Best Headphones

[rebulx]

Is there a clear front runner for the best headphones? Less than 3-4k? Is there an audible difference on the focal to justify the price? I love the Audeze units that Gene sent me a few months ago, but willing to invest if it's worth it.

 

[slipperybidness]

Is there a clear front runner for the best headphones? Less than 3-4k? Is there an audible difference on the focal to justify the price? I love the Audeze units that Gene sent me a few months ago, but willing to invest if it's worth it.

Sennheiser!

AKG and Beyer also have excellent cans.

When it comes to headphones, priority #1 must be fit and comfort. If they are not comfortable to wear for long periods, then the audio quality is irrelevant.

There are dedicated headphone forum websites, you should browse those too.

 

[cpp]

All depends on what "best is". I use, Senn HD650 and HD800s and ZMF headphones, why because I like how they sound using a headphone amp instead of a AVR output. . Just like speakers, people just like different things.

 

[davidscott]

I like Grados for way less $$.

 

[cpp]

I like Grados for way less $$.

That's great

 

[rebulx]

I'm considering the Sennheiser HD820 headphones. Will the output on my Yamaha receiver RX-A1080 provide a similar audio signal as the dedicated amp Sennheiser sells for $2,300 (HDV 820)?

 

[rebulx]

Well I have seen people keeping their 6x0 senns even after owning $2k/3k Headphones. Sundara under $500 is also very good.

do you think the Sundra's compare to the higher end Senns?

 

[rebulx]

Has anyone compared the stellia's to the Senns 820s?

 

[rebulx]

Where is a good high end head phone forum?

 

[John Parks]

Where is a good high end head phone forum?

Be careful; you may never come out of the rabbit hole! https://www.head-fi.org/

 

[tyhjaarpa]

Absolutely best headphones I have heard are from Stax but they come with hefty price tag https://staxaudio.com/earspeaker for 500$ you can great really good headphones though, like Sennheiser HD600, Beyerdynamics DT990 or Fostex TH-X00 for example.

 

[MalVeauX]

Hi,

I've done the headphone thing. Reality is, after the $300~500 price mark, it's mostly novelty and veblen level purchasing for the idea of "summit-fi" rather than actual results that you can audibly appreciate. To even begin to appreciate flagship headphones, the source media has to be extremely high quality recordings. Not just high resolution, high sampling, big file size, lossless container, etc. The actual recording itself, the process it was recorded, where, how, etc. There' a few data bases out there to guide you on media to the better recorded albums. But this is the direction you have to go to truly even get anything out of a summit-fi level setup and even then, you'd be hard pressed to differentiate a $1k setup from a $4k setup with the same very high quality recording as a media playback to compare. At that point it's literally just personal preference. Just like in speakers. After $2~4k it just gets stupid expensive and there's no true quality gain, just other features you may care to spend on, but not an audible difference that is a true quality gain that you can appreciate.

I've done 40+ pairs, all the $300+ ones from the majors and all the $1k+ planars back when they really got popular. Now, everyone offers a "high end" headphone and a planar version or something. The market is flooded. I compared a bunch, did the A+B thing, changed sources, etc. And at the end of the day, the best most expensive headphones are not always the most pleasing to listen to. Just like speakers, some things may just sound better to you personally, and there's combinations for sure, such as matching an amplifier and headphone and enjoying the result, not just buying the best of the best and spending as much as you can just to end up realizing a $300 headphone on a $200 source setup sounds better to you than a $4k setup does, despite knowing the $4k setup costs more and should be better, but isn't necessarily.

