ReggieB
10-05-2011, 08:01
One of the consequencies of me changing jobs just over a year ago, was me starting to wear headphones at work. I'd moved from a quiet office environment to one were most people play music - and most of it not to my taste.
I started with a pair of Goldring GR100s bought cheap for about twenty pounds on ebay. They were plugged straight into the my PC and worked fine and at least proved that I couple work for long stretches whilst wearing the head phones. However, I thought I should be able to improve the quality of the sound and improve the insulation from other sounds by upgrading and going for closed backed headphones.
Searching around I found play.com where selling Goldring NS1000 for fifty quid so I nabbed a pair. They were definitely an upgrade in sound quality over the GR100s. Much more subtle reproduction of sound. Also being closed backed, they cut out most of the external sounds. They also come with noise cancellation, but to be honest I rarely turn this on.
Over the same period, I also started play with amplification. I started with a Bravo Valve amplifier from ebay. One of the cheap ones from China. This I coupled with a Edirol UA 20 acting as a USB DAC. Again this was a great improvement over connecting my headphones directly to the PC.
Next move was a Creek OBH11 headphone amp - again second hand on ebay. Very nice. At last I started getting space around singers and instruments, and subtlies like recording room dynamics became more decernable.
At this point I decided my weak point was the Edirol, and I looked around a while for a USB DAC to replace it. However, it seemed to me that there were a lot of good reviews for some combined USB DAC/Headphone amp solutions, and so when a AUNE mini USB DAC came up second hand on ebay for about sixty pounds, I nabbed it.
Again an improvement to sound quality. The combination of NS1000 and Aune works fine for me. I think the next upgrade will probably be replacement headphones. I'm currently looking at the options for closed backed headphones in the £100 - £150 price range (suggestions welcome).
I've been so please with my headphone listening, that the Creek has moved to my bedroom, where it is fed by a Sansa clip, and drives either the GR100 or some cheap Sennieser headphones (depending on the likelihood that I'm going to fall asleep - the cheaper units being less of a problem if I do).
All in all, my move to headphone listening has been fun. I'm still nowhere near the quality of my hi-fi set up, but I'm listening to more music in places I didn't do so before. I'm also listening to more computer based music which is the way I think music is going - so good to get into now I think.
I started with a pair of Goldring GR100s bought cheap for about twenty pounds on ebay. They were plugged straight into the my PC and worked fine and at least proved that I couple work for long stretches whilst wearing the head phones. However, I thought I should be able to improve the quality of the sound and improve the insulation from other sounds by upgrading and going for closed backed headphones.
Searching around I found play.com where selling Goldring NS1000 for fifty quid so I nabbed a pair. They were definitely an upgrade in sound quality over the GR100s. Much more subtle reproduction of sound. Also being closed backed, they cut out most of the external sounds. They also come with noise cancellation, but to be honest I rarely turn this on.
Over the same period, I also started play with amplification. I started with a Bravo Valve amplifier from ebay. One of the cheap ones from China. This I coupled with a Edirol UA 20 acting as a USB DAC. Again this was a great improvement over connecting my headphones directly to the PC.
Next move was a Creek OBH11 headphone amp - again second hand on ebay. Very nice. At last I started getting space around singers and instruments, and subtlies like recording room dynamics became more decernable.
At this point I decided my weak point was the Edirol, and I looked around a while for a USB DAC to replace it. However, it seemed to me that there were a lot of good reviews for some combined USB DAC/Headphone amp solutions, and so when a AUNE mini USB DAC came up second hand on ebay for about sixty pounds, I nabbed it.
Again an improvement to sound quality. The combination of NS1000 and Aune works fine for me. I think the next upgrade will probably be replacement headphones. I'm currently looking at the options for closed backed headphones in the £100 - £150 price range (suggestions welcome).
I've been so please with my headphone listening, that the Creek has moved to my bedroom, where it is fed by a Sansa clip, and drives either the GR100 or some cheap Sennieser headphones (depending on the likelihood that I'm going to fall asleep - the cheaper units being less of a problem if I do).
All in all, my move to headphone listening has been fun. I'm still nowhere near the quality of my hi-fi set up, but I'm listening to more music in places I didn't do so before. I'm also listening to more computer based music which is the way I think music is going - so good to get into now I think.