[Passerine]

What digital recorder and microphones do you use? Low noise floor is crucial for birdsong.

Thanks for asking earmonger. Last year I upgraded my recorder from an older Merantz PMD-661 to the Sound Devices MixPre-3 II. I really like the MixPre-3 II. For my microphones, I use the popular but now discontinued Sennheiser ME67 shotgun with K6 power module, and with a homemade parabolic dish I use the Sennheiser ME62 omni microphone with the same K6 module. I've looked into possibly getting better mics but it seems I'd need to spend a lot to do better than what I have and I'm pretty happy with the Sennheisers.

Dave

 

[Adurm]

Thanks for the ad, Mods. I'm very much a beginner compared to most on here. Happy to learn from others and offer my own experiences. Cheers

 

[Googe]

Hello Head-Fi,

Listening to Music is my favorite past time!!

I listen to a variety of music, pop, metal and newage. Lately, I find myself listening on average 2-3 hours daily.

My focus now is critical listening…. Which brings me to this community.

 

[GlobalAudioSquad]

Hi Headfi'rs

I'm an avid audiophile and have been for a long time, a massive fan of this site for a while, so I've now decided to join in the fun.

Looking forward to getting to know and learning new things but also meeting like-minded people

GBA

 

[rocamargo]

Hello everyone! I'm a fan of this website and recently decided to be part of it. I'm starting to enjoy audiophile music, and my gear is limited, but I love it. I have a Matrix mini-i Pro 3 as DAC, a Sennheiser HD800S, and a Quicksilver headphone amp. Nice to meet you all!

 

[dloo86]

Hello all! Just learning about the bottomless pit that is the world of IEMs. I have always enjoyed and stuck to Etymotics, starting with the ER4i and now the ER2XR (yes, I am actually okay with their fit!), but have only started learning and branching out beyond this. Looking forward to experiencing this world more.

 

[gobu]

Hey folks!
Joined since I thought would like to interact and ask stuff as I realize that this hobby is here to stay. Got into it almost a year back, always spent hours listening to music and loved the sound of sennheiser earphones, and when I bought the HD599 SE the possibilities with an open back opened my eyes(ears)? Since then I went looking to make everything sound a little bit better, listening to all sorts of opinions and reading up on forums. I still think I am an absolute newbie and the best part of it is you keep getting surprised with what is possible in this hobby.

My gear currently includes
Headphones - Sennheiser HD599 SE, Drop HD6XX, Hifiman Edition XS
DAC/AMP - Ifi Zen DAC V2, Fiio BTR5 2021, Xduoo MT 602

Looking forward to sharing my experiences, as well being part of the community!

 

[jkrokidas]

Hello everyone, wanted to finally introduce myself even though I have been a long time lurker. This community has taught me so much and expanded my knowledge of audio. First pair of headphones outside the basic/mass produced sub par goods were my DT990's velour. Man the comfort. Then to TH900's then MDR-Z1R and now a Focal Utopia. Huge bass head and love my hip-hop/House. I now listen to music I never thought I would enjoy just to hear and enjoy the amazing quality of sound and craftmanship that many here have introduced me to. Classical, to Hans Zimmer's sound stages to Jazz. A pair of quality headphones that fit your preference expanded my love for music even further!

 

[LME49990]

Hello Everyone, would be great if I could learn something here, and contribute my 5cents worth if it is of any worth. The resource here looks extensive and interesting. I have a great interest in Headphone, IEM, DAC and head Amps. Not a fan of MQA audio and hope manufacture would create products without MQA. I do not need that and do not feel it is superior to anything. Hope to join in the conversation.

 

[electronicsdesign]

Hello and welcome, @LME49990! I agree with you about MQA, to me it feels that those tracks that do sound better are simply mastered better, it has nothing to do with the format itself. But in reality, this is big business for royalties as it implies a lot of licensing fees and it's pure gold for the big record labels.
MQA will certainly not disappear, quite the opposite: it's becoming more and more popular as almost all new devices are trying to incporporate it.

I personally don't mind to have it there, especially cause of those better mastered tracks, but of course at the end of day I could live happily without it.
In the audiophile community, there will always be things like these, some people will truly believe in them, others won't, but it is what it is.
If there's a market for it, companies will sell it, that's the rule of thumb here.

Some people swear that vinyl sounds so much better than digital for example (on other forums). I disagree with them, but cannot convince them otherwise.
There are even those that say audio compact cassette (which I am a fan of) sounds better than digital. Again, cannot convince those otherwise.

Btw, have you tried the DSD format ?

 

[LME49990]

Hello and welcome, @LME49990! I agree with you about MQA, to me it feels that those tracks that do sound better are simply mastered better, it has nothing to do with the format itself. But in reality, this is big business for royalties as it implies a lot of licensing fees and it's pure gold for the big record labels.
MQA will certainly not disappear, quite the opposite: it's becoming more and more popular as almost all new devices are trying to incporporate it.

I personally don't mind to have it there, especially cause of those better mastered tracks, but of course at the end of day I could live happily without it.
In the audiophile community, there will always be things like these, some people will truly believe in them, others won't, but it is what it is.
If there's a market for it, companies will sell it, that's the rule of thumb here.

Some people swear that vinyl sounds so much better than digital for example (on other forums). I disagree with them, but cannot convince them otherwise.
There are even those that say audio compact cassette (which I am a fan of) sounds better than digital. Again, cannot convince those otherwise.

Btw, have you tried the DSD format ?

Nope have yet to try the DSD format. Most of my music is stored in MP3 or Flac format with some on APE. have not gone over to streaming music as yet. That is why I do not need MQA. Eventually it is the user ear that determine which format sounded the best and it is up to the individual, placebo or otherwise. Even if vinyl, CD, minidisc or cassette sounds better, the inconvenience of the older medium just does not makes sense to me. I am able to bring thousand of songs everywhere with me.

MQA to me is just some big corporation trying to squeeze money out of the system and in the process make thing unnecessary complicated, with little to no benefits to the end user.

 

[Metal-Fi]

Greetings everyone,
I started enjoying this hobby roughly four years ago...after buying some headphones, together with DACs/Amps, and after reading lots of reviews and comments on audio gear around the web, I thought it was a good idea to join the conversation. As the nickname suggests, I mostly enjoy Metal music but I also like more "traditional" Rock together with Jazz, Prog, Classical, Avant-Garde.

Cheers!

 

[willd3]

Not a fan of MQA audio and hope manufacture would create products without MQA. I do not need that and do not feel it is superior to anything. Hope to join in the conversation.

My DAC has a particular color of light depending on the audio format. I listen to a lot of new music thanks to Tidal recommendations, and I can usually tell when it's MQA without looking. The MQA sound is more detailed is overall more realistic relative to the non MQA tracks.

I haven't really heard all of the competing formats, but I think standing alone it sounds pretty awesome.

 

[electronicsdesign]

Most of my music is stored in MP3 or Flac format with some on APE. have not gone over to streaming music as yet.

Owning music is high quality is an interesting hobby. Where do you get your music from btw ?
I do have a pretty large collection of FLAC and WAV files myself.

@willd3 My DAC does the same (I think most of them do that), there are even 2 MQA modes (I'm not sure what is the difference).
I agree with MQA sounding very good (although not on all tracks), however without comparing the same track (with same master) in MQA and non-MQA
we can't really draw any conclusions about the format itself.

I have also discovered new music and re-discovered old music due to Tidal recommendations, I'm happy with that.

 

[johnac]

hello headfi world!!