Sometimes you have to just spend a bunch, get the top level stuff and then get that out of your system and feel fine knowing you've had the expensive stuff and you can finally let go of the placebo of it and just actually listen to the audio and appreciate things. This is when you'll find out that price does NOT reflect enjoyment when it comes to liking what you hear. You can spend a lot and get a neutral, sterile result that you just don't actually like to listen to your favorite music on. You can certainly get quality stuff and enjoy it. But like many things, there's too much psych-stuff involved, placebo and magical-voodoo-boolsheet that will cloud your mind and spray paint your ears with glossy gold paint. So my suggestion: buy a flagship mode, flagship amp and dac setup, go in a quiet room, use the highest quality recordings you can and evaluate it for a week and then return it (obviously buy from somewhere that allows returns). Get this out of your system so you can say you've had the $4k+ setup on your head and you don't have any higher order dream to look for. Then just enjoy listening. If you just get to a level of quality that is going to resolve 100% of the best recordings and stop there, this happens easily in that $500~$1k range with lots of room to spare, and just try a few and find something that you truly just like the sound of, it's natural frequency response, etc. Pro-tip: it probably will not be a truly neutral headphone! But find something you enjoy and then just STOP looking for more. Just listen! Enjoy what you have and spend a few years listening to it.

So at the end of my 10+ year journey on high end headphone hi-fi, I actually ended up letting go of my most expensive setups and my favorite, all time favorite setup that was pleasing to me (the fit, the weight, the comfort, the overall sound signature, the natural frequency response, the resolution, sound stage presentation and how it paired with various sources) was actually a basic Hifiman HE-500 (the more efficient step from the previous HE-6 by Dr Fang) which I had professionally recabled with speaker taps and run it directly from a 50 watt speaker amplifier. I'm still listening to this setup to this day. 8+ years later. I have a massive thread on Head-Fi that is 240+ pages and many years old, we were all trying these inefficient planars on speaker amps. It got so popular that Emotiva re-released their A-100 amplifier to have a headphone jack with a jumper to allow it to output the full 50 watts of the amplifier for planars. But they key to my story is that.... just get a good setup that is reasonable that you just enjoy for how it feels and sounds, not something that you only like because it cost $2k~$4k. You'll get over that real fast when you spend $4k and realize a $1k setup sounded better to you. The result? You feel really wealthy knowing you could totally afford the better stuff, but your experience tells you that you enjoy something else and it's not about money it's about the enjoyment you get from what sounds good to you personally.

So my final setup, for over 8+ years now:

Hifiman HE-500 (professionally recabled by Brian at BTG Audio, speaker table cable, re-terminated posts on the headphone cups to be mini-XLR and balanced with a matching removeable cable that can be run balanced or unbalanced depending on which termination I connect to it with custom XLR 4 pin connectors with different terminations)

Maverick Audio TubeMagic D2+ tube DAC using the tube pre-amp output to an older Emotiva Mini-X A-100 speaker amp, running the headphone directly from the speaker amp's posts. It soaks up a lot of energy and sounds better, to me, than any other hifi setup I've bothered trying including all those big expensive Audeze stuff and all the higher end Schiit amps and stuff. I sold it all and kept my weird little Hifiman, Tube DAC and Emotiva speaker amp and it's been awesome and I still enjoy it. I don't even shop for headphone stuff anymore, for years!

Find what you enjoy and just stick with it and enjoy new music rather than chasing some gear.

Very best,

 

[Pogre]

Hi,

I've done the headphone thing. Reality is, after the $300~500 price mark, it's mostly novelty and veblen level purchasing for the idea of "summit-fi" rather than actual results that you can audibly appreciate. To even begin to appreciate flagship headphones, the source media has to be extremely high quality recordings. Not just high resolution, high sampling, big file size, lossless container, etc. The actual recording itself, the process it was recorded, where, how, etc. There' a few data bases out there to guide you on media to the better recorded albums. But this is the direction you have to go to truly even get anything out of a summit-fi level setup and even then, you'd be hard pressed to differentiate a $1k setup from a $4k setup with the same very high quality recording as a media playback to compare. At that point it's literally just personal preference. Just like in speakers. After $2~4k it just gets stupid expensive and there's no true quality gain, just other features you may care to spend on, but not an audible difference that is a true quality gain that you can appreciate.

I've done 40+ pairs, all the $300+ ones from the majors and all the $1k+ planars back when they really got popular. Now, everyone offers a "high end" headphone and a planar version or something. The market is flooded. I compared a bunch, did the A+B thing, changed sources, etc. And at the end of the day, the best most expensive headphones are not always the most pleasing to listen to. Just like speakers, some things may just sound better to you personally, and there's combinations for sure, such as matching an amplifier and headphone and enjoying the result, not just buying the best of the best and spending as much as you can just to end up realizing a $300 headphone on a $200 source setup sounds better to you than a $4k setup does, despite knowing the $4k setup costs more and should be better, but isn't necessarily.

