[X] My Assistant

I got the chance to pick up a HD820 for $650, the seller is trying to clear their inventory.

A lot of folks hate this HP, but I think at this price point it's actually a pretty good closed-back option. Trebles are good, mid-range is uh, "fine", bass is there, and the soundstage + imaging is definitely among the best even compared to the open-back stuff.

I still think the HD800S is a significantly better (and less confused) product, and I don't know why Sennheiser is trying to charge you more for the HD820 than the HD800S. But at $650? Brand new? Definitely a bargain.

I got the chance to pick up a HD820 for $650, the seller is trying to clear their inventory.

A lot of folks hate this HP, but I think at this price point it's actually a pretty good closed-back option. Trebles are good, mid-range is uh, "fine", bass is there, and the soundstage + imaging is definitely among the best even compared to the open-back stuff.

I still think the HD800S is a significantly better (and less confused) product, and I don't know why Sennheiser is trying to charge you more for the HD820 than the HD800S. But at $650? Brand new? Definitely a bargain.

That is a pretty excellent price. Reminds me of that Italian retailer that got kick banned by Sennhieser distributor for selling too cheap.

Last time I saw HD800 at that price in an official sale was 2016. I do not think that level of product from Sennheisser has been priced anywhere near that ever again. They have also just kept upping the price. Their yearly sale is shite too.

HD820s here are like $2000 on sale now. They want $3.6k RRP.

Considering the shop is closing down, doubt the owner really cares about pissing off Senny. He's retiring after all.

But yeah, the HD820 definitely not worth your price. You can get a MDR-Z1R usually less than that, which I still find to be the best closed-back HP I have ever used.

High-end headphones are getting ridiculously expensive in general (some even bump up the price AND cheapen the packaging at the same time). Sennheiser kinda started this trend with their original HD800, but christ just look at the Susvara Unveiled.

I currently have (after reducing my collection):

High end open: Grado RS1 + Audeze LCD3

Medium end closed: ATH-MSR7NC and JBL

High end IEM: Shure 535

One day I might pick up a HD800 or Beyerdynamic T1. Can't really afford or justify atm.

I had some high end custom IEMs but they were lost on a business trip, I think having like 10 drivers was kinda overkill, the Shure 535 had better imaging/soundstage.


If I could pick up HD820 for $650 i'd even use them for telecommuting to work lol. I don't really listen to classical much anymore, so not really justified remotely at regular price lol.

Guess I should lay out my cards as well.

High-End Cans (Open): Sennheiser HD800S, Focal Utopia, HiFiMAN Susvara (One driver dead after warranty, DO NOT buy anything from HiFiMAN unless you don't mind playing the QC lottery)

High-End Cans (Closed): Sony MDR-Z1R, Focal Stellia

"Normal" Cans: Sennheiser HD600, Philips Fidelio X2HR, Grell OEA1 (Gonna sell), Koss KSC75

IEMs: Sony IER-Z1R, Moondrop Variations, Sennheiser IE600 and IE200

Amps/Players: FiiO K9 Pro ESS, Topping A90 Discrete, Sennheiser HDV820, Sony WM1ZM2

TWS Buds: Apple Airpods Pro

(Bolded = Daily drivers)

One day I might pick up a HD800 or Beyerdynamic T1. Can't really afford or justify atm.

...

If I could pick up HD820 for $650 i'd even use them for telecommuting to work lol. I don't really listen to classical much anymore, so not really justified remotely at regular price lol.

Ultimately depends on whether you really care about "soundstage" really. I have never heard anything that does staging like the 800 series, but it doesn't work for everyone even with orchestral/classical lovers.

I tried the T1 once before, but didn't leave any lasting impression on me.

I had some high end custom IEMs but they were lost on a business trip, I think having like 10 drivers was kinda overkill, the Shure 535 had better imaging/soundstage.

Are they all BA drivers? Honestly I find these to be more of a marketing gimmick in general. The IER-Z1R only has 3 drivers (dynamic + BA + treble tweeter) and it rips apart all of the IEMs that I tried.

The only bad thing I can say about them is that they have a habit of ripping your ears apart as well. The comfort of IER-Z1R is just flatout horrible.

