I really enjoy headphones, and love rotating them to appreciate the different nuances of their sound. This also helps me train my ears.I started with the Hifiman HE1000, the Sennheisers 800 S, and the Focal Utopias, with a Woo Audio balanced tube amp, which I have since replaced. (My true first ones were Sennheiser 600’s, which have a distinct veil.). To me the Sennheiser 800S are too bright and clinical. The HE’s are rather big and are not comfortable for me. I love the Utopias for their smoothness and detail. I have since added 3 more sets — the Hifiman Susvara, the Audeze LCD 4, and the Rosson Rad-o’s — all planar magnetic. The Susvara are my favorite — extremely detailed, wonderfully spatial and layered, and refined. I greatly enjoy the LCD-4’s as well, and they have a fuller sound with a smaller sound stage. The Rossons are not at the same level, but nice to have since they are so much easier to drive, just using my AK SP2000. My current set-up is an Aurender N100 into a Chord M scaler into a Chord TT2, which I kind of had to buy because the Susvara are extremely hard to drive. I use Cardas Clear cables with all of the headphones. The Audeze are the heaviest and the Susvara the lightest and most comfortable. I’d be happy to go into more depth if you have questions. I listen to jazz, bluegrass/Americana, classical, and rock. If I were ever to get another set, it would be the RAAL’s, which sound like they may be the best of all.