Sometimes you have to just spend a bunch, get the top level stuff and then get that out of your system and feel fine knowing you've had the expensive stuff and you can finally let go of the placebo of it and just actually listen to the audio and appreciate things. This is when you'll find out that price does NOT reflect enjoyment when it comes to liking what you hear. You can spend a lot and get a neutral, sterile result that you just don't actually like to listen to your favorite music on. You can certainly get quality stuff and enjoy it. But like many things, there's too much psych-stuff involved, placebo and magical-voodoo-boolsheet that will cloud your mind and spray paint your ears with glossy gold paint. So my suggestion: buy a flagship mode, flagship amp and dac setup, go in a quiet room, use the highest quality recordings you can and evaluate it for a week and then return it (obviously buy from somewhere that allows returns). Get this out of your system so you can say you've had the $4k+ setup on your head and you don't have any higher order dream to look for. Then just enjoy listening. If you just get to a level of quality that is going to resolve 100% of the best recordings and stop there, this happens easily in that $500~$1k range with lots of room to spare, and just try a few and find something that you truly just like the sound of, it's natural frequency response, etc. Pro-tip: it probably will not be a truly neutral headphone! But find something you enjoy and then just STOP looking for more. Just listen! Enjoy what you have and spend a few years listening to it.

View attachment 47803

So at the end of my 10+ year journey on high end headphone hi-fi, I actually ended up letting go of my most expensive setups and my favorite, all time favorite setup that was pleasing to me (the fit, the weight, the comfort, the overall sound signature, the natural frequency response, the resolution, sound stage presentation and how it paired with various sources) was actually a basic Hifiman HE-500 (the more efficient step from the previous HE-6 by Dr Fang) which I had professionally recabled with speaker taps and run it directly from a 50 watt speaker amplifier. I'm still listening to this setup to this day. 8+ years later. I have a massive thread on Head-Fi that is 240+ pages and many years old, we were all trying these inefficient planars on speaker amps. It got so popular that Emotiva re-released their A-100 amplifier to have a headphone jack with a jumper to allow it to output the full 50 watts of the amplifier for planars. But they key to my story is that.... just get a good setup that is reasonable that you just enjoy for how it feels and sounds, not something that you only like because it cost $2k~$4k. You'll get over that real fast when you spend $4k and realize a $1k setup sounded better to you. The result? You feel really wealthy knowing you could totally afford the better stuff, but your experience tells you that you enjoy something else and it's not about money it's about the enjoyment you get from what sounds good to you personally.

So my final setup, for over 8+ years now:

Hifiman HE-500 (professionally recabled by Brian at BTG Audio, speaker table cable, re-terminated posts on the headphone cups to be mini-XLR and balanced with a matching removeable cable that can be run balanced or unbalanced depending on which termination I connect to it with custom XLR 4 pin connectors with different terminations)

Maverick Audio TubeMagic D2+ tube DAC using the tube pre-amp output to an older Emotiva Mini-X A-100 speaker amp, running the headphone directly from the speaker amp's posts. It soaks up a lot of energy and sounds better, to me, than any other hifi setup I've bothered trying including all those big expensive Audeze stuff and all the higher end Schiit amps and stuff. I sold it all and kept my weird little Hifiman, Tube DAC and Emotiva speaker amp and it's been awesome and I still enjoy it. I don't even shop for headphone stuff anymore, for years!

Find what you enjoy and just stick with it and enjoy new music rather than chasing some gear.

Very best,

Great post man. You answered some questions I had. I have never owned a really nice set of cans. I'm pretty sure I've never even listened to a pair of really nice 'phones. I just never had a use or need. I were earbuds that are s'posed to be noise cancelling, but I don't know if it's the frequency cancelling tech I've read about or if it's just that when you get a good seal they work like earplugs. I assume the latter. They're pretty cheap, lol. I wear them at at night when I fall asleep (Drowns out the wife’s snoring. She'll kill me if she finds out I told a bunch of strangers she snores... ).


