[darain]

Hi All, 
 
I'm a newbie to this so, if the questions are a little silly, I apologise. I'm looking at setting up my first dedicated headphone setup and was having a bit of difficulty figuring out what to buy.
 
I decided to purchase a pair of Audeze LCD-2s  and getting an amp, DAC and possibly a pre-amp, but after reading through hundreds of forums and reviews I've hit the point of information overload. I know a lot of suggestions are down to personal preferences so I'm assuming that there will be a few. I have an eclectic taste in music but mostly listen to alternative stuff mainly indie.
 
I live in Sydney Australia and there aren't too many stores that stock the equipment which has made it difficult.  Anywho's, to business. I was planing on using my laptop or a CD player as the source and going from there.
 
For simplicity I was looking at just purchasing the Red Wine Audio Audeze combo which got good write ups and was an easy option or just purchasing the Burson 160D for the same reason the other option is to buy the individual components and I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations? My budget is $5000 US which is inclusive of the cost of the cans.
 
Furthermore I was just wondering after reading through a lot of these forums I noticed that a lot of people don't really mention pre-amps so I was wondering if I require one?  And what difference does it make if you don't use one?
 
Any help would be appreciated. 
 
Cheers

 

[drummerman]

A 'newby' with 5grand to spend on his first Headphone rig ... I must be getting old.
 
You couldn't possibly miss out on the usual 'upgrade' path of buying and selling around a hundred pairs of Headphones only to find out that you enjoy a $200 one probably just as much as the last k1.5 one you had. It will  leave us deprived of much interesting reading too
 
regards

 

[SkinnyPuppy]

Quote:

Hi All, 
 
I'm a newbie to this so, if the questions are a little silly, I apologise. I'm looking at setting up my first dedicated headphone setup and was having a bit of difficulty figuring out what to buy.
 
I decided to purchase a pair of Audeze LCD-2s  and getting an amp, DAC and possibly a pre-amp, but after reading through hundreds of forums and reviews I've hit the point of information overload. I know a lot of suggestions are down to personal preferences so I'm assuming that there will be a few. I have an eclectic taste in music but mostly listen to alternative stuff mainly indie.
 
I live in Sydney Australia and there aren't too many stores that stock the equipment which has made it difficult.  Anywho's, to business. I was planing on using my laptop or a CD player as the source and going from there.
 
For simplicity I was looking at just purchasing the Red Wine Audio Audeze combo which got good write ups and was an easy option or just purchasing the Burson 160D for the same reason the other option is to buy the individual components and I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations? My budget is $5000 US which is inclusive of the cost of the cans.
 
Furthermore I was just wondering after reading through a lot of these forums I noticed that a lot of people don't really mention pre-amps so I was wondering if I require one?  And what difference does it make if you don't use one?
 
Any help would be appreciated. 
 
Cheers

Go to a meet. If you're going to spend that much on headphones you should listen to some and find your preferred style.
 
Edit: Go ask this in the high end audio forum too, as thats where the rich people hang.

 

[sphinxvc]

Quote:

Hi All, 
 
I'm a newbie to this so, if the questions are a little silly, I apologise. I'm looking at setting up my first dedicated headphone setup and was having a bit of difficulty figuring out what to buy.
 
I decided to purchase a pair of Audeze LCD-2s  and getting an amp, DAC and possibly a pre-amp, but after reading through hundreds of forums and reviews I've hit the point of information overload. I know a lot of suggestions are down to personal preferences so I'm assuming that there will be a few. I have an eclectic taste in music but mostly listen to alternative stuff mainly indie.
 
I live in Sydney Australia and there aren't too many stores that stock the equipment which has made it difficult.  Anywho's, to business. I was planing on using my laptop or a CD player as the source and going from there.
 
For simplicity I was looking at just purchasing the Red Wine Audio Audeze combo which got good write ups and was an easy option or just purchasing the Burson 160D for the same reason the other option is to buy the individual components and I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations? My budget is $5000 US which is inclusive of the cost of the cans.
 
Furthermore I was just wondering after reading through a lot of these forums I noticed that a lot of people don't really mention pre-amps so I was wondering if I require one?  And what difference does it make if you don't use one?
 
Any help would be appreciated. 
 
Cheers

 
It's always preferable to try before you buy and there are Sydney head-fi meets every once in a while.  What you read about here isn't always the whole truth, and a lot of the final sound depends on the components feeding the chain.  Also, it's extremely tough (if not impossible) to get an idea of the sound of different HPs simply by reading about them, as you would be trying to glean information from people who have a different point of reference than you do (other niché HPs).  To add to the information overload & to unblock your HP chakra of preconceptions here are a few truths: the HE-6 & HD800 can be made to sound warm and luscious.  The LCD-2 can be made to sound apathetic and analytical.  Etcetera.  You get the point.
 
One smart option for you might be to buy a versatile dynamic amp to try a few of the flagships with, and also try the cheapest electrostat system you can find, then build a system around what you like best.