yeah,
I am getting noise from my sound card. Particularly annoying in classical pieces.
The FIIO E7 sounds like good enough quality to suit me. Thanks for your answers, I didn't realise noise canceling headphones used thier own amp. It makes sense I guess. Tell me though if I was to plug in the MM 450's (instead of using the bluetooth) and turn off noise cancelling would I be using my normal DAC/amp and would this be lossless sound or can't you stop the amp in the headphones from taking over.

Is there no noise cancelling headphone that can be switched off and double as great desktop phones when at home? It starts to get more expensive if it's not possible and you have to buy 2.

Best portable music products, and opinions on DAC + Sennheiser MM 450?

Reply #5 –
Quote
The bluetooth conection will bypass an external DAC. The DAC you will hear is the one built into the headphones. Last I looked at bluetooth audio, the highest quality available was A2DP - that uses lossy compression.


Thanx for the heads up I should have known bluetooth would be lossy no matter what it sounds like. They have brought out a codec now called Apt-X which Sennheiser claim is "cd quality" and they say everywhere 'almost' lossless sound. I wonder how big of an almost that is...

Best portable music products, and opinions on DAC + Sennheiser MM 450?

Reply #6 –
Quote from: Beaug on
Quote
The bluetooth conection will bypass an external DAC. The DAC you will hear is the one built into the headphones. Last I looked at bluetooth audio, the highest quality available was A2DP - that uses lossy compression.


Thanx for the heads up I should have known bluetooth would be lossy no matter what it sounds like. They have brought out a codec now called Apt-X which Sennheiser claim is "cd quality" and they say everywhere 'almost' lossless sound. I wonder how big of an almost that is...


High bit rate lossy transcodes are generally CD quality in that most people can't ABX them.  If you're curious about APT-X, search the forums.  The developers have mentioned it here.

Best portable music products, and opinions on DAC + Sennheiser MM 450?

Reply #7 –
Ok so I was just after very quality sounding headphones to put with my E7 and my laptop at home. That were also portable enough to travel with easily linked to the E7 with my smartphone. I really did want a noise cancelling feature for my ears that could be turned on or off. So the headphones could be used at home via E7 and on the road with the inbuilt noise cancellation.
I got greedy wanting wireless as well. It seems the tech is just not out there yet. I'm steering clear of bluetooth after spending literally days re-ripping everything to flac

So the Audio-Technica ATH-ESW9 seem to get great reviews as an all-rounder and are nice and portable. Can anyone suggest any others like this hphone that I could look at before I make up my mind? I'm out in the country so it's really hard to get a listen of a lot of these models. I think a blind purchase will be in order. I just wish I could find a h phone with reviews like this that also has the option of noise cancellation.

Cheers

Best portable music products, and opinions on DAC + Sennheiser MM 450?

Reply #8 –
Can't say I've listened to the Sennheisers you mention, but in general, I've liked the noise cancellation feature but hated the headphones that use it.  For me, sound quality comes first.  If you don't have that, noise cancellation is a minor point.  I agree with DVDDoug, get something you can try and return if you don't like it (tell us here, too, of course).

As an alternative to noise cancellation, something that can reduce noise by 30dB and NOT use its own active electronics, look at some of the higher end in-ear phones like the Etymotics or Shure, especially if you've got that kind of budget.  I've found the reviews and data on headphone.com to be accurate and reliable.  I personally am on my second set of Sennheiser MM50, which is an in-ear headset with phone compatibility (mic and control) included. I got them because they were recommended on headphone.com, and seemed to come pretty close to the far more expensive Etyotics, which I had no budget for at the time.  The last pair I bought from Amazon for under $30, sound quite decent, and seal quite well.  You may need to play with the pads, they give you several, but when they are sealed you get surprising noise reduction and startling bass.  I've driven them from my laptop direct, through a Headroom Total Airhead amp, my own design headphone amp (like that one best), my iPhone and iPod.  They always sound good, and are not terrifically sensitive to what drives them.

I haven't found a Bluetooth system I like yet.  The earpieces are usually crap.  There are several Bluetooth adapters out there that you can plug your favorite wired headphones into and solve that, but then you have their feeble headphone amp and, of course, your audio pounded by Bluetooth.  It's best feature is the fact that its wireless, which sometimes wins over sound, but not usually for me.