I've been peeking at headphones lately, but I have no clue. I might have 2 - 300 bucks I could spend on a pair. My wife has been using the stereo more lately so I was thinking it might be nice to listen to my music with some nice 'phones instead of podcasts with my earbuds while she's rocking country music. What caught my eye recently are Monoprice's Monolith line of headphones. They have some planar ones too. They've proven to be very competent and are more than competitively priced with their Monolith speakers, subs and amplifiers. I would need closed back and noise cancelling. Would you guys throw these in the mix too?

Monolith by Monoprice M1060C Over Ear Closed Back Planar Magnetic Headphones - Monoprice.com

The Monolith™ M1060C planar headphones are the perfect way to experience your music collection. The M1060C features a completely redesigned and engineered planar driver, pr

www.monoprice.com

 

[Pogre]

I don't mean to hijack your thread, but I've always wondered this and never really had the opportunity to ask if it's a thing. Has anyone ever tried to work a sub into the mix when using cans? Maybe that's silly, but on paper seems like it might work if you get the levels right and set your low pass at say, 60 hz or so. That should be plenty low enough to eliminate any localization but still provide some tactile feel from deeper bass.

Not that I could do it while my wife is using the stereo. More just curious if it's something you can do. That's the one thing I think I would really miss is the tactile bass you get with speakers and subs.

 

[John Parks]

I don't mean to hijack your thread, but I've always wondered this and never really had the opportunity to ask if it's a thing. Has anyone ever tried to work a sub into the mix when using cans? Maybe that's silly, but on paper seems like it might work if you get the levels right and set your low pass at say, 60 hz or so. That should be plenty low enough to eliminate any localization but still provide some tactile feel from deeper bass.

Not that I could do it while my wife is using the stereo. More just curious if it's something you can do. That's the one thing I think I would really miss is the tactile bass you get with speakers and subs.

Hmm - I don't see why that would not work and I am sure someone has tried it in the past (mebbe I'll scour head-fi.org tonight). Then again, you could get a pair of these:

The JVC HA-SZ2000 (now discontinued and very expensive). they have both 30mm and 50mm drivers (for da BASS!). With appropriate amplification (usually with a bass boost option turned on) they will pummel your skull into submission, no external subwoofer needed...

How would I know? Well...
.
.
.
.
.

 

[MalVeauX]

Would you guys throw these in the mix too?

Sure, even a $50 headphone can have a flat response and measure well. But it doesn't mean it will sound good to you. This is the huge dilemma in audio in general, but with headphones, there's no room influence or boundary reflections, nulls or modes to worry about. It's the nearest-near field you can get, so everything is presented and ends right there at your ear. There's so many headphones now that it's ultra popular (post-Beat-audio-jewelry-craze) to have headphones again to the point of being able to sample a few hundred different pairs in various price points. Heck, headphones are not even as popular as basic ear buds or the oh-my-god everywhere wireless apple pod things that are used in frigg'n interviews now. So there's nothing that cannot be thrown into the mix. It's an endless jungle of different options now, from full size, to on-ear to in-ear. I don't think one person at this point could really experience every single one at this point, there's just so many. So the key is to just pick a few that you like the look of and see which ones just sound good to you and leave it at that. Enjoy it and then don't just begin the process of looking for the "upgrade" to whatever you enjoyed. This is a viscous cycle. It's one thing to like tinkering and trying new things, gear cycling is a thing. But that's different from simply wanting a comfortable pair of headphones that you enjoy and you want to just listen to audio and leave it at that. Two different pathways.

