Active Stereo

[BlingBling]

Hi

I think that plying the 2box over headphones sucks!^^ so what kind of active stereo loudspeakre swould you recommand?
Sould not cost more than 5ooeuros! what you think about these?

Tanks for your help

[puttenvr]

With a good headphone (pay attention to the number of Ohms) it doesn't suck at all
I doubt whether you will find a decent stereo active loudspeaker system for 500 euros, or not

See also http://www.2box-forum.com/index.php/topic,8.0.html

[rythm]

Agree with puttenvr. When it comes to Edrums you´ll need to step up quite high in price level to get the same sound quality as headphones. I use 2 pair of IEM´s, Sennheiser and Beyerdynamics both at approx 70 Euros. DrumIt sounds great in them.

[Baby Samus]

+ 1 to the 2 wise men above 

I have Audio Technica ATH-M50s headphones - cost £120 - £140.  I find them to be excellent for e-drums, plenty volume, good articulation, detail and a little pump in the low end (although not much, as they are considered monitoring headphones which tend to have a flatter frequency response - less 'exciting' but more accurate to the sound).

The technica's are also easy to drive as they are only 38 ohm or there abouts so volume is not a problem, and the leather cups are very comfortable.

But as Putt and rythm say, you need to spend at least £80 on headphones to hear a great difference.  I have never used IEM's but nearly went for them, they provide a far better seal from outside noise so you can play at lower volumes and it will still sound loud.

My shortlist was as follows:

Audio Technica ATH-M50S
Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro
Beyerdynamic DT 770 M
Sony MDR-7506

Hope that helps...

[rythm]

As Baby Samus says, headphones of that caliber as the list he provided is even better than IEM´s. I´ve never tried the ATH-M50´s but heard nothing but good of them.

[Baby Samus]

As Baby Samus says, headphones of that caliber as the list he provided is even better than IEM´s. I´ve never tried the ATH-M50´s but heard nothing but good of them.

I would say custom moulded IEMs can be better than headphones in some ways; lower listening volume, comfort, perfect seal - and worse in some ways; less bass presence, not all user's find them comfortable, high cost/investment etc.  If I could afford custom moulds and maybe a pair of Westone UM3X or Ultimate Ears triple.fi 10 pro IEMs, I would probably have done that.  But that would have cost £400 all in - I'm sure it would kick ass, but it would also kick my wallet's ass!

My advice on this matter is simple - spend as much as you can afford, make sure you read up on forums and reviews (and I mean hours, not minutes  ), and pick something comfortable - you'll be wearing these things for many hours.  If you can stretch to £150, spend it.  If you spend £40 - £80 you can still get very good headphones,  but they won't sound as good as a £150 pair of headphones.  There is always a 'sweet spot' between value, performance and your budget.

I chose the Audio Technica's because it was about as much as I could afford (I concede I would have spent £30 more but I couldn't find anything significantly better than the M50s).  They sound very good.  They're comfortable and easy to drive, and they seal out a lot of noise - more importantly they do all this at a reasonable price.  They are also very well made - I have hit them full force with my sticks on the cups (because I move like a fool when I play  ) 3 times already and it didn't even scratch the casing.  Very pleased and my wallet is not empty.

Anyway, sorry, I realised I'm ranting on here.  But I spent MANY hours researching what to buy, and, anal though it is, I've become interested in the damn subject.  Damn you knowledge.

[puttenvr]

But that would have cost £400 all in

Even more... but it's the best thing I ever bought for my music hobby in my entire carriere

[Slap the drummer]

thanks for your thoughts on different headphones Baby Samus - very interesting.  What do you
think when it comes to edrum + music?  How do other instruments, CDs, etc sound - did you
find much difference?

[Baby Samus]

Even more... but it's the best thing I ever bought for my music hobby in my entire carriere

Actually I had found super fi 10's and westone UM3X for under £300, and custom mould fitting for £89, so it can be done but yeah as Putt says they will make a great invesment if you can afford it.

As for sources, I don't pay as much attention.  Most of our sources are digital these days, so just make sure your .MP3 files are ripped at the highest bit rate (384kps?).  Or use comparitively lossless compression formats such as .flac or .wav files.  The more detail the better.  For practice I use a Sony MP3 player and a sandisk mp3 player plugged into the 2Box.  The Sony has a line in mode and definitely has a more capable and powerful sound, so you will find quality differences even between devices.  Try them out on your kit and see what sounds best.  Also, remember the source will only sound as good as the speakers/headphones you are listening on!

[Slap the drummer]

Ah - I didn't mean the sources themselves.  (Sorry, didn't put it very clearly).

What I meant to ask was did you have any thoughts on how good/different the headphones were for
playing music as well as the drum sounds?

[rythm]

Even more... but it's the best thing I ever bought for my music hobby in my entire carriere


A camera? 

[Baby Samus]

Ah - I didn't mean the sources themselves.  (Sorry, didn't put it very clearly).

What I meant to ask was did you have any thoughts on how good/different the headphones were for
playing music as well as the drum sounds?

Sorry man I misunderstood.  As a rule, if you spend good money on headphones, they will make your music sound much better - thats a given.  It can also make things sound worse - for instance if you are listening to 128kpbs mp3 file, pro headphones will reveal the loss of frequencies dropped by higher compression rates and so you're more likely to notice it.

Anyway the point is if you spend £100 - £150 everything will most probably sound better than what you had before. 

Once you spend that sort of money it stops being about how good something is, and becomes more about how the products are different.  For instance I looked at the Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro and M series, but decided against the higher SPL and bass grunt the Beyer's would have delivered in favour of the slightly flatter response of the M50s.  I am however 100% positive I would have enjoyed the Beyer's had I bought them, just in a different way to how I'm enjoying the Audio Technica's you know?