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New Headphones and / or DAC & Amp - Advice Please

Seeker_UK

Seeker_UK

Feelin' nearly faded as my jeans
I may have asked this before but now I'm spending a lot of time under headphones, I ought to do something. Currently I have a pair of Sennheiser 580s connected to either a Focusrite Scarlett audio interface or Teac UD-H01 connected to the PC to listen to music thorugh iTunes / Foobar and for monitoring recordings through Cubase. On occasions, the Sennheisters are used with my iPod and the Teac is also used on the main system connected to the digital out of the Meridian 568; a new DAC / amp needs to have USB & co-ax. 192kHz is nice to have but not essential - I don't have any high-rez music.

So to improve my listening experience, what's the best option? New headphones, new DAC / amp or both? If a new DAC is in order, I fancy something with valves.

Budget is £500 or thereabouts. Second-hand is OK.
 
I think with a Decent Amplifier the headphones you have will sing!
I personally use HD650s but wouldn’t class them as better only different.
 
I had great results with a Schiit Vali2 and HD650s.

Preferred it to the Valhalla.

Just one valve to mess with which means you can get a really good one: i found a NOS Siemens CCA and it lit the Senns up in a truly glorious way.
 
Seeker_UK said:
Any suggestions for headphone upgrades?
Click to expand...

Shure SRH1840 would be my choice if set on replacing the Senns. They are far more open and transparent (a la Grado) but still have a balanced tonal weight with a smidge of warmth. Easier to drive too.
 
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Seeker_UK said:
Budget is £500 or thereabouts.
Click to expand...

Regarding the headphones themselves, have you considered getting measured for a set of custom fit in ear monitors? Not cheap at all, but my last set of UE4's by Ultimate Ears were superb. They lasted 10 years, and the UE5's replacing them arrive today (hopefully).
 
Andrew C! said:
Regarding the headphones themselves, have you considered getting measured for a set of custom fit in ear monitors? Not cheap at all, but my last set of UE4's by Ultimate Ears were superb. They lasted 10 years, and the UE5's replacing them arrive today (hopefully).
Click to expand...

Thanks but I'd rather have a set of over the ear 'phones.

Might be worth a set when I start commuting again, I need some new earphones for the iPod.
 
I use HD580's myself and find that they are such an easy load etc that I can tell barely any differences between amplifiers driving them (as I've mentioned a few times before when the subject has come up).

I even designed and built a high end headphone amp for them, class A and all the bizz, and although I would say it may sound a little better than the built in stages in my CD player, PC, and laptop it is so close between all of these that I could be imagining it!

I would suggest that there is nothing to be gained from a "better" headphone amp, and further, that the only likely difference between headphone amps (into these phones anyway but I suspect it's a lot more general than this) is when they have "deliberate" colouration's that "beef up the bass" or "add sparkle" or what have you. YMMV
 
Chord Mojo?

It's the best bit of audio kit I've bought in years, sounds fantastic, has good headphone drive capabilities and makes a great DAC for the main system if you have one.

It's made all my 'phones sound better (AKG N40, Shure SE425, Sennheiser HD600).

Andy.
 
I would put the entire budget into a lovely new set of cans. Recommendations are difficult as they divide opinion more than speakers.

Sennheiser are not lively enough for me, but have depth, and Grado can be too lively, without enough depth. STAX are not dynamic enough for me except for mega expensive ones.

My current phones are KZ ZS10 Pro for portable and day to day, Sony MDR-V6 for studio, and Grado RS-1 for rocking out...
 
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