Sennheiser for example, has headphones from $20 to over $2,000, as do many other makers these days. Back in the 90's there were not all these brands we have today. Selection was much less. I got my first pair of quality headphones back in around 94 or so, the Sennheiser HD580's which years later became the HD600's we know today. I had them all the way up until the past few years, and they sounded as good as the HD600's. I bought them for a litttle over $300 back in I think 94, so inflation to today, they were expensive. Today's HD600's can be had for around $300 give or take, especially with systems like Drop to get in on a big purchase. They're inexpensive in today's market for what they are. You'd be hard pressed to get better actual audible sound from the higher end flagship models, other than a different feel, angled drivers and a different sound stage presentation that you'll find in the HD800, or higher. But ultimately the actual quality of the audio? That's truly debateable because the measurements suggest hardly no difference in reality, but what matters is the end user experience and frankly a lot of people can blind A-B these things and there's always going to be someone who simply likes one or the other without knowing which is more expensive to influence them. So that said, if you wanted some good closed back headphones and you like Sennheiser in general, the HD569's are excellent, you would never know they're not a "high end headphone" for $150. If you want open air, the HD600 is pretty much their crown consumer achievement. The HD650 is the same headphone but with rolled off treble, so its dark sounding. The HD800~820 are for people who just want that last sub-1% difference so that they feel better about having the best, or maybe they actually hear a nuance difference that represents something better, it's totally debatable and is the stuff of golden-ears really. But I won't say the $2k for them is worth it over a $300 HD600, in any way, other than your level of enthusiasm.

And you can apply that to any of them out there.

I've not stayed up on the latest release since now everyone has to have a headphone line with a flagship release to model off. There are still the classics from the past 20 years or so that remain incredible and are affordable, like the HD600 & DT880. With all the headphones out there, I'm willing to bet one of these two will simply do the job and better most other options, in a blind listen without influence of brand or anything. There are others of course, many others, but again it's a huge ocean of headphones these days. And now a days IEM is more important since everyone wants portability, small, no wires, and custom molds for their ears.

I'm too clunky for anything other than big headphones and wires, as I don't like IEMs in my ears at all and I don't like the feel of on-ear. So it's all over-ear, full size for me. I sold off nearly all my headphones from my collection down to a few of my hands down all time favorites, simply personal to me, and it ended up being the Hifiman HE-500, customized; a DT770 600ohm customized and a Denon D5000 customized. Just personal preference. And I'm not even curious about the last 10 years of releases from anyone because these simply sound excellent for my purposes and are comfortable and after going far beyond those (they're not high end at all), I realized most of the high end summit-fi stuff is mostly just an excuse to spend money and that in reality they don't sound better, just different if that and the most critical thing for headphone critical listening is the actual quality of the recording itself.

An excellent recording in a pair of average headphones will blow away the experience of a poor recording in a summit-fi headphone setup. Just like with speakers. Speakers are superior to me, the imaging and sound stage is far more natural and realistic. Headphones just don't come close to that, without specific recordings (binaural recordings can get close).

I don't mean to hijack your thread, but I've always wondered this and never really had the opportunity to ask if it's a thing. Has anyone ever tried to work a sub into the mix when using cans? Maybe that's silly, but on paper seems like it might work if you get the levels right and set your low pass at say, 60 hz or so. That should be plenty low enough to eliminate any localization but still provide some tactile feel from deeper bass.

Not that I could do it while my wife is using the stereo. More just curious if it's something you can do. That's the one thing I think I would really miss is the tactile bass you get with speakers and subs.

Yup, did this and we have threads on head-fi about it. An open air headphone with a sub can produce a really nice near field experience with gobs of monstrous bass with tactile feel and chest pounding pressure. But of course, the sub has to be near by, or huge, and the room has to favor it, placement, etc. It works fine. But it ultimately defeats the point of the headphones unless your goal is the highest resolving near field setup you can get for cheap since $300 speakers will not resolve how $300 headphones will with good sources. Anyhow, it works, it's fun to try, but ultimately the novelty wears off and you either want speakers or you want headphones.

