Wow thanks a lot for the advice. Definitely need to check out some of those :)

Yeah Scheherazade is a pretty cool shop - still remember my time there very well :) Lots of good stuff. Gotta visit there again soon (probably goin there in May :) ) Do you know any other good headphone shops in Seoul or Gyeonggi-do?

My pleasure. I thought maybe "Scheherazade”" in Apgujeong has them on display since they have quite a lot of stuff. Don't remember if they had stax though.

Hello there and greetings to south korea (will be there soon too hehe), As a fellow stax-aficionado and generally after testing tons of gear I found out the following on my headphone journey: It all highly depends on system synergy, music taste, personal preferences, your individual listening...

There's basically only one way to find out: listen yourself! Go to a decent headphone shop - even if it's kind of far away - and listen to as many headphones as you can. Bring your own music and if possible your own DAC/amplifier etc. since system synergy is pretty important. I highly recommend...

First: any headphone you get get for free ... like those bundle earphones you got about 20 years ago. They produce sound (somewhat) and it costs nothing, so "best" sound (better than no sound at all) for the least price Second: There is no "best" - if you want the best at everything you need a...

Out of curiousity ... what led you to the conclusion of letting some stuff go? Pressure from your second half? Space issues? Expanding family? Talking as someone who has somewhat similar thoughts lol :)

my vote goes for a second hand ZMF Eikon - might be slightly over budget though

lol what an understatement :wink: I always find it interesting to think about the price of the different parts when thinking about the pricing of a product. Let's say I buy a yoghurt in my local supermarket for 70 cents. This might look like this: - Ingredients: 15 cents - Packaging including...

Interesting and at the same time sad to hear how things seem to work (or not work) in the US ... Over here it is mandatory to have an insurance as soon as you own a home or have a renting contract (even a short one) so everyone is automatically covered. If you leave your stuff at your friends...

great story but is that not what insurance is for ? Don't you have insurance for your personal stuff being destroyed by natural desasters like hurricanes, flooding etc. in Florida?

In my experience there is always too much background noise and therefore too much distraction to really enjoy high end audio on public transport. To somehow compensate this I put noise blocking ability above pretty much everything else in that situation. Personally I'd go for IEMS but even then...

donate to charity ? peace of mind makes you current headphones sound better :wink:

- Among those mentioned the HE1000V2 or Arya or any of those Hifiman variants is probably closest to what you are looking for - Empyrean is not playing in the same league as the HD800, HE1000V2 or Arya if you ask me. It's a fun headphone to listen to for sure and absolutely beautifully made...

As long as you have the space, money and time to enjoy them I'd say the "limit" is pretty high. In my case it does come with some trade offs though such my wife calling my office "the electronics hell" ;)