Name the best headphone rig you have ever heard (all components tied together!) - Page 3

Of course I'm biased, so I'll say my Cary Xciter > B22/S22 > HD800

it would be the demo JH-3A at canjam this year, fed by the line out of a iPod Classic 7G. songs would be the grudge by tool, and The Aftermath by Origin. the sound stage was the most amazing thing ive ever heard, and there was more detail than anything else ive heard as well. getting rid of the passive crossover felt like it unchained the drivers, it was unreal.

 

so i cant even imagine how much better its going to sound being fed digitally and being a real custom version of the ear pieces...

The end of The Grudge is the sonic equivalent of being beaten up.

 

• SME 30/12A + SERIES V~12 + Dynavector XV-1 → IC Fadel Coherence → Sennheiser Orpheus.
• Ayon CD-5 → IC Acrolink 6300 → Enhanced ASL Twin-Head with 45 tubes → Sony MDR R-10 (bass heavy).
• Metronome Technologie T3A Signature/C3A Signature → IC Tara 0,8 →Enhanced ASL Twin-Head with 45 tubes → AKG K1000 (bass light). 

Edited by Piotr Ryka - 11/28/10 at 1:29pm

K1000 FTW

Not much to compare with, but what's giving me pleasure atm is:

 

Amarra mini > W4S DAC2 > M^3 > LCD-2

 

This week i'll try my newest acquisition, the Yamamoto HA-2/ATW W1000X combo to compare with

Prepare yourself for some yummy yammy sound.  If Srajan at all inspired this rig, you should hear the W1000s with the MiniMax CD Player.  WOW! what synergy.

a mac computer hooked up to a Wavelength Silver Crimson DAC -> Audioquest Sky -> WooAudio WA5 -> K1000. I was listening to billy joel - we didn't start the fire and I thought I was 10 feet from billy joel at the concert. It was seriously unreal. So much so that I'm thinking about asking my dad to cash out his retirement fund early RIGHT NOW just thinking about it ahha.

This was my ultimate headphone experience, and note that I used to listen to Stax (have owned SR-34 and SR-5).

 

It was at a Head-Fi meet in Lawrence, Kansas, two or three years ago.  Billinkansas (our excellent host) herded everyone else off for a tour of the pipe organ factory where the meet was held.  I had taken the tour last meet, so I settled back for some serious listening.  The music was some chamber music on LP.  I knew at the time, and also the turntable and cartridge, but memory fails.  The amp was a wonderful, restored Fisher 500 receiver (read:  tubes), and lastly, the headphones were Yamaha YH-1's.  I do remember that, as I had found them at an estate sale for $1, and gave them to billinkansas at the previous meet.  Between the two meets, he had done some tweatking with damping, and new cables.  I jaw dropped on first hearing.

 

Now for the important part:  it was glorious!  I could hear (distinctly!) just how fast or slow a bow was being drawn across the strings.  Live music might have been little better.

CD source: Rega Planet

Preamp: Melos Sha Gold

headphones: Sennheiser HD 600

 

I was listening to this system for about 9 years. I noticed that no other headphone systems sound better than this rig. In particular, Melos Sha Gold is one of the best headphone amps. Spacious and well focused soundstages with seductive tonal texture and iron fisted bass. I sold it early this year at Audiogon. Now I miss it a lot. I have been trying several DACs with headphone amp hoping to recall the sound of Melos, but now I realize no such thing exists.

AKG K1000

PrimaLuna Prologue Two

Unison Research Unico CD player

Blackmore's setup by the end of 2009

It's supposed to be even better now

 

The music I listened to? Can't remember.

The reason I loved it? Stupid question. That was just music to my ears!

 

aRRR, I'm already jealous of your rig!!

Yep, it is better now. (The PrimaLuna is out, the Cary CAD 300B sei integrated is better but it is all a matter of taste and gradations  :-)

CEC tl51x > oyaide BNC cable > audiogd REF1 > XLO signature 3 interconnects> MAXXED woo wa5 with WE 300b tubes > hd800 SAA voice

Hope i could get a rig exactly like that one day except maybe a different transport and the newer agd reference 7 in stead of ref1

Yep, it was the first time I heard the K1000 and for the brief period I did I was pretty amazed. I can remember saying to Blackmore; if I ever got a dynamic rig again it would include the K1000.

Yeah, he told me about some of the upgrades and hardly can't imagine that setup getting even better as it already sounded marvelous to my ears! I'd kill for a setup like that. I could sell a kidney tho...still have 2 of them... 

 

 

I think I said something in those lines too... Unfortunately it's too noisy at home but I could definitely live with that sound! Even with the noise I guess, that headphone still manages to subtract you from your environment even for it being so open.  Congrats on yours!