Monoprice "Modern Retro"
Bose OE2

Those are my only headphones, i barely use them. I like my loudspeakers.
I think some 1970s or 1980s metal AKG headphones might be nice but I'm not really itching to buy them.

This post has been edited by Moonlight Rambler: Aug 14 2024, 21:59

I can't do stereo setups because my neighbors would want to burn my apartment down.

They're called loudspeakers but I don/t play them very loud because I like my ears.
And I keep the bass very subdued. Everything is relative.
Could I get more range out of these? Sure. But I don't want to.

This post has been edited by Moonlight Rambler: Aug 15 2024, 06:21

I use AKG K-371s which are pretty good bang for the buck even if they're not really HiFi.
My speakers are Genelec 1029As and the amp is some Devon both of which I salvaged for free. Even better value. I pretty much use the speakers for everything except gaming.

I use to have nice "triple driver" IEMs but they broke so now I'm stuck with Sennheiser CX 300Ss. Again, decent for their price but definitely budget earbuds. I mostly use them for audiobooks while hiking or walking so who cares.

Guess I should lay out my cards as well.

High-End Cans (Open): HiFiMAN Susvara (One driver dead after warranty, DO NOT buy anything from HiFiMAN unless you don't mind playing the QC lottery)

I thought Hifiman was good?! I had my Audeze replaced under warranty four times. The last time they just gave me a random hybrid LCD-3X which whilst technically an upgrade I do not like as much as the LCD-3. Also they had the vegan pleather instead of the lamb leather.

I had to fight with them each time. For an expensive headphone audeze was hard to deal with. I had to pay hundreds in shipping each time.

Amps/Players: FiiO K9 Pro ESS, Topping A90 Discrete, Sennheiser HDV820,

Topping over the HDV820?

I have got the Audiolab M-DAC Mini, and the iBasso DX90.

My daily is a Benchmark AC3 dac and a Talisman Audio Midnight amp.


I also used to have the Meier Audio Stage dac.Kinda funny, a lot of your collection are the headphones recommended by Jan Meier.

I had the Asus dragonforce dac or whatever it was for a while too lol. It was just a meme.

I tried the T1 once before, but didn't leave any lasting impression on me.

'
I've heard mixed reviews. Though their price is relatively good now compared to the current price of the HD800S.

Are they all BA drivers? Honestly I find these to be more of a marketing gimmick in general. The IER-Z1R only has 3 drivers (dynamic + BA + treble tweeter) and it rips apart all of the IEMs that I tried.

yeah the pair that were lost were EarSonic Em10... I looked up the current price... DAMN. They are like 3k now lol. RIP.

They were technically great but from an enjoyment perspective I prefer the Shure 535 with 3 BA drivers.

I use AKG K-371s which are pretty good bang for the buck even if they're not really HiFi.

I dream of AKG 701s, but probably not worth it for me to buy.

I mostly use them for audiobooks while hiking or walking so who cares.

For walking i have a pair of Shokz bone bone conduction headphones.

I thought Hifiman was good?! I had my Audeze replaced under warranty four times. The last time they just gave me a random hybrid LCD-3X which whilst technically an upgrade I do not like as much as the LCD-3. Also they had the vegan pleather instead of the lamb leather.

I had to fight with them each time. For an expensive headphone audeze was hard to deal with. I had to pay hundreds in shipping each time.

Sound-wise HiFiMAN is excellent. I just have *huge* issues with their QC process. Build problems with all three of the headphones I bought from them.

Audeze warranty service can be a hit or miss yeah. My friend had to scream at them a bit to get her headband fixed, because they kept insisting that's not a production issue.

Topping over the HDV820?

HDV820 has issues with low-impedance HPs. Topping generally works well with everything and I only use the HDV820 for Senny HPs.

My daily is a Benchmark AC3 dac and a Talisman Audio Midnight amp.

Is it good?

I've heard mixed reviews. Though their price is relatively good now compared to the current price of the HD800S.

Well, fwiw, I don't think it's a bad can. Just nothing special imo.

Is it good?

