i almost fell victim to this but thank god i got out
this post was submitted on 22 Mar 2024
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It's actually the pre-amp and DAC quality that matter-- OH NO WHAT HAVE I BECOME?!
"Bluetooth Earbuds!"
"Stop it Patrick! You're scaring him!"
Bluetooth 5 is actually high enough bandwidth to transmit pretty good sound.
Earbuds are sad though, but all things are compromises. Am I blissing out to Bach using my bone conduction earbuds? no it sounds kinda meh. It does let me not get hit by drivers or brick due to sweat damage listening to books on a run though so they're good at what they're trying to do.
I always disliked Bluetooth headphones until I got a Sennheiser Momentum 4 with Bluetooth 5. The difference is immediately noticeable.
I mean I have a media center off center in a room with 2 glass walls, one brick, and one gyprock. I obviously am not hanging towels over my beautiful windows.
Bluetooth 5, a 2.1 fosi amp, and some cheap Edifier speakers sounds completely fine on the couch 2 meters away. There's no point putting in more effort imho because any subtle improvements are completely drowned out by echoes, dogs barking, neighbours mowing, the wind rattling doors and windows or whatever.
I am completely on side with people who think shitty earbuds with crackle or overpriced Logitech speakers are a sadness. I think most "audiophiles" are sucked in by marketing and very few are doing the necessary accoustic setup for most of what they're buying to matter.
If it makes you feel better, I use a dac that's 50 bucks and it sounds great with my Sennheiser hd600s. Frankly I mostly use it for the analogue volume control and treble/bass switch. Also you don't need an amp for headphones/earbuds. These are for only driving power hungry speakers.
DACs have been very good and very cheap for years now. A $10 Apple USB dongle contains an extremely good DAC. At the consumer level, you're paying for pretty much everything except sound quality now.
You do need an amp for some headphones. They can even be used to deliver low power at a low noise floor for high sensitivity earbuds, but this isn't always necessary.
Trust me, those Sennheisers will benefit from an amp. I thought the same thing about my HD 650s before I heard them with an amp in the audio chain.