I have this amp and I think it's a real gem, great dac, good phono stage, the headphone stage is 95% of my dedicated headphone amp that costs about the same as the A5VL. It also drives my bookshelf speakers wonderfully, couldn't be happier with it.  

You sound very happy with your HD800s, what are you looking to improve with the Stax? Maybe dip your toe in the water first with something like the SRS 2170, before diving in feet first with the 009s to see if the electrostatic sound is for you? I've only spent a small ammount of time...

What you will find "good" is very subjective, I think it's also heavily based on what's familiar to you. If you have been using the same bright and bass-heavy (v-shaped) hi-fi for years then this is probably what you will like and what will sound "right" to you. This is why I think "burning in"...

If I had $1000? Stax SRS 2170 system + Musical Fidelity VDAC mk2 Super nice little system, would be awesome for acoustic/jazz.

For a tight budget if you want something stellar should look at the second hand forum or a DIY kit, something like the bottlehead crack.

I'm not fan of the XB700, the bass is too overpowering and your ears get sweaty after a while. I've not heard the HD439s but for around the same price you could get a pair of HD555s. They're an out of date model, but they're still a great pair of headphones, they're slightly laid back but I...

Just wondering if anyone is driving from Oxford and is willing to carpool? I will cover some of the petrol cost obviously and will provide good company as well :). Send me a pm.

Hello, I would love to attend the meet! I have quite a modest set up, but could bring my gear along if anyone is interested in hearing it. Audio gd 3.1 dac Firestone Little Country 3 amp - Phillips 6922 tubes Senn hd600 headphones I broke my onkyo iPod dock so I wouldn't have any way of...

Don't worry about anything higher than cd quality, it's advantages are dubious/debatable. There's an interesting thread here: http://www.head-fi.org/t/415361/24bit-vs-16bit-the-myth-exploded\ To my ears/equipment, modern lossy formats like LAME encoded mp3 and aac are transparent at pretty...

This is the worst thread I've ever seen on head-fi.

Quote: Seeing as you seem to know exactly what you want from your FR, why don't you just EQ (to the extreme) something with a relatively flat response. Also, nice to see some humour on head-fi.  

You might be interested in looking at this website, it shows you how the prices on amazon have changed. http://camelcamelcamel.com/Sennheiser-HD-650-Headphones/product/B00018MSNI

In my experience, you don't truly appreciate how good an upgrade sounds until you have had time to get to accustomed to the sound, and then when you switch back to something not as good it just doesn't sound right.

As a fellow student I have found that the best option is always to buy second hand, as long as you don't have any hang-ups about wearing something that other people have worn/sweat in/who-knows-what for hundreds of hours. 1. Research thoroughly, but always remember that a review is just one...

I seriously doubt sennheiser would impair their own high end products just to prop up the HD800. I seem to remember reading somewhere that as a percentage of the total market headphones that cost over $100 only make up ~3-4%. I don't know any exact numbers for sennheiser, but I'm willing to bet...