Need to build a headphone system


I'm looking for advice.  I need a headphone system for an apartment.  I am  overwhelmed both by the variety of headphones and amps out there and the difficulty of auditioning them.  My budget is about 8.5K for amp and cans.  I listen to lots of chamber music, solo instrumental and other small group stuff, so I appreciate detail and responsiveness.  But I shy away from analytic - my main system amp has beautiful glowing tubes.  Although I stream a lot, I also listen to a lot of vinyl.  I wear oticon behind the ear hearing aids.  Music sounds noticeably darker and less detailed when I take them out.  So certainly not in-ear!  Any expertise on listening with aids is greatly appreciated.  

label19

Showing 2 responses by larsman

@label19 - do you use behind-the-ear hearing aids for headphone listening? I have Oticon behind-the-ear ones for listening to my 2-channel system, but I've got in-ear hearing aids for headphone listening. Otherwise, the sound is not being directed at the hearing aids' mics.... 

@label19 - Hi - yeah, that's what my Oticons cost as well when I got them about 6 years ago. For in-ear, I've got Widex Moment 440's, and those cost about the same, but I'd never get Widex again. The app for use with the hearing aids looks like something a computer student would do for their first project, though not as useful as the student project; it's really insulting to somebody spending thousands on their product. I'll keep these for a few more years and then replace them... 

It was well worth it to me using in-ear hearing aids with headphones; for a long time, I used cans without them, and then figured I'd see if this would work without feeding back. They worked fine after plenty of fine tuning with the audiologist for different programs, and it's like removing a cloth from over my ears listening to those compared to without them.