[NewMexiCat]

Say you're new to the headphone obsession, as I am, but unlike me, you have no inventory of gear or cans, and you're going into this hobby from scratch. Whether your budget is $500 or $5,000 or $50,000, is there a good rule of thumb for a percentage of budget to allocate to:

Headphones
Amp
Source
Miscellaneous (IC's, power conditioning, tweaks)

I know a lot of variables could change the allocations, but I'd be interested in knowing everyone's philosophy.

 

[gort]

I don't know what good rule of thumb for price ratio either but this is how I allocated my headphone budget so far:

Headphones - 25%
Amp - 20%
Source - 45%
Miscellaneous - 10%

Misc. will double or triple when I get some power related stuff.

 

[rsaavedra]

I find the amp-headphone ratio a little tricky, because it depends a lot on the headphone. For instance, if the Headphone was an RS1 (around $650), one of the top recommended amps for it is the RA1, which is about half the price of that headphone. Now if the headphones are Sennheiser HD650 (around $350), the top amp recommendations for it are usually double to many times more the price of the headphone. So that ratio can vary wildly.

With respect to the source I agree that's the crucial component, because it's were the analog signal gets constructed. Every mistake there will just cascade down, and no expensive amp and headphone are made to "clean up" mistakes, they are built in principle to expose the truth of the analog signal they get. So the source I think should be yes somewhere between 40% and maybe half the budget. With the current state of the industry however, all these formats competition, low cost players currently having better DACs than ever available for the cost, and the option to add mods later on, I think the source choice is quite tough. At least for me it has been.

 

[NewMexiCat]

Guess I should have posted my actual allocation to date as well:

Headphones 26%
Amp 17%
Source 33%
Misc 25%

Just to clarify, I have included the cost of tweaks/upgrades to the category that is being tweaked or upgraded. Miscellaneous, then, really just includes IC's and power-related gear (I suppose those could be broken out separately)

 

[Lostlamb]

That's a hard one for me to say....

headphone: 1%
Source: 99%

I say on average...

headphone: 25%
amp: 20%
source: 45%
misc: 15%

 

[aerius]

The most important thing is to get your headphone right, no amount of electronic gadgets is going to make your Senn 580 sound like a Grado 225 for instance. Sources, amps, and cables serve to refine and fine tune the sound of the 'phones, not to make gross changes in their character.

With that said, my opinion is, "it depends". Get the best headphone you can afford that suits you and then build a system around it. Cost percentages aren't really helpful since they vary so wildly depending on which headphone you choose and your total budget.

 

[Lostlamb]

That's sound advice.

I realized I too built my system around a specific element of my system.

I have a Cary SLA 70 and I built my system around this amp...

 

[wallijonn]

23%/23%/23%/6%

If you neglect ICs, cables, etc., then it is simple: all three variables should be equal.

Before I get flamed, this concerns a "newbie".

So, if you buy a $150 headphone, a $150 amp and a $150 source should suffice.

This will work until you go above ~$400. Even then it will hold as you're likely to want a $400 source and a $400 amp. Beyond this point you are probably no longer a "newbie". (Although one community member did come here with a "fat wallet" and bought mostly 'top-of-the-line' "stuff" from the "get-go").

Yes, there are people here who are listening to $400 headphones through $2000 amps; but they are seasoned listeners.

 

[rsaavedra]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wallijonn 23%/23%/23%/6% Before I get flamed, this concerns a "newbie".

In fact that makes perfect sense indeed for entry and mid level headphone setups.

 

[Welly Wu]

These kind of budget allocation recommendations fly out the window whenever a new flavor of the month is introduced to the headphone audiophile community.

Having said that, here is my rule of thumb:

1. SOURCE COMPONENT: 50%
2. Headphone Amplifier: 20%
3. Headphones: 20%
4. Power, Cables, and Tweaks: 10%

In terms of my own reference system, I base my budget allocations on MSRP and not the amount that I actually paid for each item. Why? I dunno but that's the way I've always done it and it works for me.

 

[cmascatello]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wallijonn 23%/23%/23%/6%

Did I miss something in the math here? Where is the other 25%?

 

[rsaavedra]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cmascatello Did I miss something in the math here? Where is the other 25%?

He meant 23% four times?
23%+23%+23%+23%+8% = 100%

I actually didn't pay attention to the numbers but their relative proportions. Probably he really meant something like 32% + 32% + 32% + 4% ?

To keep that 6% and then 3 equal parts as he stated, those parts would need to be quite an ugly percentage: 31.333%

 

[NewMexiCat]

Let me refine my query a bit:

Can you go too far (budget-wise) on a non-headphone component, to the point that the law of diminishing returns do not justify the cost?

For instance, I'm pretty happy with my Perreaux/HD650 combo. I would define it as a very good "bang for the buck" amp/headphone combo. But in my quest for a high quality universal source to mate with this combo, would I be insane to consider the Esoteric DV-50? Do the other parts of the equation not justify such a source?

BTW, my chances of obtaining a DV-50 are about as good as that of bagging the now available Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, but hey I can dream (on both counts) right?

 

[rsaavedra]

I have had that same question. In particular for the Esoteric, or high end universals in general, you are paying for a lot more than what you would really need for a headphone setup. Notice it supports all formats including DVD video, and it has multichannel analog outputs, which you wouldn't use/need for a headphone rig. So it's probably a great choice given its versatility, it's a universal source after all. You can use it for headphones, or a stereo system, or a home theater rig, or a multichannel audio speaker rig. But you would be paying for much more than a stereo source, which is all you truly need for a headphone rig.

 

[Textual Intercou]

it would seem like the way to go is to find out what kind of headphone you want, as they're all so different, and then base the amp and to a lesser degree (maybe not so lesser) the source and ICs. Because after all, if you really like the sounds of K1000s you might be happier with that and a cheapo SS amp, instead of a more monetarily balanced Sennheiser setup.

But hey, I wouldn't recommend listening to me