I'm driving them straight out of my Integra DTC 9.8 processor, which is the same basis for comparison I've had for the HD595s. I thought about getting a Schiit Asgard 2 and still may try it out, but amps make small differences at best from my experience with many different amps on my speakers so...

Well...I actually went with AKG K7XX's after seeing them come up again. My impressions so far are that they are not a drastic improvement over my HD595's, very incremental which is disappointing since I expected them to be much better. Not sure I feel they were worth the purchase at this point...

I've decided to go with HE-400s and an Audio-gd NFB15 at this point, I gave up on tubes. Too much trouble, expense, poor manufacture quality, and hassle for something that truly colors the sound in an inaccurate way. Might still try tubes some day, but for now I'll stick to what I've known and...

I've decided to get a pair of HE-400s after hearing all the good things about them, I might still end up getting HE-500s or something even better in their lineup but I'll start off with the HE-400s for now. I know these need a pretty good powered amp to drive them, what amps are recommended to...

What tradeoffs do the HE-400 and HE-500 make in this regard? I'm starting to lean towards them quite a bit. I'm actually almost considering just going with a solid state amp and getting something like the HE-500s or something. I'm not opposed to closed headphones other than I've never heard them...

I don't want lots and lots of bass, just good solid accurate bass. The HD595s are lacking in this area, and I'm not sure what cans have good sub bass that are still accurate. I made a comparison chart on the HeadRoom generator and it's interesting how the response curves of the Denon D5000, AKG...

I don't mind that, so maybe mixing the tubes with headphones that have more treble than I'd care for? That was the original thought to go with the K712 Pros, but then I started reading about the others and became less certain. Really don't want to just throw a dart on some random headphones to...

I've been told tubes have this great wonderful sound that's different from solid state, so I'm very interested to hear it for myself. I have had countless numbers of solid state amps on various speaker systems, currently I'm using a Threshold Stasis amp and a large ATI amplifier for the surround...

Ok, so if I'm going to do K712 vs X2s what kind of tube amps can/should I use with them? Are any of the ones from my OP highly recommended with either? I feel like the kind of tube amps that might drive them well might not do so good for my AKG K340s due to their higher power demands. I'm going...

No one? I don't know of anywhere else where people would know more about headphones than here. I tried asking the guys at Headphone.com but they didn't really help that much. My best hope is to just eliminate one of the above headphones from consideration so I can just trial two of them. Amp...

So simply put, I've done a lot more research and I think I'm between these headphones. Upgrading from HD595s, I want more sub-bass and bass but also general improvements in soundstage and positioning. I like a neutral sound, but I would lean towards fun over being purely analytical. I'm going to...

Hmm, maybe $1,000-1,200? I mean, if a fantastic system would cost $1,300 I could swing it. There's not an explicitly hard limit, just a desire to stay under $1,000 if possible. I wish I could buy the nice headphone amp first and try it with all my current headphones and then buy several of these...

Thanks, I saw the deal posted for the HD600's on SlickDeals so I was wondering about those with that in mind. I mean on some level, money isn't an object here. I don't mind spending $500-600 on headphones if they'll be worth it. I don't want to just buy expensive headphones for the sake of it...

I thought I had settled for sure on trying the AKG K712 Pros, but now I'm unsure again. I have HD595's as my current "best" headphones (I also have AKG K340 Electrostats, but I don't listen to them a lot - maybe they're better in some ways?) and I like them a lot but would like to upgrade to...

A question, for damping factor I want as high as possible right? I found Audiobot9000 and I've been comparing some different amps, looks like the Schiit Magni gives a damping of 310, but the Vali is 9.5 - quite a drastic difference. So what does this mean to what I'd hear comparing these two...

I'm kind of leaning toward the AKG K712s since all I've had are Sennheisers that are more "veiled", though I fear if the K712's aren't kind of bright. I guess I want a neutral amp that slightly leans towards warm, as opposed to something full on that will heavily roll off the highs. I can see a...

Does anyone else have any thoughts about the various amps in the Schiit lineup? What about the Asgard with the AKG K712s? Any other brands that can be looked at in the sub $500 price range?

Sorry, I didn't mean to seem dismissive of your advice. I'm still curious on the angle about the DAC. I'm completely unsure if I'm right or wrong about the DAC vs. soundcard thing, I've never tried a DAC. I do pipe all my devices into my Denon AVR in my main system, so in a sense I use a "DAC"...

I'm not completely opposed to the idea, I was just curious what appreciable difference I'd hear with the Magni over my soundcard. I know a lot of people don't have an upgrade path from a decent sound card, so it makes sense there. Should stuff sound cleaner, better dynamics, or ?? I don't really...

So just curious, why is the HT Claro Omega Plus not "good enough" for headphones? I'm honestly of the persuasion that DACs don't make an iota of a difference, so that's why I'm a bit of a skeptic in this regard. I thought all the external DACs were for people who were using their motherboard's...

I currently plug my headphones (AT M50s, Sennheiser HD595, and AKG K340 electrostats) directly into my sound card on my PC (HT Claro Omega Plus+). This works fine, a bit less so for the AKGs though, but I am looking to upgrade to some new headphones and I think they'll need dedicated...

  I'm not sure everyone would agree that vintage gear has more quality than modern gear. Modern equipment made some large improvements that made them more reliable and better sounding than their vintage counterpart. The advantage of vintage is the lower cost, which is not always exclusive. The...

It's probably easier to say "Vintage Silver Faced" when referencing that era of before the mid-'80s since primarily everything was silver. I guess you could call the slightly newer but still older stuff "Vintage Black Faced". But then those black versions of the old '70s gear and the silver...

Vintage Yamaha stuff is a bit scary. Some of their parts are unobtainium and I've had quite a number of issues with various models. I had a CA-610 that had a really long power up delay and one of the control pots made a channel drop out if you moved it off of 0. A friend has a CR-840 I think and...

Well sure, but who said amps weren't good lookin' too?             Can't tell me those aren't sexy. I especially like that Accuphase P400. It looks just as good with the cover off too:   I gotta stop looking at this stuff, it's making me want to spend lots of money that I...