Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Advice for a mobile media newbie.

These look pretty interesting.

On the same page they sell battery powered amps. Can you comment on whether those are of any value? Especially whether they save battery power on the source. Something like that might even come in handy on long trips especially to countries with different power standards.

I have never used the total air/bithead but they do seem to get good reviews.

I do use a tube headphone amp that is most beneficial with headphones such as the Beyerdynamic DT880 (600 ohm) version. The 32 ohm version caters to the portable market .

P.S. You might want to search around to find better deals at places like Amazon for the headphones.

Thanks for the DT880 recommendation. The more reading I do the more I think I’ll like them. Many are comparing them to the HD600s I already love. The general consensus is that they are a little more forward than the HD600s but have a little better imaging and are outstanding for classical and airy music which would be a significant part of my listening.

Amazon has them in stock. . . .

Have a look at the charger that came with your phone. It should be 100-240V 50/60Hz. All you need is a physical outlet adapter to charge the phone. That's what I'll be doing in Romania.

Thanks I’ll check it out. The documentation that came with the phone is a tad sparse so I keep having to find things out second hand like this. I guess they figure most people know how to use them by now so don’t need as much info. Hell I even had to call a friend to have her read back my own phone number to me since the place they hid it in my phone was not intuitive, well at least not to me.

Went out today to get a pair of headphones to hold me over until I found something to really use. Listened to everything I could that they had at the local BB and the only ones that sounded decent were the Swnnheiser HD428s so I picked up a pair. Compared to everything else they had the 428s were the clear winners but when I got home I thought just for the hell of it I would try out my HD600s.

Despite the greater loudness of the 32ohm 428s vs 300ohm 600s it was no contest. Even with the little droid phone the Sennheiser HD600 just destroyed their little cousins. I hadn’t directly compared the HD600s to anything since I bought them years ago and this just served to remind me why they one. The 600 are noticeably more neutral and have much better bass extension but IMO the biggest difference is the open (600) vs closed (428) design. The 428s sounded like I was wearing headphones whereas the 600s sounded like I was in a room full of instruments and singers depending on the song.

I can tell right away that both of these headphones will sound better with an amp but especially the 600s which at max volume were just below the ideal level I would like for listening.

I really didn’t expect to hear much difference between these because of the source but colour me shocked at just how much difference there is.