I'm a little confused about it all (and not just the reddit-style thread posting/titles that makes it difficult to keep track of the thoughts).
You started by saying you had $1000US to spend on upgraded DAC/Amp but you were convinced by folks on the webernets to buy new headphones instead. Now you're looking to spend money on HD800s (no longer on sale which was the cause of the fire drill in the first place) in addition to the DAC/Amp. You're also convinced you're going to rely on EQ even though you have no experience with it.
Your budget is creeping ever higher and you are now looking to buy stuff you have no ability to audition ahead of time, AFAIK (Schiit). The more money you throw at this, the more diminishing returns you will experience. Based on what you have already communicated, you are setting yourself up for disappointment.
I know
@Monsterzero said this was a bad idea in another thread but I really think you need to climb the audio(insanity) scale and audition TOTL stuff. If none of that is giving you what you want, you know that what you want isn't achievable by throwing money at it. If you do find 'the sound,' you know how many more loonies you need to save. It will be a long time if you discover the sound you are after comes from an AB1266 run off of a Woo Elite WA234-MONO and a Denafrips Terminus Plus 12th but at least you'll know. Worst case scenario, you listen to something in the 6-figure range which ruins you for everything else, your spirit is broken and you give up.
I still think, in that scenario, you will still be less disappointed than going down this road.
Put your money in an interest-bearing account or some growth fund while you continue to search for your unicorn. The search is the fun part anyway.
Haha yeah, I know this must all seem deranged from the outside...
Your order of events is correct. I started with a notion, six years ago, that I would get some better audio equipment, and that would finally allow me to re-experience what I heard those years ago at Bay Bloor Audio on some Denon AH-D2000.
The I made my posts here and on Reddit, and spent time going to stores and testing things. What followed was several days of un-learning all my mistakes, my erroneous preconceptions, and my naiive expectations.
It's this growth and un-learning of mistakes that makes my posting seem so schizophrenic. In the course of just three short threads, I seem to have completely reversed course, right? I'm now singing a completely different tune than before, asking for the exact opposite of what I was asking for earlier, right?
Well, yeah. That's because I learned, and I realized the errors in what I was wanting and expecting.
What I thought was a huge sound stage before, in the denons, was really just good-quality music production, à la Fleetwood Mac, for example.
What I thought people meant by a wide soundstage, is really just a subjective experience of the HRTF, unique to each person's anatomy - its not a mechanical, measureable, guarantee-able trait inherent to a given headphone.
What I thought people meant by "Open"-Ness is NOT a synonym for a wide sound stage. It's something different, something that I can best describe as a sense of air pressure on the eardrum.
What I thought people meant by detail and imaging is different too. I thought they were the same, synonyms again, but now I know detail is sound retrievability, I.e. Being able to hear a mouse fart in the recording booth, whereas imaging is once again a facet of the HRTF, and being able to place instruments in 3D space.
Then there's the gear related stuff. Transparent, solid-state Amps really do just amplify, nothing more. It really and truly is just a mixture of the placebo effect and confirmation bias and audiophiles being audiophiles when they insist otherwise. Tube amps, and amps that are built to specifically change the frequency response are another matter, of course, but, once again, are heavily dependent on one's anatomy, and subjective ability to hear these subtle differences, because the differences ARE subtle.
So now I'm approaching things with very new eyes. I have developed an appreciation for the detail that the HD800s DO have. I have an appreciation for what open-ness ACTUALLY feels like, and how it makes listening less fatiguing. I have an appreciation for well-produced music, and how important production quality is.
And believe you me, I don't want to spend 1599 CAD (I still have the sale price because I locked it in at my store), but I DID actually try cheaper headphones, too, and I CAN hear how the $1099 Meze 109 Pros aren't as open, or as detailed as the Senns. And I CAN hear how the $799 Hifiman Edition XS is just as veiled and muddied as my old 6XX's.
Now, does this necessarily mean I HAVE to buy the $1599 HD850s to get this kind of sound? No. I'm sure there are SOME kind of headphones, somewhere, that are just as clear, just as detailed, just as open, but cheaper. The thing is, the search is ABSOLUTELY NOT the fun part. Not for me. It is tiring and draining and expensive and very not fun. I don't like running across the city to different stores. I'd like to just buy one headset, and never consider this topic again for the next 10+ years. Ideally, for the rest of my life. At the tender age of 28, though, I know that's a big ask.
My financial situation is that I'm basically unemployed. I work, but I'm not very successful AT my work. My income in a year is maybe $10,000. $25000 was my best year. However, I also have no expenses, as I live with my parents, and take care of the house.
So, I have about ten grand in my bank, and that's basically all I'm going to have for the rest of the year. Spending $3000 doesn't put me in a worse financial situation than spending $300 PER SE, it just means I have less money for the rest of the year to spend on other things. However, since all my actual necessities are covered, that's not as precarious a situation as it sounds.
Still, is it worth spending $1599 on some headphones, and then another $500 on a Jotinheim 2 DAC/Amp? I don't know. Music is pretty much the only thing I have left in this life that can elicit an emotional response from me. I'm okay putting some money into that, as long as it's just once (for the next ten years), and as long as it actually GETS me some improvement. The cheaper headphones were too close to my current 6XX's to be worthwhile.
Ps. I actually find Head-Fi's method of containing multiple evolving conversations and topics in a single thread to be very confusing and non-sensible. It seems far more efficient to break up different topics into different threads, but maybe that's just me.