So many people get into headphones wanting bassy experiences and want to be bassheads with headphones. You can get excellent quality bass from a headphone and it can be loud down to your literal hearing level. But it will never satisfy a basshead because it always will lack the physical feeling of bass pressurizing a room and vibrating the air in your chest and your bones. There are super bassy headphones out there and they're all a joke compared to any decent 15 inch sub in a room if you love bass. Sadly chasing "bass" with headphones is a fool's erand in my opinion. Anything can be made bassy with simple negative equalization (drop the bands except for the sub-bass and you get instantly seismic bassy headphones). No driver size even matters for it. And since you're lowering the other frequencies, instead boosting one (never equalize up), you're not asking the device to do more of anything, just less of something else, so it doesn't end up just rattling and sounding like over-driven trash.

Very best,

 

[MalVeauX]

What is the price for a pair of headphones?

Grados, like all other lines, have an entry point and flagship point. It's all about your budget and what you want for it. Grados are not for everyone. They're a bright headphone, lots of attack, can fatigue most people after a while. But they produce some of the most memory-similar guitar renderings from the 70's and encompass that sound quite well.

The SR125 to SR225 are excellent for the cost. There's entry ones cheaper. There are higher end ones from there too of course.

I've had the SR60's, SR80's, SR125's, SR325's (goldies before they became silvers) with the L-cush and G-cush pads. The pads make more of a difference in sound than the headphone models frankly. The SR80's are the entry point (in the $100 range) I would suggest for cheapest but good. The SR125 and SR225 (in the $200 range) are excellent mid-range headphones if you like Grado's sound. Higher than that (325 and up) and I really don't think there's a big enough difference other than metal backs, more cost, but still a Grado. I sold most of them and kept an original SR125 that I keep in my collection to this day for the Grado sound. The Signature series go over $1k.







Very best,

 

[Trebdp83]

“Find what you enjoy and just stick with it and enjoy new music rather than chasing some gear.” But, the science. What about the science?

 

[rebulx]

Hi,

I've done the headphone thing. Reality is, after the $300~500 price mark, it's mostly novelty and veblen level purchasing for the idea of "summit-fi" rather than actual results that you can audibly appreciate. To even begin to appreciate flagship headphones, the source media has to be extremely high quality recordings. Not just high resolution, high sampling, big file size, lossless container, etc. The actual recording itself, the process it was recorded, where, how, etc. There' a few data bases out there to guide you on media to the better recorded albums. But this is the direction you have to go to truly even get anything out of a summit-fi level setup and even then, you'd be hard pressed to differentiate a $1k setup from a $4k setup with the same very high quality recording as a media playback to compare. At that point it's literally just personal preference. Just like in speakers. After $2~4k it just gets stupid expensive and there's no true quality gain, just other features you may care to spend on, but not an audible difference that is a true quality gain that you can appreciate.

I've done 40+ pairs, all the $300+ ones from the majors and all the $1k+ planars back when they really got popular. Now, everyone offers a "high end" headphone and a planar version or something. The market is flooded. I compared a bunch, did the A+B thing, changed sources, etc. And at the end of the day, the best most expensive headphones are not always the most pleasing to listen to. Just like speakers, some things may just sound better to you personally, and there's combinations for sure, such as matching an amplifier and headphone and enjoying the result, not just buying the best of the best and spending as much as you can just to end up realizing a $300 headphone on a $200 source setup sounds better to you than a $4k setup does, despite knowing the $4k setup costs more and should be better, but isn't necessarily.

Sometimes you have to just spend a bunch, get the top level stuff and then get that out of your system and feel fine knowing you've had the expensive stuff and you can finally let go of the placebo of it and just actually listen to the audio and appreciate things. This is when you'll find out that price does NOT reflect enjoyment when it comes to liking what you hear. You can spend a lot and get a neutral, sterile result that you just don't actually like to listen to your favorite music on. You can certainly get quality stuff and enjoy it. But like many things, there's too much psych-stuff involved, placebo and magical-voodoo-boolsheet that will cloud your mind and spray paint your ears with glossy gold paint. So my suggestion: buy a flagship mode, flagship amp and dac setup, go in a quiet room, use the highest quality recordings you can and evaluate it for a week and then return it (obviously buy from somewhere that allows returns). Get this out of your system so you can say you've had the $4k+ setup on your head and you don't have any higher order dream to look for. Then just enjoy listening. If you just get to a level of quality that is going to resolve 100% of the best recordings and stop there, this happens easily in that $500~$1k range with lots of room to spare, and just try a few and find something that you truly just like the sound of, it's natural frequency response, etc. Pro-tip: it probably will not be a truly neutral headphone! But find something you enjoy and then just STOP looking for more. Just listen! Enjoy what you have and spend a few years listening to it.

