[longbowbbs]

Quote:

Yeah. They are called speakers. 

 
I tried strapping my Vandersteen's to my head but I keep tipping over.....

 

[NotLordAtkin]

I've probably haven't really gotten deep enough into the hobby but I haven't  found headphones that fit my personal preference of how I listen to them (smartphone, no amp) and at the same time have better sound quality than Beyerdynamic Custom One Pro. It was love at first sight hearing. There might be better headphones for the job but I haven't found any yet. And I'm not really planning to anytime soon.
 
Take this with a grain of salt though. I've listened to quite a few headphones but most of them were not so good anyway. So I don't really have that much experience.

 

[squallkiercosa]

There is no headphones' nirvana. I use each headphone accordingly to my mood or music listened. Unfortunately the limit is usually budget.... One day Ill buy Audeze lcd3 (maybe lcd2) and a good amp. 

 

[David1961]

I know this thread is about headphone nirvana, but I believe a good source and amp can improve any headphone.  

 

[sunseeker888]

back when I used to restore Fisher 400s and 500Cs as a side biz I had headphone nirvana on a pair of grado sr325i original goldies powered by a Darkvoice 337? iirc tube amp which I rolled antique but strong tubes into. they were G-E branded, of course. G-E was such a powerhouse in the tube era. I still have those thermionic devices in my stash.
I was running an SACD player for a source, i forget the 'sony' model number. but I only bought SACDs with the 2-channel layer embedded in them.
This was only like 2005-6 but it seems like many years ago.
All equipment has been sold. I like to siphon all mental information from the gear and then unload it even if I take a loss. that way, one day I can conclude what I feel is my " dream system "
regards Tommy N
 

 

[DefQon]

Quote:

I know this thread is about headphone nirvana, but I believe a good source and amp can improve any headphone.  

Strongly agreed.

 

[reddragon]

thought i was done and pretty satisfied that i could use my setup as portable, turns out that the headphone doesnt have as good noise isolation as i wanted so going from full sized to ciems now... so broke... lol

 

[davidgotsa]

I thought I would never buy a new pair after hearing all the headphones I've owned... 
 
I haven't heard the perfect headphones for me yet but the HD800 comes pretty close. 
 
A little bit of alcohol and a comfortable bed paired with the HD800 is pretty amazing.

 

[nehcrow]

Quote:

I thought I would never buy a new pair after hearing all the headphones I've owned... 
 
I haven't heard the perfect headphones for me yet but the HD800 comes pretty close. 
 
A little bit of alcohol and a comfortable bed paired with the HD800 is pretty amazing.

Yessss, sounds like heaven for me

 

[Spakka]

Indeed! 
 
For my personal tastes the HD800 is spot on. Then again I haven't heard the 009 but, I don't want to incase I'm tempted

 

[MDCLXVI]

I feel my current gear is enough for me. The stats are tempting but I'm too scared for my wallet to give them any serious consideration.

I think I won't buy anything more at least until a new flagship dynamic is released.

 

[streetdragon]

and then sennheiser releases a new flagship electrostat..... 
alright i was just joking but what if....?

 

[astrostar59]

Yeah, I think I am pretty much in Musical Nirvana. I have a pair of SR-007 MK2s with the SRM-717 Stax amp and tubed Audio Note DAC front end.
 
I think it is all about glass almost full. I really enjoy the music, and find I don't think so much about the gear behind it anymore. For me, it is not only the headphones, and at this level it matters even more, it is about the front end feeding those cans. Digital front ends, either CDP or PC based need a lot of work to overcome the digital treble edge, to get the soul of the music back close to a good vinyl rig.
 
On PC based front ends, I think that means really careful server set-ups, and good cabling, then a great USB-SPDIF convertor into a (IMHO) a none oversampling DAC WITHOUT the brick wall filter. Once you have that, you can then I have found, get to vinyl levels of soul in digital playback. The cans just then have to reproduce it. And Stax cans WILL take no prisoners with harsh digital front ends....

 

[vert]

Quote:

For me, it is not only the headphones, and at this level it matters even more, it is about the front end feeding those cans. Digital front ends, either CDP or PC based need a lot of work to overcome the digital treble edge, to get the soul of the music back close to a good vinyl rig.

 
Yup, yup. The biggest step up for me was adding an external power supply to my Naim DAC. It removed basically all of the digital edge. It made me wonder why the Naim didn't ship with the power supply in the first place.

 

[BournePerfect]

I'm pretty much there with most of my music (rig in sig). I do want something else for hard rock though, and I think I'm gonna get an Eximus S1 amp to go with my DP1, along with an HE6. Or I might get a Realiser instead since the cost is about the same. But for the here and now, my ZDSE/HD800 combo is my nirvana.
 
-Daniel