Audiophile VS Musiphile - Your Thoughts?

[audiobomber]

I enjoy music, first and foremost. Regardless of sound quality, music is vitally important to me.

 

However, I am definitely an audiophile. I spend an inordinate amount of time and money tweaking and upgrading my various systems. Sometimes, particularly after I've made some change, this requires that I listen to certain cuts. Not necessarily for musical enjoyment, but for probative purposes. I see no conflict between that peculiarly audiophile exercise and my love of music.

 

I would add that musical virtuosity and technique hold little interest for me. I value melody above all. Guitar shredders, virtuoso pianists, crazy sax solos; all are boring unless I hear a melody that grips me.

[audiobomber]

LOL! Woodstock without sound reinforcement would have been quite a bust. 

[audiobomber]

1 hour ago, crenca said:

It was worse than I could have ever imagined.  Whenever the drummer played his kick drum (which was often) it came out horribly distorted, at a volume that overwhelmed everything else, and it had a tail of pure distortion that lasted about 1 second. 

I don't know if the sound men are functionally deaf, incompetent, inattentive or a combination of these. I've been to a lot of concerts where there was no excuse for what we heard.

[audiobomber]

I have a pair of headphones designed for studio mastering, the Beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pro. They come with two sets of ear pads. "The dark grey balanced ear pads ensure a sound with a slight bass boost. The light grey “analytical” ear pads ensure a neutral sound".

 

I don't know about pros, but it's pretty clear that most people at Head-Fi who own these headphones prefer the Balanced pads. I cannot abide them, they make the bass too fat and accentuate treble. I prefer accuracy over euphony, but it seems that is not the norm among audiophiles. 

 

The Beyerdynamic Amiron is a very similar headphone, using the same Tesla drivers, but designed for home use, not studio. The Amiron is very warm sounding. I kept them one day before requesting return authorization and ordering the DT 1990. I found the very famous Sennheiser HD 650 had the same overly warm and polite tonal balance. Not what I want at all.

[audiobomber]

20 hours ago, Summit said:

 

And here I believed that it was audiophiles that strived for what you describes, while melophiles focused mostly on the music itself. The definition of audiophiles and melophiles is maybe not as clear as I thought.

Like most everything else, it is a scale or spectrum. I knew a professional jazz musician whose only music source was a ghetto blaster. 

[audiobomber]

1 hour ago, Musicophile said:

Get a Sennheiser HD800 and you‘re all set. 

 

Actually I am 100% satisfied with the DT 1990. These headphones with Analytical pads and Asgard II amp are the end game for my headphone system. 

[audiobomber]

6 hours ago, The_K-Man said:

What diffference does USBing out of ones device, into a Dragonfly, then into the mini headphone cable make, compared to just coming directly out of the headphone jack?

 

To me I prefer a direct out vs. all those other steps. 

The difference between the inboard DAC and headphone out on my Dell Inspiron laptop vs. a $79 Sabaj Da2 USB DAC is night and day. Sound from the laptop alone is thin and sibilant. Playing through the little USB DAC adds warmth, detail and smoothness. It is literally pass vs. fail, 4/10 vs. 7/10. 

 

Try one of these, you will not regret it: https://www.amazon.com/Korg-DSDAC100M-Digital-Analog-Converter/dp/B00GTIUX0Y/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1547576094&sr=8-1&keywords=korg+ds-ds-100m

[audiobomber]

3 hours ago, The_K-Man said:

 

No thanks!  If I needed a smiley EQ curve or the equivalent of a Loudness button I could accomplish that with my EQ app.

Your comment on EQ is off the mark. The Da2 is identical to the SMSL Idea. You can see the smile-free FR response here and comparison with a Dragonfly Black here:

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/measurements-and-review-of-smsl-idea-and-audioquest-dragonfly-black-dacs.2397/

 

I read your post and compared the DAC's I had available (Sabaj Da2 and Korg DS-DAC010R), so I could give an informed reply. I used DT 1990 Pro headphones which are 250 ohms but very efficient. The difference between my newish i7 Windows 10 laptop's headphone out and the little Sabaj was shocking, larger and more important than the difference between the Sabaj and the several times more expensive Korg. The Korg is easily better than the Sabaj in several ways, but as I mentioned, the difference between inboard and external was pass vs. fail. 

 

It seems to me you did not want a response to your question after all, or maybe you were just trolling?. 

 

 

[audiobomber]

3 hours ago, Kal Rubinson said:

I have one of those in my closet.  My recollection from way back is that it was that it was "pleasant."  That's all.

PM me if you want to sell it.