[LFC_SL]

New stand so took the opportunity for a photo shoot: http://www.flickr.com/photos/steven2509/sets/72157635297768431/
 
Five years young this Nov 2013

 

[blueangel2323]

Is that a Lego headphone stand? That's pretty creative.

 

[Tuco1965]

I'd love to have a couple stands but....  cats.

 

[westermac]

A question for those of you who use the HD600 in a mixing/referencing/context. Are SS amps the only way to go for this? I currently use an Aphex HeadPod 4 for both critical and casual listening, and I feel like it has done a fairly good job at conserving the 600's relatively neutral sound sig, but I can't help but feel the need to spice things up a bit for casual listening sessions. I have been looking into the Asgard 2 and Valhalla, but I can't shake the feeling that I either have to go with a dry, accurate (SS) amp at the expense of fun, or vise-versa. Should I get a second "fun" amp and keep the HeadPod for critical applications, or is it possible that one amp (Asgard 2?) could do it all? It's worth mentioning that have zero experience with tube amps so I'm not even sure the tube sound is what I want. My favorite attribute of the HD600 is its remarkable ability to reproduce instruments with great realism. My casual listening habits include a great deal of folk/acoustic/bluegrass with a smattering of prog rock. Any thoughts or suggestions greatly appreciated!

 

[LFC_SL]

No it is a lego lamp that I never use because only average at best as a lamp. Not a very good headphone stand either as it stretches the band

 
Unsure whether to get a second cheap stand or go crazy for a nice boutique one

 

[Tuco1965]

Quote:

A question for those of you who use the HD600 in a mixing/referencing/context. Are SS amps the only way to go for this? I currently use an Aphex HeadPod 4 for both critical and casual listening, and I feel like it has done a fairly good job at conserving the 600's relatively neutral sound sig, but I can't help but feel the need to spice things up a bit for casual listening sessions. I have been looking into the Asgard 2 and Valhalla, but I can't shake the feeling that I either have to go with a dry, accurate (SS) amp at the expense of fun, or vise-versa. Should I get a second "fun" amp and keep the HeadPod for critical applications, or is it possible that one amp (Asgard 2?) could do it all? It's worth mentioning that have zero experience with tube amps so I'm not even sure the tube sound is what I want. My favorite attribute of the HD600 is its remarkable ability to reproduce instruments with great realism. My casual listening habits include a great deal of folk/acoustic/bluegrass with a smattering of prog rock. Any thoughts or suggestions greatly appreciated!

I'm using the Lyr and loving it.  Tube rolling will let you play with the sound if you want.  Try to catch a meet somewhere and try some different amps.

 

[blueangel2323]

There are "neutral" tubes but they're expensive compared to similarly performing SS. On the other hand there are SS amps that are quite coloured. Maybe the easiest thing to do would be to add a tube buffer between your DAC and SS amp when you want that tube sound, and bypass it when you don't.

 

[Eee Pee]

Quote:

Did you have any problems soldering the the stock cable to the XLR? I heard that Sennheiser tries to prevent it by making it difficult by putting some kind of coating on it. What kind of solder did you use? Can you A/B balanced vs SE cable on your amp? What are the differences? Are they night and day? I'm assuming the difference is substantial. Sorry about the 20 questions.

 
No problems, though I've soldered a lot of things in my life.  No coating would be too difficult to remove, and I found nothing difficult.
 
60/40 - and quite a small diameter.  Weller soldering station with the heat turned to the middle range.
 
I cannot, as I have a TRS only DNA Sonett and an XLR only Schiit Mjolnir.  Two amps, two topologies, two sounds regardless of cabling.
 

 

[TheWhiteRabbit]

Quote:

It also works really well with deephouse and progressive house. The often submerged and dreamy bass together with the clean and rich mids of the genre can be superb with the 600 (as long as the recording is decent, which is not that big of a deal in this age).

 
 
NIce! I have a bunch of that kind of music on my computer. My Sony STR-68000 SD vintage receiver powers the 600's beautifully. I really don't know how much a dedicated amp could improve from where I'm currently at. I might get one eventually, but I have too many other things on my music wish list right now. First either a rega elys 2 cartridge for my rega RP1 or a center speaker to compliment my two polk audio TSi500 tower speakers. 

 

[TheWhiteRabbit]

I know I sound like a broken record but I still consider my self an HD600 newb. These headphones have revealed Tame Impala - Lonerism--one of my favorite albums of the last five years--to me like I've never experienced before. Yes the recording itself is raw but these marvelous cans make raw sound incredible.I love these headphones!!! 

 

[mink42]

Is anybody running their HD600's with the schiit magni and modi stack? If so what difference to the SQ did it make? Are you a happy camper with them?

 

[Ophiel]

To add on to what I posted earlier, I tried using my phone > iCan and then tried all the combinations of the iCan sound tweaks, the most "stressful" one being lv3 3D sound with lv3 bass boost(~+10db). Surprisingly, there was no distortion that I could make out with this setup, and I quite enjoyed it with some songs I suspect that using a tube buffer adds some distortion to the signal, which can be amplified further if u use a bass boost. However if your source and amp are solid states, the HD600s can probably take even +10db bass boost without significant sound degradtion.

 

[blueangel2323]

Quote:

Is anybody running their HD600's with the schiit magni and modi stack? If so what difference to the SQ did it make? Are you a happy camper with them?

Difference in comparison to what?
 
Quote:

To add on to what I posted earlier, I tried using my phone > iCan and then tried all the combinations of the iCan sound tweaks, the most "stressful" one being lv3 3D sound with lv3 bass boost(~+10db). Surprisingly, there was no distortion that I could make out with this setup, and I quite enjoyed it with some songs I suspect that using a tube buffer adds some distortion to the signal, which can be amplified further if u use a bass boost. However if your source and amp are solid states, the HD600s can probably take even +10db bass boost without significant sound degradtion.

A bass boost and soundstage enhancer like the ones on the iCan would be nice - I wish I had them on my amps. I would probably use the level 1 bass boost - I'm happy with the amount of midbass on the HD600, but subbass extension could be better.

 

[Skolar311]

Quote:

Is anybody running their HD600's with the schiit magni and modi stack? If so what difference to the SQ did it make? Are you a happy camper with them?

I've got the HD600's with the M/M stack and the Magni provides a good amount of power to drive the HD600's very well. The sound is very transparent and the headphone remains neutral as it should. I really, really like the Schiit Stack.
 
Go for it!

 

[Ophiel]

Quote:

A bass boost and soundstage enhancer like the ones on the iCan would be nice - I wish I had them on my amps. I would probably use the level 1 bass boost - I'm happy with the amount of midbass on the HD600, but subbass extension could be better.

 
Indeed. I'm actually worried that one day if i upgrade my setup, I won't get used to the lack of these functions because i'm enjoying them so much