[odevans]

Hey guys,

My family home was broken into last week, had my LCD-X, Andromeda, iBasso dx200, Schiit Mjolnir and a few aftermarket cables stolen (as well as other unrelated tech). Pretty bad. It's going through my house insurance at the moment, fingers crossed on a reasonable payout. If I'm lucky enough to get the desired payout (unlikely), I'm looking into changing my setup, and would love your advice as I'm pretty out of touch with audio kit these days.

I really liked the setup I had, figured it would be my endgame. I never found myself asking for more out of the LCD-X, it seemed to hit everything perfectly with wonderful clarity without becoming sterile. My andro was great, but I would keep having to adjust them as I have awkward ears. The DAP and amp were also great, especially loved playing around with different tubes on the Mjolnir.

Why upgrade/change anything? Simply because I'm starting again from a clean slate.

I have a pretty broad taste in music. I usually listen to classical music and metal. In classical music, it's string instruments which move me the most, especially the cello. In rock, I'm a sucker for some good drum work! I also enjoy music by Audiomachine, Zack Hemsey, Epic Score and the like (I'm not sure which genres they fall into). It likely comes across that I'd need something with a good low end, but I also love airy highs, I also enjoy listening to the drifting decay of musical notes.

For noisy travelling, I have Sony's MDR1000x, which are ok, but I'd rather have a great sounding earphones with good noise cancelling, as opposed to headphones.

My main confliction here, is that I'm not sure if I'd rather invest in more expensive headphones or a custom pair of earphones. I spend more time listening to music on the move, which would suggest that a custom earphone could be the best call, but I love the wonderful sound and feel that big headphones give me, even if it only makes up about 5-10% of my listening time.

My options

- Keep everything the same
- Spend a similar amount on home/mobile setup but buy different bits.
- Focus on upgrading my mobile audio (DAP, custom earphones)
- Focus on upgrading my home setup.

I'm very much leaning towards a better mobile setup, but worry about the belief that there's no earphone which can touch the LCD-X, and then missing out on that amazing sound quality.

Budget of about £3500 to £4000

Sorry to have rattled on, and I hope I've provided enough information for you to help me.

Thanks for reading and thank you for any advice given.

Dan

 

[serman005]

I would not be able to justify spending LCD-X money.on a rig that only constituted 5-10% of my listening. Therefore, I would throw all in on an optimized mobile setup, the best I could create within budget. You can get a pretty nice one with your budget. If you decide you really miss your LCD-X, you could always replace it down the road..