help needed for new headphone system


It's time to focus on my headphone setup and need some help in figuring out how to proceed.  It's for an apartment.  Budget?  It's flexible but let's start at $3-4k.  I have Sennheiser HD650s that I paired with Schiit Modi and Magni, fed from a laptop or phone.  The sound was too muted so I sold the Schiitstack and got a Qudelix which, to my surprise, was much better.  I liked the ability to move around and the equalizer was helpful.  It was Bluetooth, of course.  Now I want to upgrade.  I focused initially on the headphones and spent some time at Axpona listening to Meze and Audeze, mid-range offerings.  In that setting I was unable to reach any conclusions and was left scratching my head.  

I could add a Bluesound streamer with lps to replace the computer.  I'm tempted to get another Schiitstack, maybe based on a Bifrost dac.  Too many options.

I like to listen to female and male vocalists, blues, some vintage rock and Argentine tango.  Nothing to loud.  Not too analytical.  I'm a fan of the BBC sound with Stirling LS3/6 speakers in my main system with Bacch4Mac processing.  A little help with how to narrow this process down would be much appreciated.

treepmeyer

Showing 1 response by ghdprentice

I’ve had as high end a headphone system as I could afford for nearly fifty years. I got serious into digital (sources for my headphone system)  about fifteen years ago. I went through a dozen headphones, and amps, and sources. Given where you are... I would say your headphones are plenty capable. 

The primary determinant in the sound is the headphone amp. Headphones vary in requirements tremendously. But respond really well to massive power. As I said, I have had many head amps. My system got tremendously better when I found Woo headphone amps. Lots of natural musical power. If you start with a really good powerful headphone amp... your headphones are going to sound incredible... then you can add other improvements. I have a Woo WA5... it simply took my system a couple levels beyond where it was... and it was already very good by nearly anyones standards. I would get the best Woo head amp (not WA6... too little power) and a BlueSound streamer. That will improve your system by and order of magnitude. But go all in on a great head amp... I spent thousands on different high end headphones and different amps... one can save a lot of money by one bold move. You can fool around spending lots of money and not get there. 

 

You can see my headphone system under User ID in virtual systems. I replaced the stock 300B tubes with Takitsuki ($1K each... incredible... but later).