A new addition with rather surprising results...

[murali]

I had never ventured into the world of headphones so far but had to now with a new iPad in possession (did not buy the latter but was given as a compliment for some special assignment completed for my company). Having heard some of the headphones from Sony, Bose, even a Sennheiser HD439 (which my son is using with his iPod), somehow I did not like them fully. May be I am used to listening to music in my stereo system. But I finally went for a headphone, the Sennheiser HD598, and connected to the iPad, it sounds wonderful with great bass and a huge soundstage.
I never thought I could enjoy music from the iPad with headphones!
There are a couple of other headphones I am looking at, the Shure 840 and 940, but am not sure how they sound. There is a Audio Technica also.
As a novice in digital music field, I shall be grateful if someone can advise me the right way of getting CD's copied on iPad without any compression. No MP3 for me.

cheers.
murali

 

[iaudio]

murali, the Sennheiser HD598 is a very good headphone. I use something that uses similar drivers, HD555. You could use a Fostex HP 1 as a dac/hp amp combo with the iPad.

As for formats, you could rip your cds as wav or alac ( apple's own lossless format) and transfer with iTunes. The alac format would support tags(for artist, album etc) like flac.

 

[edge111hussain]

Hey Murali, r u looking at an amp too or a straight plug and play?

Anyways at an entry level i would outright recommend the audio technica ath-m50 or the audio technica AD-700. The m-50 has the thump whilst the ad-700 will blow u with its soundstage.
Sennheiser 598 will need amping to shine..

 

[ajay124]

Apple lossless format is the best option with iTunes. But when I transfer lossless files from my iMac to the iPad it automatically renders them into 128 kpbs files. Perhaps changing the settings in the preference pane of a mac os may allow transfer of ALAC files at full resolution. But my 16 GB iPad is 'space challenged' so 128 kpbs is good enough for storing the Phil Ochs, Marianne Faithfull, Nina Simone, Aretha Franklin, Louis Armstrong, Steely Dan, Sly & the Family Stone, Grateful Dead, Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and Mahler playlists which I usually travel with. While travelling I use a simple Sennheiser HD 180 headphone (999/-) with my iPad and it sounds wonderful. The same headphone when connected to the Bryston BP6 pre amp sounds astounding. The level of detail which comes through is amazing.

 

[ranjeetrain]

I had never ventured into the world of headphones so far but had to now with a new iPad in possession (did not buy the latter but was given as a compliment for some special assignment completed for my company). Having heard some of the headphones from Sony, Bose, even a Sennheiser HD439 (which my son is using with his iPod), somehow I did not like them fully. May be I am used to listening to music in my stereo system. But I finally went for a headphone, the Sennheiser HD598, and connected to the iPad, it sounds wonderful with great bass and a huge soundstage.
I never thought I could enjoy music from the iPad with headphones!
There are a couple of other headphones I am looking at, the Shure 840 and 940, but am not sure how they sound. There is a Audio Technica also.
As a novice in digital music field, I shall be grateful if someone can advise me the right way of getting CD's copied on iPad without any compression. No MP3 for me.

cheers.
murali

Murali,

Portable audio is underrated. I discovered the joy of portable audio demanded by situation, when I moved abroad and had no music system at hand except likes of phones and iPods. After switching through a number of combinations, I have concluded that an iPod or and iPod touch combined by a Sennheiser 5xx or Sennhesier 6xx is the easiest way to go hi-fi. My reference portable system is an iPod touch (4th generation) into Sennheiser HD650. It is not my best portable system but this is my reference, in the sense that I evaluate any new portable gear I buy with this combination (for sound quality and the price). In short, this combo doesn't only give a world class sound but also costs peanuts (compared to conventional hi-fi).

Give it a try you will never regret it.

 

[unleash_me]

From a portable point of view, why not consider a good IEM? I personally use a klipsh S4 most of the time but occasionally borrow my wife's aging shure se530 once in a while. I find them both really good as portable accessories.

 

[iaudio]

ajay124, there is an option in iTunes to convert all music to 128kbps when transferring. Just untick this and you should be fine.
murali, you can go to edit> preferences and there in "When you insert CD" go to Import setting and select Alac or Wav.

 

[murali]

To complete the story for now, I picked up another headphone, the venerable Audio Technica ATH-M50 and had a chance for side-by-side comparison with the Senn HD-598 playing music directly from the iPad. There are subtle differences, I should say. The M50 gives excellent bass, okay mids and not much impressive highs. The soundstage is big and the music just fills in and draws your entire attention. The 598 falls a little short in bass, unless the volume is really cranked up, excellent mids and highs. The soundstage is huge and the music is quite widespread and totally relaxing. Unlike the M50 that holds your mind totally inside the music, the 598 sooths your mind with the music and let you enjoy the music and around more. These are just my observations. To my taste, I can live with both of them but shall certainly use the 598 for long sessions with need to relax with music, and the M50 whenever I need to listen to some particular music for a short time to enjoy its glory. I am not too much of a 'bass' man, but rather prefer quality than quantity and here, I feel the 598 scores in an all-round performance.
There is one more I saw, the Shure 840, but I am not sure whether I will pick it up. According to some of my learned friends in this field, that probably would be (a) 'between' the Senn and the AT models.
Thanks to some of your advices, I may also buy a small amplifier to augument these. The one under consideration is a Fiio E-11 with a L-3 LOD. At the moment, I am not looking at the more expensive Graham Slees and Bellaris.

Thanks for all the advices.
murali