February 22, 2008

Cans

Because I was always bothering Jeanette with my loud gaming sessions while she was trying to sleep, or surf the net, or read a novel, or just enjoy a peaceful, quiet Saturday afternoon, I decided to look into getting a pair of headphones to satisfy my need of being "immersed" in my games. Simply lowering the volume would not do, since the sound is half the experience.

Being the technology whore that I am and following my motto of "quality over quantity", no flimsy pair of headphones would do. I also could not walk into a Best Buy and just buy an expensive pair, since I need to do extensive research before all electronic purchases. Plus, the research is so much fun!

So, I stumbled upon the audiophile headphone market. And that is not good. Gaming was expensive enough and this hobby puts it to shame.

And I am all in baby!

Long story short, a month after I began my search for some "gaming headphones", I now own not one, not two, but three separate sets of cans. One is for Jeanette, a really cool pair of Grado's that she can use with her laptop. They have a great "retro" look to them which is right up her alley. I also own a pair of Ultrasone closed headphones (my favorite of the three), for when I need isolation from all outside sounds (I love these when playing drums in Rock Band since I do not hear myself hitting the pads, all I hear is the music), plus the Ultrasone's sound just fantastic with music (Pink Floyd is an experience with these things on). And then I own a pair of Sennheisers, an open pair which Ihave been using for DVDs and my regular, non-drumming gaming sessions. Since they are open they have a spacious soundfield and suit the bill well. Music does not sound nearly as good on them, but that is what my Ultrasone's are for (or the Grado's, which also sound great with music).

But wait, there is more. In my search I also discovered that for the most part, to get the most out of your headphones you need to drive them with a dedicated headphone amplifier, since most manufactures don't pay much attention to the quality of the headphone-out jacks on their equipment. Laptops in particular come with pretty crappy sound cards and headphone jacks, so I purchased a small portable amp for the laptop (Headroom's Total Bithead). It is a great product because not only does it function as a headphone amp, but connecting it through the laptop's USB port makes it over-ride your laptop's sound card and it receives the digital audio signal directly and uses its own internal DAC to decode the track. Chances are, unless you have a very expensive soundcard, you'll be getting a much better sound using the Bithead as your source. And it sounds great. Whenever I am using the laptop I fire up iTunes, go to their internet radio section, choose this one particular rock station with a high bitrate (when you begin using good headphones you can really notice the difference between poorly recorded/encoded material) and it sounds fantastic!

But of course, I am not done. The laptop is all set-up, but I do 100% of my gaming on my couch, in front of my tv. Using my headphones connected to my a/v receiver sound fine, but the receiver's headphone out is still pretty mediocre compared to the quality I could be getting. So I made a tough decision. Since I have been having an ongoing problem with my receiver (the center speaker stops working at random and I end up having to watch everything in stereo instead of 5.1 surround sound), plus the fact that I live in an apartment and have never been able to crank up my system as loud as I would want to, I decided to pack everything up (the mess of speaker cables spread across the living room was always pretty unsightly) and save my 5.1 experience for when I own a house. It was a good 10 years, but still, it was always a restricted 10 years since I have always lived in an apartment and have never able to take full advantage of my system. In its place I will be adding a dedicated headphone amplifier and a stand-alone DAC. When watching movies with Jeanette or just watching tv, I'll be using the regular tv speakers (which aren't too shabby, my tv has great speakers), but when I'm going to be doing my gaming, or want that extra "boom" when watching a dvd, or when I want to listen to music and enjoy it at levels I never have before (seriously, listening to music through a really good pair of headphones is a unique experience. I have heard things in tracks that I have never heard before. Tracks that I have been listening to basically my entire life), then I'll be using the headphones running out of the amp/DAC combo.

From what I gather, being a headphone enthusiast is a sickness. You get "upgrade-itis" and are always looking to improve your rig. I obviously believe it considering how quiet it has been in my home the last few weeks. When Jeanette is on her laptop listening to her music and I am gaming with my own cans, the neighbors must think we've moved out. I'm sure I am not done with this hobby (I still haven't received my Amp/DAC to replace my receiver and I have my eye on those Sennheisers HD650's . . . oh yeah, one day) but all in due time. For the moment, I am going to dim the lights, put on my Ultrasone's, and enjoy Darkside of the Moon.

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