View attachment 47803

So at the end of my 10+ year journey on high end headphone hi-fi, I actually ended up letting go of my most expensive setups and my favorite, all time favorite setup that was pleasing to me (the fit, the weight, the comfort, the overall sound signature, the natural frequency response, the resolution, sound stage presentation and how it paired with various sources) was actually a basic Hifiman HE-500 (the more efficient step from the previous HE-6 by Dr Fang) which I had professionally recabled with speaker taps and run it directly from a 50 watt speaker amplifier. I'm still listening to this setup to this day. 8+ years later. I have a massive thread on Head-Fi that is 240+ pages and many years old, we were all trying these inefficient planars on speaker amps. It got so popular that Emotiva re-released their A-100 amplifier to have a headphone jack with a jumper to allow it to output the full 50 watts of the amplifier for planars. But they key to my story is that.... just get a good setup that is reasonable that you just enjoy for how it feels and sounds, not something that you only like because it cost $2k~$4k. You'll get over that real fast when you spend $4k and realize a $1k setup sounded better to you. The result? You feel really wealthy knowing you could totally afford the better stuff, but your experience tells you that you enjoy something else and it's not about money it's about the enjoyment you get from what sounds good to you personally.

So my final setup, for over 8+ years now:

Hifiman HE-500 (professionally recabled by Brian at BTG Audio, speaker table cable, re-terminated posts on the headphone cups to be mini-XLR and balanced with a matching removeable cable that can be run balanced or unbalanced depending on which termination I connect to it with custom XLR 4 pin connectors with different terminations)

Maverick Audio TubeMagic D2+ tube DAC using the tube pre-amp output to an older Emotiva Mini-X A-100 speaker amp, running the headphone directly from the speaker amp's posts. It soaks up a lot of energy and sounds better, to me, than any other hifi setup I've bothered trying including all those big expensive Audeze stuff and all the higher end Schiit amps and stuff. I sold it all and kept my weird little Hifiman, Tube DAC and Emotiva speaker amp and it's been awesome and I still enjoy it. I don't even shop for headphone stuff anymore, for years!

Find what you enjoy and just stick with it and enjoy new music rather than chasing some gear.

Very best,

Dude, if Audioholics gave out awards for best posts, i'm pretty sure this would win. Everything you've said i'm learning the hard way. At the end of the day it's nice to experience the high end stuff first hand, even if it just 5-10% better. When the Focal Stellia's arrived and the unboxing seemed to account for 20% of the cost I realized that i'm drinking the cool aid, or buying the snake oil, however you want to word it. Either way, it's a fun rabbit hole to go down for a minute. Just be able to return...yeah I screwed up in that department!

Seriously though, best response to a post EVER! Thanks a bunch!!!

 

[rebulx]

Hey Mal, Thanks again for that awesome response, hope to pick your brain a little more!

I started my headphone journey with Bose's 700s then Gene sold me his pair of Audeze LCD-1's...that got me thirsty for more. So I bought a pair of Focal Stellia's, on clearance from Headphones.com... apparently I'm stuck with them because they were on clearance. They were around $2k, so very discounted, but no returns...lesson learned! I think they sound better than the average bear but it's obvious a lot of cost was spent on ascetics and packaging. Have you had a chance to listen to those guys? I would love to hear your opinion.

I ordered a discontinued Focal amp from amazon, but it has seemed to of gotten lost in the UPS universe somewhere, so I may not be getting it after all. I plan on going with your DAC and Emo route. I hope the headphone out on that Bass-X amp can provide good performance. I don't see an XLR headphone out. Adapter?

I've been pushing cans with Yamaha 1080 receiver. Bought a Monolith THX 887 but was bad out of the box, only high's on one channel. So back to the Yamie for now. Thanks for taking the time to help guide a newbie!