Are you attached to 24/96? There's some killer vintage DAC's.   If HD650's are veiled (I thought so) and es9018 are bright, that's prbly decent.   IMO there's sometimes some deals to be had at around 1.5k on the used market.  Having not heard it at all if I were on the used market, I'd...

I'd put all of your money into a DAC lol.   You can get way awesome amounts of tight bass in a good DAC.

depends on the EDM. downtempo, prog trance are unbeatable on Stax imo   DnB is HD800 wonderland.   Which NiN do you reccommend?

In my experience, amps with more than 1W @ 32 ohms can make them distort. So these headphones are super sensitive. However the Dynalo+ works ok with them, which I think is rated slightly higher than 1W. The E.C. Super 7 with 1.1W makes them distort a bit. A dynahi (~6W?) will probably damage...

BEETHOVEN – Symphony No. 9 in D Minor “Choral” (op. 125) 01 - Allegro ma non troppo, un poco maestos (scale, vocals)   OOZE - Where The Fields Never End 02 - What's Up (High frequency fatigue, midrange/treble integration)   TOSCA - Suzuki 02 - Suzuki (Delay, snare splash, transient...

Yeah lol. I'm wondering why I sold these again.   I guess to try the HD800.  There's nothing wrong with the W3000 and a low priced op amp headphone amp. The DAC is a pretty important factor though.  

I would say the W5000 has a cliché 'high fidelity' sound, but it's also a detail monster. It has a very nuanced sounding midrange (vocals) and upper midrange (violins) Might be the most viscereal dynamic headphone for detail with an amp as powerful like a Dynahi. I aim to test this theory...

Lol, that's bizarre logic. :-(

I just bought a pair of K500's from ebay.de. Is Thomann.de the only place to find K601 pads?

A lot of music on youtube is transcodes. An mp3 converted to another mp3. Which is atrocious sound quality.   If you can, try find some properly ripped FLAC's (FLAC rips aren't all created equal) for a digital reference recording.

  For me variety beats having one perfect set-up. I don't know about the 717 though, I personally don't feel that amp powers the 007 enough.

  The fad of spending 1000-1500 on a flagship could easily be driven by the Beats craze and people spending $300 on a bad headphone.  If $300 is the price of an old flagship then $700-1000 doesn't seem like all that much. So, if we see Beats and their 60% of the market go up in price, I think...

  A $10 000 amp with a $13 alps pot. That makes no sense.

  Thanks for your response. Yeah, from what I've read the HD800 and 009's approach did seem to be not that different.   I also agree with you regarding transforming a driver into something entirely different. Although Stax has responded heavily to source and amp upgrades. From memory I...

  I thought the characteristic e-stat sound was the tonality, particularly the transparency.

Is the 009 a bit bright thru the KGSS-HV? Or does it sound kind of like an e-stat HD800?

I just reviewed the HD800 and compared it to the 007 a bit. http://www.head-fi.org/products/sennheiser-hd-800-headphones/reviews/12153 I hate to say it, because the 007 are one of my favorite headphones, but I associate them more with diminishing returns than the HD800.

Lol. I deleted that because it makes the hobby sound masochistic. Maybe it's not the best analogy because ideally it really should be about having fun and not getting emotionally invested. A sense of humour is pretty important.  But anyway if you're enjoying the analogy that's awesome. I...

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In my opinion, e-stats have always been better than dynamics but also different, so a comparison to the SR009 is apples to oranges. If you were trying to find the best dynamic headphone available, how much  would you be willing to pay? What would you use it for?  How do you think the company...

Just a headphone on it's own isn't high-end.  People put care into selecting their source and amp to make it what they consider high-end. No transducer, selected for it's 'technical abilities', will satisfy the pride of assembling a system of your own through trial and error. If you didn't...