Next purchase: New Heaphones or New Amp

Heya,

With your source setup, you're going to get way more "upgrade" from a new headphone. The HD598 does well on a good source and amp, but it's not in the same league as a headphone like the HD600 or HD650 if you were staying in the Sennheiser family. I would catch your headphone selection up to your source before further increasing source. I doubt you're going to get an appreciable effect going from LDMK3 to WA6 on the HD598 since it really doesn't need much amplification.

Very best,

Quote:

Originally Posted by MalVeauX 

 

With your source setup, you're going to get way more "upgrade" from a new headphone.

I definitely agree. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by MalVeauX 

Heya,

 

With your source setup, you're going to get way more "upgrade" from a new headphone. The HD598 does well on a good source and amp, but it's not in the same league as a headphone like the HD600 or HD650 if you were staying in the Sennheiser family. I would catch your headphone selection up to your source before further increasing source. I doubt you're going to get an appreciable effect going from LDMK3 to WA6 on the HD598 since it really doesn't need much amplification.

 

Very best,

+1

Quote:

Originally Posted by MalVeauX 

Heya,

 

With your source setup, you're going to get way more "upgrade" from a new headphone. The HD598 does well on a good source and amp, but it's not in the same league as a headphone like the HD600 or HD650 if you were staying in the Sennheiser family. I would catch your headphone selection up to your source before further increasing source. I doubt you're going to get an appreciable effect going from LDMK3 to WA6 on the HD598 since it really doesn't need much amplification.

 

Very best,

+1

The headphones will bring the most noticeable improvement.

Also if you're going for a Woo Audio amp and the HD650s, you're going to want to go for the WA3, its a better match for the high impedance of the HD650s.

I went from HD595s as my first decent headphones to HD650s, GREAT value upgrade even when I was just using an AV receiver as the amp.

Keep the amp. Lots of double blind tests suggest that amps of varying prices are very hard if not impossible to differentiate by ears alone. At least, that applies to amps of the same tech (solid state vs solid stats, tube vs tube). Of course, seeing an extremely beautiful Woo Audio amplifier on your desk would probably put you into a dreamlike state of mind that will enable you to better appreciate the nuances of sound of your music.... at least it probably would work that way for me!  

Getting new headphones is the way to go! You can get all sorts of new sounds and experiences with headphones that fit and function differently.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Timestretch 

Keep the amp. Lots of double blind tests suggest that amps of varying prices are very hard if not impossible to differentiate by ears alone. At least, that applies to amps of the same tech (solid state vs solid stats, tube vs tube). Of course, seeing an extremely beautiful Woo Audio amplifier on your desk would probably put you into a dreamlike state of mind that will enable you to better appreciate the nuances of sound of your music.... at least it probably would work that way for me!  

  

Getting new headphones is the way to go! You can get all sorts of new sounds and experiences with headphones that fit and function differently.

i have to disagree with you when talking about tubes. 

I'm certainly no final authority on such things. I'll have to dredge up the DBTs I'm thinking of to bring my citations about amplifiers to the fore -- as usual when your statements are challenged, you realize you can no longer find where you read the facts in the first place. I don't have specific personal experience here, just parroting the research of others in regard to the minimal/absent effect of amplification "quality" on sound quality. I should have put that as a more clear disclaimer in my first post, though. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by pelltj03 

Thanks everybody for the opinions!  Looks like I'll be looking to get the headphones first.  Then to keep looking at amps. 

 

-Tom

pelltj, I kinda agreed with you! 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Timestretch 

I'm certainly no final authority on such things. I'll have to dredge up the DBTs I'm thinking of to bring my citations about amplifiers to the fore -- as usual when your statements are challenged, you realize you can no longer find where you read the facts in the first place. I don't have specific personal experience here, just parroting the research of others in regard to the minimal/absent effect of amplification "quality" on sound quality. I should have put that as a more clear disclaimer in my first post, though. 

lol. if were talking 100$ tube amp vs 200$ tube amp, maybe, but if youre talking 100$ tube amp vs 1000$ tube amp, there will be certain aspects that might be similar, but there will be aspects that are totally different.   thats not saying all 1000$ amps are awesome though. i started with the little dot mk2 and my peak was the ZDSE and ill tell you, there is a HUGE difference.  WA2 vs MK2... big difference.  

SS amps i dont have much experience in so i cant comment. 

Facts and subjective DBT results are mutually exclusive in audiophila. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Timestretch 

I'm certainly no final authority on such things. I'll have to dredge up the DBTs I'm thinking of to bring my citations about amplifiers to the fore -- as usual when your statements are challenged, you realize you can no longer find where you read the facts in the first place. I don't have specific personal experience here, just parroting the research of others in regard to the minimal/absent effect of amplification "quality" on sound quality. I should have put that as a more clear disclaimer in my first post, though. 

I do agree that the bottleneck is the headphone and that he will see the biggest improvement with a new set of headphones. I would also ditch the EQ but that's just me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by detoxguy 

I do agree that the bottleneck is the headphone and that he will see the biggest improvement with a new set of headphones.

There are  lots of headphones to choose from that is simply way beyond the capabilities of HD598. Try audiophile reference headphones and you will be surprised. Just prepare for amps and sources too, because audiophile reference headphones are usually very "choosy" or "picky" to complement with.