I found out an output impedance issue with the AK70. So I had to re-buy a Chord Mojo.. It sounds much much better!
After 10 years my Audio-GD Compass DAC/AMP is starting to have some issues so I ordered a Modi and Magni Schiit stack. It's not high-end but I'm not doing as much critical listening as I used to. My daily drivers are now the electrostatic Stax 2020 earspeakers. I ordered them from Japan several years ago and never really used them until recently. They're a little awkward and they look like two speakers slapped onto a head, but they're pretty good for everyday listening.
So far I'm pretty impressed with the Modi and Magni 3+ stack. I noticed a large improvement over my old Compass with all my headphones and my speakers. Not bad for for $200. Currawong has a nice in depth review.
Cheap Chinese Bluetooth headphones from Amazon sound like hot garbage. My wife is not an audiophile by any means and has bought three different sets that sounded so bad she sent them back. The high reviews on them are hilariously fake. One of the brands would even send you a $10 Amazon gift card as a bribe for a five star review. You would probably think that makes them a good deal. They were $40 and sound worse than headphones from the drug store or the dollar store. They basically aren’t worth anything and belong in a landfill.
I have a few different Bluetooth Headphones from about 6 years ago and they really suck. I have the original Sony 1000XM from several years ago and while I love their function, the sound is still below average. I bought some $50 Jlabs Jbuds last year and they sucked. They wouldn't pair, then they'd disconnect, and finally after 3 months they stopped charging. I debated if I should splurge and get the Samsung Galaxy buds for $130 or even the new Pixel buds, but then I decided on some Aukey buds on sale for $21. Surprisingly, they don't suck. They're not amazing, but after all the other crap I've tried, they are good for the price. They pair fast and sound as good as wired buds in the $30 range. It's a low bar to be sure, but still a pleasant surprise. Amazon is plagued with fake reviews now. I think someone estimated 60% were fake. I bought a Bluetooth speaker awhile back based on reviews and recommendations. The thing was way worse than other speakers at the same price. I left a review saying it sucked and the company offered to refund my money and let me keep the speaker if I removed the review.
That's the funny thing about bluetooth headphones. Even sets from otherwise great brands have mediocre reviews. edit: she ordered a few more sets from some other brands. Will report back if any of them don’t suck.
The air pods pro aren't too bad for cheap buds. I had the MX3 earbuds and it kept cutting out at odd points. I wouldn't get the air pods pro unless she has an iphone though.
I got the plantronics backbeat pro back in 2015. it was probably the best bluetooth headset i owned, mainly due to having aptx, aptx low latency codec compatibility.
I grabbed a set of Sennheiser HD 599 SEs because they were $98 during Prime Day and why not. They're comfortable and have decent sound quality. Easy to recommend at $98.
Those are pretty popular. I have the HD 202s which are one of their low-end budget headphones and I'm always surprised by how good it sounds. I keep them in the night stand but I haven't used them in a while because I don't have anything to plug them into. I need to get some lightning to 3.5mm headphone jack adaptors. I recently upgraded my original Sony WH-1000XM to the WH-1000XM4. The gen 1 was having Bluetooth issues. I'm not sure if it didn't support the latest codex or what. Anyway, despite being 3 generations newer, the XM4 isn't that much of an improvement. I don't really understand why people would upgrade Bluetooth headphones every year unless they are having battery issues.
Is that deal over? I looked and it was $199. I have been using the Drop/ Sennheiser PC38x and really don't need another headset, but I would pay $100 for a good spare set.
It ended for now, but it's a common Prime Day/Black Friday/Cyber Monday deal that should come up again
lol I bought the Apple Airpod Pros for $180. They sound the same as a $35 pair of Anker's I had. But goddamn that Transparancy feature is amazing. Trying to figure out if it's worth an extra $150, though...
Bluetooth has really underwhelming sound quality in my experience. So underwhelming that expensive sets of headphones often don't sound much better than cheap ones.
external sound around you goes through the airpods almost like a hearing aid. regular airpods have it too, but since the pros are noise cancellation, it's a great quality of life feature so you don't have to take them off to hear around you
Oh nice. That's the feature I bought the WH-1000XM for. It can also filter voice only which is kind of weird. I can have a normal conversation with someone on a plane and not hear the plane.
I bought a Creative G6. It's Creative's attempt to break into the high-end headphone DAC/Amp market. It has a 32bit/384khz DAC and can drive up to 600 ohm headphones. It has separate amps for each channel. It has a direct mode that bypasses Creative's crappy drivers so you can just use the hardware. Will report back on how it sounds. I'm kind of surprised Creative just got into headphone amps in recent years. They were the big name in PC audio back in the day, but they didn't respond well to Realtek coming in and undercutting them with cheap and decent sound hardware on motherboards. People don't buy sound cards much these days, but they do buy external DACs and amps for headphones. It seems like Creative would have been one of the first companies to get into making them, but it took them a long time.
yeah i remember they were going pretty hard into headphone amps since 2015'ish. the were doing lots of different things starting around that time. i actually got their soundblaster x7 (still using it) that year. it's basically an external usb soundcard. has a built in headphone amp and can connect passive speakers to it. i got some e-mu xm7 speakers and a 12" dayton audio subwoofer connected to it. lots of people build their computers but don't do much with sound. they just settle with the onboard sound. it was pretty much a losing battle for creative ever since onboard sound became standard on all mobo's.