Yes the Benchmark is a good clear dac, that does most of what I want it to do automatically. Depends on the price though, its a bit expensive now.

The amp is legendary and hipster. Its hipster because the French manufacturer won loads of awards then refused to sell it to anyone because they wanted the reputation only. Great for a class A balanced, lacks XLR outputs though. The Meier audo stage dac was fantastic but they had QA issues, I went through three of them.

I was going to say the problem with the AMP was that it did not work well with the LCD-3X because of they are 200ohm... then I remembered after years there is a switch on the bottom for setting the output for whether you are using 0-32ohm 200-300ohm or 400-600ohm headphones... Its on the bottom of the unit so apparently easy to forget.

The LCD3x sounds great with the amp on the correct setting. I haven't used them for years. Sucks they gave me the replacements with vegan pleather.. they are self destructing. I will have to buy some leather 3rd party replacements. Dang, I nearly gave the headphones away to friend.


edit: derp Balanced vs XLR, not unbalanced.

This post has been edited by EsotericSatire: Aug 17 2024, 12:25

You guys have any ideas of a good DAC under $200?
I have a 10-year-old NuForce uDac-3 which works fine but it has a couple weird problems with it that I'd like to get rid of whenever I have the extra money to throw at minor inconveniences.

I have heard a lot of good things about the FiiO K7. Haven't tested it myself fwiw, but the K9 Pro ESS has served me well so far.

If you want to play with EQ on the DAC level, you should probably look somewhere else however.

If you want to play with EQ on the DAC level, you should probably look somewhere else however.

I'm not looking to fiddle with anything. Not that I mind if I have the ability to. I just want something that plugs into USB and isn't the mobo's internal sound card.
The K7 looks pretty interesting.

The FiiO K7 is popular.

Others at that price point include the O2 Dac and Meier Audio PCstep.




Edit:

EV depreciation within 3 years is 24% higher than modeled by dealer finance, banks, rental/lease companies. At 5-7 years EVs lose 75-80% of their value, which is bonkers.

This means leasing finance has had to rise and is no longer competitive. Originally EV lease prices were 50% of ICE cars but now average EV lease cost is 50% higher than ICE. This is with govt subsidies for EV novated leases in most western countries.

EVs were meant to depreciate slower than ICE vehicles but they are not hold their value especially at the low to mid level model segments.

- If the battery fails the value depreciates 100% instantly.
- Insurance and operating costs rising
- Cheaper cars flooding in (that depreciate faster).



This post has been edited by EsotericSatire: Aug 21 2024, 04:33

Finally looked into the voltages of my 13700k. Spiking to a max Vcore of 1.34V and average of 1.25V ST in p95, and about 1.3V on MT. Looks like my -0.075V undervolt, and disabling the stupid ST boost paid off, apparently people saw spikes to 1.6 or even 1.7V during ST workloads. Not gonna bother updating the BIOS, it'll probably ruin things for me.

This post has been edited by -terry-: Aug 23 2024, 00:40

Pulled my Katmai Pentium 3 out today for the first time in a while, decided to exercise its "death star" hard disk (IBM 75GXP).
Went fine. Might mess with it some more tomorrow.

in talking to someone about netbooks I ended up impulse buying a nanote next after seeing it was pocketable and had a real cpu(non arm). hopefully it will be a fun time with linux on it. for the longest time I have wanted something resembling an actual pocket computer with keyboard, a real cpu, and just plain linux the same as on all my other setups. though your pockets will have to be quite large, its border line doable.

if anything the deal I got was good enough to sell it for profit as is, which is what I always tell myself but I never sell anything I buy

Some people are showing that tuning the 9950x like we did with the 5000 series, they can match the gaming performance of the 7800x3D. That's like a 20-25% boost in performance with advanced manual tuning.

It does show that AMD's default settings for the 9000 series is still immature. Out of the box the 7800x3D is still better, its a bit of a pain having to get the right ram, and tune the CPU settings. Its a lot of effort to tune that way and only probably 2-5% of owners do that kind of tuning.

With 5000 series we had tools that did 80% of the work, but reddit harassed all the devs of those projects, and most of them quit.