Hi all, new to this forum and wanted to let you know that I have the DP-X1a in pre-order. Hope it becomes available soon here in Europe. The DP-X1A are actually my baby steps in the mobile audio business. I am a long-time hifi enthusiast where it comes to home hifi and after my recent purchase of a Microsoft Surface Pro 4 I was very annoyed by it's awful audio output. There's so much background noise (crackling, mainly) and the sound quality of the device is lacking. So annoyed that I decided to look for a better solution. The Surface pro 4 is an awesome device for everything but audio, it seems. Real happy with it, with the exception of sound quality.
First looked at USB dacs (Fiio K1 for example), but along the road of finding the device that would suit my needs best I ended up with the Onkyo DP-X1. I won't be using it as a usb dac since that functonality sadly still does not seem to be supported by the Onkyo. Would really love that feature, by the way! Should not be too hard enabling it, since many other DAP makers have aleady integrated that functionality in their devices.
Anyway, as soon as the DP-X1A gets delivered I'll be on the lookout for a good headset. I have some IEMs that I will be using when on the move or working at a customer's location (I'm an IT consultant), but what I don't have yet is a decent set of cans for use at home. Reading through the forum I found many enthusiastic comments on several sets, but as a strong believer in synergy I am looking for the one that would have a good match with the DP-X1a. Also, I believe that headsets must match the type of music that it will be used with most. Classical music requires a different approach than techno or house music, for example. My personal music preference is electronic music (Jon Hopkins, James Blake, Solomon Grey, but also older stuff such as Jean Michel Jarre and Vangelis), rock music (Pink Floyd, Dire Straits, Supertramp) and pop music.
I'm looking at using the balanced output, since that seems to give best results in terms of sound quality.
My queston now is: looking at the device (DP-X1A) and my musical taste, what set of cans would suit my needs best? Budget is somewhere around 400 euros, excluding cable. Plan for now is to purchase the headset and then purchase the balanced cable later. Also I think that comfort of the headset is very important. If wearing the headset is uncomfortable (painful for the ears, uncomfortably hot, etc) I won't be getting all the fun out of it that I would like.
In other words: which set of cans are comfortable to wear, have a good match with the DP-X1 and pack a good punch for my musical preferences? Any recommendation or advice is highly appreciated! Thanks in advance!