Now, THAT is an enigma to me as I'm positive that my HE-6 sound seriously better from my F5 and it's very much a power issue.  And the k1K are even less sensitive.  But if you're happy that's all that counts.  How do you like the cans?

Many thanks for your extensive reply, much appreciated.  I've more or less come to the same conclusion, took a break from head-fi the past months, had a cool beer instead of the marketing kool-aid served liberally.  Still have the V800/V200 stack which is good but as you say, a tiny bit...

I was going to recommend Madooma who are in Germany (Dortmund) until I saw your price restrictions.  I don't think you'll be able to do better, it's a new product, HifiMan probably set the minimum price and you have to figure in about 20% VAT (not sure if the US price includes sales tax...

Funny how opinions can differ   I switched from Spotify to Qobuz a month ago and I really tried to like 'em.  But no luck, I cancelled and am back to Spotify; still find they have a better selection, also with the labels that are not as easy to find (BIS, Harmonia Mundi....).  Spotify's also a...

I guess you have the right connection gizmo 'cause AKG K1K terminates in 4-pin XLR if memory serves.   Also, I'm afraid you won't get enough juice.  They're 74 dB/mW or thereabouts.  I never heard them (unfortunately) but I know that my HE-6 doesn't really shine from the V200, and a HE-6 is...

Svetlana:  do you mean a 6H13C ('winged C') tube?  Take a look at the specs, notably the gain, and compare with the GE.  Volume match by measuring, not by the dial.  Then see if you hear a difference.  This is one of the prime reasons why people like the 5998/2399 tubes so much.

Don't own a V281 but I'm not so sure that the part highlighted above is actually a good thing.  Not a cable believer.  The one thing I can tell you, owning a V200 and having tried the Taurus Mk2 (apples and oranges, I agree) is that the Taurus strikes me as more neutral, 'airy' and fast.  All a...

You're overrating what can be achieved by rolling tubes imo.  Sound signature is determined for 40% by your cans, 50% by tube amp topology, the remaining 10% or so by tube rolling.  Assuming the same track, good recording and mastering.  With those 10% you can play.  339 is on the warm side but...

There obviously is justification bias.  But your reasoning appears fallacious to me to the extent that it seems to imply that the existence of one deficiency could be justification for the another one (bias towards manufacturer).   I'm not attacking you in any way, and have no reason to doubt...

  If anything online is available for free, then you're the product.   But don't fret, there's no law obliging you to purchase, just don't get carried away by the hype-wave.  And to the credit of this site and the mods:  you don't get banned that quickly.

Tickling British pickle or whatever but you're stating the obvious:  precious few reviews can be trusted.    First of all, because you're navigating a huge marketing platform whose core objective it is to whip up mass hysteria about a product and create a need that you weren't even aware of...

Very nice job on the comparisons and fwiw, it agrees completely with my own opinion, owning the V200/V800 combo and having compared them with the Conductor on my HD-800, HE-500 and HE-6.  For the 6 neither combo brings out the best but otherwise, yeah, the Vio's are more laid-back, darker...

Too bad you can't cart the amp to the gym to work all that tasty goodness off  Sorry, couldn't resist.   Personally I've never, ever used both outputs on my V200 simultaneously, always gives problems with the volume if you use different cans.

Don't own the 560 but I do own the 500 and the ODAC/O2 drives those beautifully so I wouldn't worry.  I listen to classical (hifi dynamic range, medium average volume).  Not the HE-6 though, regardless of what the spreadsheets say.

Yeah but I love it even more if I don't have to make use of a warranty.  Am I getting the wrong impression reading this thread or are there a higher than average number of faults in the V281 units?

You'll have to try them and decide for yourself, for the cash involved I believe that's the best strategy.  I don't know the DS and it might very well be a brilliant headphone amp but what always bothered me was the lack of clear technical specs and measurement data.  The massive gain is...

You could try it as described above but be aware that there's a possibility that you'll fry the component (or in a worst case scenario the pcb).  I don't know what the component you're trying to insert deeper looks like so maybe the following is totally impossible but you might be able to cut...

HD-800 are absolutely great cans; I own a pair and they don't get the head time they deserve, my HE-6 also being around.  I've been meaning to sell them a hundred times...but every time after giving them a listen I just know I'll regret it the second the deal is done.  Overall I give a slight...

Given that the LD 1 is a low cost tube amp, it's far more likely that considered from a signal fidelity perspective  the LD  produces  distortion that sounds pleasing to you.  Which is fine.  But read post 3916 above:  many people who profess searching neutrality actually don't like it when it's...

If it's important to you, check that they effectively ship 5998.  I ordered a pair a year back and they sent me a pair of 2399 tubes.  Afaik they're identical, at any rate they sound just like the 5998, no complaints.  But I didn't appreciate them not checking with me if I was ok with this.

The head would be comparatively cheap to make/discard once you have a good mould.  Lots of ballistic gelatine blocks are being made for ammo tests.  But the weakness is that the average density will correspond to tissue, but it's very homogeneously distributed and that could be a weak point...

Many thanks, this is very helpful, especially because you give your impressions of how a HD-800 sounds to you as a baseline.  Wonder how much of what you heard was the amp and how much the cans of course, with tubes or a hybrid tube/ss design its hard to tell.  Like you, I don't find the HD-800...

It's a factual statement, no BS.  But obviously, if someone doesn't like the price they shouldn't buy it.     And the reasoning that goes 'oh, if they sold the xxx at 3x kUSD then for sure the HE-1000 at x kUSD will be totally worth it' is so flawed I wouldn't even know where to begin.  But...

Speakers are something else entirely....even with 30k you can easily end up with a subpar setup.  Not to mention that they don't pair too well with early dawn listening habits, city centre living, litigious neighbours and a wife who doesn't share one's taste in music.  None of the problems...