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My Lifelong Quest to Make my Expensive Rig Sound as Good as $500 Headphones

For over 20 years of striving for audio nirvana (and mostly failing until just this year), I’ve been dismayed when comparing the micro-detail, lightning speed, low noise, confidence and coherency, rapid and substantial bass, and listenability of $500 headphones (currently Sony WH-1000XM3 Noise Cancelling Headphones), I’ve been utterly dismayed at how my rig simply can’t keep up in those areas. Yes with the rig it’s in front of you with a realistic image instead of "in your head", but I’ve always felt down about how much decent, modestly priced headphones slayed my system in the areas I mentioned above.

After upgrading my entire cabling system (Audioquest Dragon and Hurricane, Nordost Valhalla 2 speaker cables, installing dedicated AC circuits), adding a Torus RM20 isolation transformer, an Innuos PhoenixNET(network isolator), an Innuos PhoenixUSB (USB reclocker), upgrading to B&W 802 speakers, and adding Herbie’s decouplers under my speakers, and leaving my Gryphon Diablo 3 Integrated (with DAC and phono modules) and Innuos Zenith Mk3 the way they were, I thought it was time to run the dreaded headphone test again. I LOVE the way my system sounds now, but my rig has ALWAYS been SO far behind the headphone experience in those areas that I was expecting to be disappointed again. My feeling was that this objective of equalizing my rig with the performance of headphones in these areas would likely cost about $300k, which would never ever happen with me.

I was surprised. Yes, there is still a gap. But all of a sudden, I was noticing MANY ways in which my rig was far surpassing the headphone experience, with these being new qualities in my rig that weren’t present in prior comparisons. The "bigness" of the sound. FAR better imaging than before that just put the headphones to shame. Soundstage depth. Immersion!  SOME types of details that came through more with my rig than with my headphones. Now I was getting somewhere, finally, after all these years!

In regard to the remaining gap in those specific areas where headphones have always been better, rather than being an impossibly large gap, the gap is now much smaller! I feel that closing that gap is within spitting distance. Maybe a rather far spit. But still, instead of being dismayed, I felt encouraged!

I think I may surpass the headphone experience in ALL areas with the following upgrades:

-Treating my room. Yes! I’ve not done this yet. My room is very large with high ceilings and no corners to speak of anywhere close to my speakers, so treatment may not go as far as it has with smaller rooms. But still will make a big difference I know.

-Adding Herbie’s anti-vibration feet to all of my gear.

-When funds permit: Upgrading my source power cords (network isolator, server/streamer, USB reclocker) from Audioquest Hurricane to Audioquest Dragon cords.

For the first time, this headphone comparison test made me happy... Overall there are significant qualities that really shine through with my system now, way over and above headphones.

Anyone else tried this comparison and thought about it? Hopefully won’t be depressing for you!

 

nyev

Showing 3 responses by ghdprentice

ghdprentice
6,510 posts
 

First, I think your post helps to underscore that different people have vastly different values. There is an element of fine detail that you really enjoy and drives your choices. While details can be good on headphones, most folks find them tremendously compromising… even at levels much higher than yours. Nothing wrong with them or your appreciation. We all have our likes.

I have my main system and headphone system at the opposite ends of adjoining rooms. My main system I referred to as a reference system… a very good one for the $60K and decades it took me to put it together. A few years ago I decided that I wanted to have a high end headphone amplifier using 300B… to really appreciate what the attraction was to so many people.

 

So I did (you can see it under my ID). My headphones include some of the best… Focal Utopia, Sennheiser HD800… etc. with the addition of the amp and top quality 300B tubes the system went from sterile and highly detailed, to glorious and musical, lush…. with all the details and incredible bass. I realized what I had been missing… nothing to do with details. For the previous ten years I had season tickets to the symphony… so it became obvious how much closer this system was to the real sound of music.

 

For the first time ever, I sat down to my main system and was disappointed. It sounded mechanical, with the details of the venue stuck in my face and the music taking a back seat. That experience spurred me into a two year upgrade cycle where I changed all components but my Audio Research REF3 Phonostage and ARC REF preamp to tubed components. The change in sound quality was striking… and my main system again gained superiority… except that the character of both systems was now almost identical again.


Anyway, that was my most recent journey. Very expensive… but the result has been two really musical systems.

ghdprentice
6,510 posts
 

OP,

 

I met my partner 37 years ago in graduate school. I told her I was into high end audio… but that she would have never heard of anything I owned. She said,” try me”. I had bought a Threshold s500… taking out my first loan of $5K… nearly $20K in todays dollars. This was a very esoteric high end amp for the early 1980’s. She casually said she knew a guy with two! I was floored. She had done a marketing research project on high end audio and met a bunch of older audiophiles. One had recently purchased two!… was running them bridged as mono amps.

Well, she really doesn’t care about audio. But I always bring her to auditions because she has better hearing and keeps me from buying anything that is harsh. Also, she puts up with my obsession with audio.

ghdprentice
6,510 posts
 

OP,

 

Yeah, the S500 was a ground breaking amp… the first professionally designed and manufactured with real serious current… something around 3 - 4 amp output.  Not that far from a welding unit. And it had serious slam.

 

My partner will make comments on subtle changes from the other room…”what did you do? It sounds better.” Whenever it is more musical and less harsh.

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