Got a set of portapro's today, yay!

[KonaKona]

I decided to finally get a set of "real" headphones after using some koss sparkplugs for about 2 years now. (about 8 sets or so, needless to say I like them and I didn't know about that warranty :O )

(Oh before I go on about the sound, let me say that I am not a audiophile, and I don't know many of these fancy terms you guys use.)

I gotta say, these are nice. I've been listening to them with my MP3 player turned down most of the way, and the special bass effects turned up, and they sound VERY good. The bass has actually given me a bit of a headache, and this is at 6/40 volume. I can also hear the TV quite clearly while I listen, although people like to complain when I crank them up. Gonna have to find a good way to put them on though, I have a lot of hair and these aren't exactly easy to work around it. (See: peter frampton when he had hair)

The sound quality seems to be a LOT better than those sparkplugs. I can hear all the bitrate loss in my music, but it still sound really nice. I'll probably still use my sparkplugs some, mainly because they cancel most all of the outside noise when I use them. I've been walking on the sidewalk and have a firetruck pass by, not knowing it was there until I saw it. (Of course, I had the volume most of the way up. :D)

I'm thinking about maybe building one of those portable headphone amps; will I be able to notice any difference in the sound in my portapros or the sparkplugs? Should I just stick with what I got?

This is also a discussion thread about people who do not own headphones worth more than 50$. :)

[Maxvla]

I've never gotten around to buying a set of Porta Pros, but I might soon since my IEM hunt has failed 3 times in a row I think I'm just not an IEM guy, and I've tried some north of $200.

According to what I've read, the Porta Pros are an excellent value for the sound quality. Personally what I would do if I were you would be to disable that bass boost asap. Music isn't supposed to be big heavy bass, it's supposed to have a solid tight bass base with which to set the higher octaves upon. You may think this is just 'stuffy audiophile mentality', but it is very much the truth. Go to a symphony orchestra concert and you'll find the bass balance is excellent because it is audible and controlled, but not overpowering the rest of the musicians' instruments. The bass should be heard, but not heard, get it? This might also alleviate your headaches and it will allow you to turn the player's volume up so you can actually hear the full range properly.

Regarding the amp, if anything a Fiio E3 or E5 amp would be sufficient, but really you shouldn't need one with Porta Pros. Any realistic audiophile will tell you you don't need an amp with phones designed to be run on battery powered devices. The phone's efficiency won't allow the sound to be magically improved by having more power. The phone already has the power it needs to do it's job properly.

[KonaKona]

Well about the bass, I could still here the rest of the music fine, the bass wasn't drowning anything out. Its EDM though, so the whole bass situation is a bit different.

I turn the bass stuff off when I listen to it with any volume though. I just wanted to hear the TV so I had it turned down. I could hear the full range though, that's what surprised me about these headphones. I was at almost no volume, and I still had some thump in the bass and the entire song was audible. I'm sure if I turned it up with the bass setting like that it would get muddy, and possibly damage the headphones. I tried some high-volume stuff earlier and I was able to level out the EQ and turn all the effects off. I usually have to kill the mid with my sparkplugs; the mid end of those is just horrendously loud. I've already closed the back off to help, but it still needs some help from the input to tame it.

I probably need to find what music I have that isn't EDM to see how these sound with different music. Gonna take a while to find it, I'm afraid. :\