u/synth_mania

Hey all, it's been a few years since I was active here, but for the first time in a long time I'm in the market for a new set of headphones.

I am located in the midwest, United States, and my budget has a soft limit of $300.

I am totally open to the idea of buying headphones used from ebay, by the way, if necessary to get something into my ideal range.

I've owned a set of Hifiman Sundaras for years. I love them!

The detail and the soundstage still blow me away, however, I need a set of closed back headphones to use at work now, and I wouldn't mind a slightly different tuning either to change things up a bit.

I really enjoy listening to orchestral music, R&B (The Jones Girls), some pop (Rhianna, The Weeknd), prog metal (Chronologist), prog jazz (waxamillion), ambient electronic music, house (deadmau5), eurobeat (dave rogers), some dubstep, and a lot of DnB / liquid DnB (dustkey). Kind of an eclectic mix.

For the acoustic stuff especially, I imagine that I'll tend to prefer the Sundaras still. Maybe I'll still prefer the Sundaras in general for the soundstage, I know I'll (unfortunately) be sacrificing that with the closedbacks.

I would like if the closedback headphones I end up picking have a little more punch in the bass and stronger subbass. That I think would benefit a lot of the electronic stuff and even pop that I listen to.

It's important to me that they do not sound "muddy", or lack detail. It doesn't need to necessarily match the Sundara in acoustic detail, but it should still have good detail in the high end.

I also care a lot about build quality. I know people hate on Hifiman, but the Sundaras feel robust enough to me, with their mostly-metal construction. I just don't wanna get something that feels plasticy or overly fragile.

I don't care if they are passive wired headphones, or bluetooth. Pros and cons to each, it's not a major factor in my decision. I do know that bluetooth headsets typically sound worse than passive headphones at the same price, because they need a battery, bluetooth chipset, etc. in addition to the audio components.

Oh yeah, and I typically run my Sundaras off of a cheap usb dongle, laptop, or 2nd gen iPod Mini.

What do you guys think? If there's any more details that could help you, please ask away.

https://preview.redd.it/6udpqnm2nlyg1.png?width=814&format=png&auto=webp&s=c3c0808c8c2e18f0c97fcf94ca71338dc9e18fd0

My laptop (like virtually every other laptop ever made) has only DC power input. This X1 Yoga through USB-C PD, but my others like my Thinkpad T400 use something like a barrel jack, etc.

There is an exception to every rule, but I think you'd be hard pressed to find a laptop that accepts AC power directly. What strikes me here is that, even if you rationalize the dubbing of this condition as being "On AC Power" by saying that it's because it's plugged into a wall outlet which serves AC power, isn't that largely inconsequential? Why should the "external power" condition be referred to with a term that describes the means by which it was transmitted?

First of all, my laptop isn't plugged into an AC power source. It's USB is going directly to a USB port on my Solix C300 DC power station, and the energy was never at any point transferred using alternating current.

My stance is this: Using "AC Power" to refer to external power is both anachronistic and a sloppy misnomer. We should just call it "On External Power".

What do you guys think?

Edit: "On External Power" doesn't really roll off the tongue as well, but it's easy to think of alternatives like "plugged in", or "while charging"

https://preview.redd.it/6vabijln8lxg1.png?width=1671&format=png&auto=webp&s=67aa2a8062a8e752fa90fe9d2135965ce4308265

There's a screenshot. If you want to actually look at the equations / use it for yourself (do so at your own risk, I'm no expert, just your average geek), I uploaded the file to github:

https://github.com/synth-mania/solar-stuff/blob/main/solar_camping_calc.ods

Anyways, here's the scenario:

I'm a national guard soldier, and for the first time my 2 week long Annual Training period coming up shortly is going to include a 5-7 day field training exercise where I'll be sleeping in a personal tent, won't have reliable access to electricity, etc.

I've wanted one for awhile, but now I think it really makes sense to get a portable power station with a li-ion battery. I wanted something that would be able to power all my devices for the duration that I'm in the field, but in order to reliably accomplish that, I'd need a roughly 1KWh power station which is just incredibly expensive.

I put together a spreadsheet to help me more accurately budget for my energy needs and explore different battery / solar panel options.

Using this, I saw that the 288Wh Anker Solix C300 DC would be able to power just my phone and a small USB fan for a long time, even my laptop too for awhile, and with the additional of a solar panel, potentially even more, like my power hungry Asus Ally X gaming PC handheld.

Do you guys think a Solix C300 DC + 100W panel will work as the spreadsheet suggests? Looking for feedback here, or personal anecdotes if you've ever tried something similar.