[alphapeta]

Hello, I recently purchased some HD25-1 ii's. At first I was a little dismayed with the sound, but then I got a proper dock connect for my mp3 player and a FiiO E5. The sound is good, the bass amazing, but the midrange I find a bit damped, vocals and acoustic/guitars are not as clear as I would like. I was thinking of upgrading the wiring with blackcopper V2 — will this improve the sound substantially for portable use? It'll cost around £150. I could get an upgrade to my headphone amp for that, but the re-wiring promises a wider sound stage and better instrument singularity. What do people think? Thanks, Pete.

[sap81uk]

Originally Posted by alphapeta

Hello, I recently purchased some HD25-1 ii's. At first I was a little dismayed with the sound, but then I got a proper dock connect for my mp3 player and a FiiO E5. The sound is good, the bass amazing, but the midrange I find a bit damped, vocals and acoustic/guitars are not as clear as I would like. I was thinking of upgrading the wiring with blackcopper V2 — will this improve the sound substantially for portable use? It'll cost around £150. I could get an upgrade to my headphone amp for that, but the re-wiring promises a wider sound stage and better instrument singularity. What do people think? Thanks, Pete.

You have a number of routes you can take. You can change the wiring, buy a DAC, buy different headphones altogether or upgrade or change your headphone amp. If you can audition any of these examples it would be very beneficial for you.

The rewiring for 150 seems very excessive for the gain it may give you. That's almost 75% of the cost of the headphones, and for that kind of money you should be happy before you needed to upgrade.

But if you can, try to have a test of your portable, headphones and proposed upgrade (or intended improvement) to make a decent decision, as lots of options may give you only a very slight improvement.

Have you tried other headphones? Maybe a pair of Grado SR80's would be up your alley? They are meant to be easy to drive and aren't too expensive and seem not too over the top for use with a portable.

But last word is... audition!

Steve

[Drubbing]

Originally Posted by alphapeta

I was thinking of upgrading the wiring with blackcopper V2 — will this improve the sound substantially for portable use? It'll cost around £150. I could get an upgrade to my headphone amp for that, but the re-wiring promises a wider sound stage and better instrument singularity. What do people think? Thanks, Pete.

THat sounds like it falls into the realm of cable manufacturers BS about cables in general, and their ability to do such things, which I think is crap TBH.

It sounds like what you're getting out of the portable/HD25 is the best you're going to get. Be aware, the Fiio is as basic an amp as you can get, and will only make things louderer, not improve SQ.

I wouldn't be trusting an expensive re-wire to do very much at all. Unless you expect it to deliver something impressive, and then it probably will.

Other things that are actually proven to make a difference will likely be a better option first. As the last poster said, (assuming you're using the HDs at home too), consider a DAC, and see how your head amp goes, as those phones shouldn't really need amping, but already having one is a bonus.

[Uriel]

I would have thought that the £150 would be better spent elsewhere than cables. The FiiO e5 isn't exactly the world's most refined headphone amp. I would have thought an upgrade there could get you more of an improvement.

[sap81uk]

Some good comments, and I'm glad I'm not alone that rewiring would be a unnessary costly expense.

I also agree that a headphone amp would make things louder but not really better exactly.

If you can get to a Richer Sounds shop (If you live in the UK), you can listen to a Cambridge Audio DACmagic which is £230 (Checking online it was that price, not sure if they have it in shop but worth a try).

I'm not sure of the gains, but I think a DAC is your best route, unless you can hear the gains from the rewiring (if you can listen to them before buying).

Well that's my take on the situation, up to you what you do.

Steve