I reluctantly got into headphones a few years ago, and I think now I am starting to get happy!
But its been a journey that is for sure.
It kind of started with the Monoprice cans like the M1060. I bought them and modded them, mostly with damping. I did that to my maggies and it was worth it, so why not on the cans. Had a schiit Vali-2 for a bit, but started using the speaker amp (Halo a21) with some resistors. Ditched that amp due to heat. Next I got the Hafler HA-75 which I am still using. A little tube warmth and bass boost and crossfeed that sounds good. That was my main listening bias, soundstage. Then the M1060s got ditched mostly because of build and fit. Then I bought the Ultrasone Sig 1 and was pretty happy. Then the edition 11 showed up and that was great. Nothing much happened.
Eventually I added the Black Ice soundstage expander and that really helped. Then I got a standup desk and treadmill. Over ears became problematic from sweating. So Iems were the next step. Shure KSE 1200 electrostatic IEMS were great (that hafler bass boost really healped and the black ice too). But ugh. that damn enigizer amp was a pain. Then I tried custom tips and that was a disaster in that the bass would drop as the fit altered and the image pulled left. But man when it worked it was amazing. Bass for days and clarity. I was working with bottle head to alter their electrostatic energizer for the Shures. It was going to be great. But eventually I figured out that the custom tips weren't really the problem with the image pulling. It appears that the shure energizer is out of balance. Those tips work on other IEMS just fine. So I need to send the energizer back to shure to get fixed and then maybe to Bottlehead.
Anyhow I bought the Shure KSE 846s while I was figuring out the KSE1200 situation. Anyhow the 846s are amazing and super neutral...which is ideal with my jacked signal chain. I added the Border Patrol Dac before the Black Ice and the KSE1200s and so its a very not neutral signal chain. R2r dacs of course aren't neutral, the Black ice adds a tube and soundstage expander further distorting the signal. Then the BBE Sonic maximizer mucks it up even more. THen the Hafler's input tubes, bass boost and crossfeed completely mangles the signal. The 846s just play what they are given. Anyhow it all sounds rather great. Clarity, bass that is extended but clean. And for me, the soundstage is starting to get 3d like I want.
And I remember avoiding balance controls because I was so worried bout deviating from neutral. So in this case getting way out of my comfort zone has paid off big time!
But its been a journey that is for sure.
It kind of started with the Monoprice cans like the M1060. I bought them and modded them, mostly with damping. I did that to my maggies and it was worth it, so why not on the cans. Had a schiit Vali-2 for a bit, but started using the speaker amp (Halo a21) with some resistors. Ditched that amp due to heat. Next I got the Hafler HA-75 which I am still using. A little tube warmth and bass boost and crossfeed that sounds good. That was my main listening bias, soundstage. Then the M1060s got ditched mostly because of build and fit. Then I bought the Ultrasone Sig 1 and was pretty happy. Then the edition 11 showed up and that was great. Nothing much happened.
Eventually I added the Black Ice soundstage expander and that really helped. Then I got a standup desk and treadmill. Over ears became problematic from sweating. So Iems were the next step. Shure KSE 1200 electrostatic IEMS were great (that hafler bass boost really healped and the black ice too). But ugh. that damn enigizer amp was a pain. Then I tried custom tips and that was a disaster in that the bass would drop as the fit altered and the image pulled left. But man when it worked it was amazing. Bass for days and clarity. I was working with bottle head to alter their electrostatic energizer for the Shures. It was going to be great. But eventually I figured out that the custom tips weren't really the problem with the image pulling. It appears that the shure energizer is out of balance. Those tips work on other IEMS just fine. So I need to send the energizer back to shure to get fixed and then maybe to Bottlehead.
Anyhow I bought the Shure KSE 846s while I was figuring out the KSE1200 situation. Anyhow the 846s are amazing and super neutral...which is ideal with my jacked signal chain. I added the Border Patrol Dac before the Black Ice and the KSE1200s and so its a very not neutral signal chain. R2r dacs of course aren't neutral, the Black ice adds a tube and soundstage expander further distorting the signal. Then the BBE Sonic maximizer mucks it up even more. THen the Hafler's input tubes, bass boost and crossfeed completely mangles the signal. The 846s just play what they are given. Anyhow it all sounds rather great. Clarity, bass that is extended but clean. And for me, the soundstage is starting to get 3d like I want.
And I remember avoiding balance controls because I was so worried bout deviating from neutral. So in this case getting way out of my comfort zone has paid off big time!
